The Links of Springfield

Pros:
- A great deal of variety...will use almost every shot in your bag at least once.
- Well maintained and cared for. City does a great job of staying on top of mowing, and 3-4 community volunteers keep on top of branches and litter.
- Parking in gravel lot (6-8 spaces) approximately 150 feet from the Hole 1 tee. Parking in paved parking lot (150+ spaces) is also available across Cass Avenue, approximately 500 feet from Hole 1 tee

Cons:
- Still a work in progress. Holes 13&14 do not yet have signs by any of their tees, and many of the 24 total tee boxes do not yet have signs either.
- Short course. Only one or maybe two holes where you can air it out (350-450).
- Ample sharing of space with local trails system...although a great deal of effort has gone into making sure that players have sight lines off the tee to know to wait if bikers/pedestrians are coming. Despite this fact, holes 1, 2 and 8 can still be trouble, if one isn't careful.

Other Thoughts: Springfield is a course to work your short game, with lots of tight windows to hit off the tee. There are three pronounced hyzers and anhyzers (something for LH and RH players), and five of the baskets are not visible off the Pro/Long tees.

2010 Update: I wanted to improve my rating from 3.0 to 3.5 for the course one year after my initial review...and share several improvements that have been made in 2010:

- New Pro/Tourney tees added for Holes 2, 4 and 8.
- Improvements made to tees for Holes 6, 9 and 14.
- Hole 3 has been completely redesigned, which makes it a better hole.
- Money has now been secured for new signage...to address some of the lingering problems for newcomers in locating the Hole 13 tees. New signage will go in the ground in the Spring of 2011 for these (and other) tees.

Still lots on the course's To Do List...but it is coming around rather nicely the past few years.