The St. Charles Park District is ready to open a new disc golf course, and a well-loved golf course has a new short-game opportunity as part of its commitment to recreation opportunities for all ages.
Laura Rudow, superintendent of parks and planning and deputy director for the St. Charles Park District, said it’s exciting to launch the new disc golf course and create a new opportunity for beginning golfers.
The new disc golf course is Prairieview Pointe Park, located at Route 38 and Brundige Road in St. Charles. Through a multi-year lease agreement with the state, the St. Charles Park District has taken the 88-acre parcel of unused farmland and created a new 36-hole disc golf course.
Rudow said the opportunity to lease the land was a low-cost way to add to our park inventory and amenities for the community. Working with a disc golf architect, the park district designed the 36-hole course, that features two baskets at each hole.
“I see this being a regional attraction,” Rudow said. “You can play 18 or, with two options on each hole, play 36.”
The park district has a 9-hole disc golf course in James O. Breen Community Park, but Rudow said it’s been referred to by avid disc golfers as a beginner course. The new disc golf course at Prairieview Pointe Park offers more challenges, longer fairways and it includes a practice space for disc golfers to hone their skills as well, Rudow said.
Earlier this spring the park district staff completed work on a multi-year project to create new orange tees on its 9-hole Pottawatomie Golf Course. The orange tees offer a shorter golf game, explained Ron Skubisz, golf course manager at Pottawatomie and PGA golf pro. The new orange tees offer a shorter drive to the tee, about 125 yards or less, a great option for younger or newer golfers. Skubisz said he even plans to use the orange tees when he takes his grandchildren out on the course this summer.
“The goal is to be out there with them, and this will allow better players to still enjoy the game, but to be able to stay with their group,” Skubisz said.
The orange tees have been officially measured and ranked, Skubisz said, for a par 35 at 1,889 yards. He added that’s a great asset to help the course continue to evolve and bring in new players. Pottawatomie Golf Course opened in 1939, and the course is known for its location along the banks of the Fox River.
There will be additional scheduled maintenance at the course this summer and fall as they remove and replace the sand in the bunkers and shore up the greens around the bunkers and perform maintenance on the bunker drainage. Players may notice the work, but Skubisz said most don’t mind not having to play out of a sand trap.
Another maintenance item at the course will be replacing the retaining wall around the parking lot. Rudow said it’s time to replace the failing wall and they will be using locally sourced limestone to maintain the current look.
The park district is also preparing to start work later this summer at East Side Sports Complex where it will be replacing equipment at the sand volleyball area, replacing the playground, updating the skate park and updating basketball and tennis courts, and adding pickleball courts. There will be a new adult fitness area, like the fitness area at Primrose Park, which is sometimes called a “Ninja Course.”
The work at East Side Sports Complex is part of the park district’s master plans to replace equipment that is almost 27 years old. Additional funding for the work is supported with an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant for $600,000, Rudow said.
The park district is also using funds from an OSLAD grant to support the work at Harvest Hills Park where it will be replacing a playground, adding adult fitness equipment, adding shade, a basketball court and new lights in the parking lot. Rudow said the work at Harvest Hills should start in the fall and is targeted for completion by Spring 2027.