Course Spotlight: Silver Lochs at the Tim Osmund Sports Complex, Antioch
The Midwest is disc golf rich, with so many courses within just a few hours from anywhere. Where I live in Crystal Lake, there are plenty of options and most of them are amazing tracks. There are some hidden nine-hole gems, and some not so good courses. One of those courses, Silver Lochs at the Tim Osmund Sports Complex in Antioch, IL recently underwent a redesign, and I was able to visit this weekend to experience this new layout.
Antioch is a pleasant little town situated right on the northeast border between Illinois and Wisconsin. The course is in a public park, and there is ample parking. My first impression is that the park is very clean and well maintained. I don’t know anything about the ‘old layout’ that had such dismal ratings on UDisc, but I knew this new layout was a big improvement. I reached out online to figure out who was responsible for this redesign, and I was astounded to discover that the man responsible was the legendary Chuck Kennedy.
Chuck has been involved in over 100 projects, either designing, installing, redesigning, or advising. Chuck joined the PDGA just after discovering disc golf in April 1989. His first design and install were at North Valley in Inver Grove Heights, a suburb in the Twin Cities, MN area. To make sure he was doing things right, he was mentored by Steady Ed Headrick. Chuck has too many accolades to list here, but one important accomplishment was that he, along with Headrick, Tom Monroe and John David founded the Disc Golf Course Designers group, that now has over 250 members worldwide.
Chuck was also involved in helping Brett Comincioli with the redesign and upgrade at Fairfield Park in 2014. “When Antioch decided to upgrade Tim Osmond, Brett had recommended me to the city administrator based on my work down the road at Fairfield”, Chuck says. The problem with the old layout was that while it was a good track, over half the course had become overgrown with invasive plants and was essentially unplayable. In addition, there were damaged and deteriorating baskets. Chuck recalls, “The new city administration planned to completely revamp the park, not just the rundown disc golf area. The good news was the buckthorn, brush and scrub trees were going to be completely removed.” This gave Chuck the blank canvas he needed to get to work on a new track, but there were other challenges.
Chuck says, “the challenge became designing the course conservatively to account for shanks into the significantly opened park areas where unaware park visitors might be walking, picnicking or playing on existing sports fields.” For perspective, the town supervisor emphasized that the revamped course and disc golfers should consider themselves guests in the park complex versus the local parkgoers being guests of the disc golf course. This ‘not-so-subtle’ phrasing slanted the course design to focus more on recreational play versus tournament play, or at least for day-to-day activity. “The silver lining was they wanted the course to look good so new baskets were installed, nice signs placed, and additional benches and other garden type elements were added”, Chuck says. And there is still work to be done. A large mound of dirt near hole one is slowly being redistributed around the course to make for some interesting features on some of the open holes. These features are already being installed via local volunteers, and the course is very close to being 100% complete.
As you play the course, you can sense what Chuck had to overcome in the design. While most of the course flows effortlessly around the park, there is a bit of congestion when you get to holes nine and ten, where an errant shot could endanger anybody standing on ten’s tee. The Dynamic Discs Veteran Baskets are basically brand new, catch really well, and look fantastic in the red, white, and blue color scheme. Scoring is easy, with six soft par four holes, with five of those holes at or around 400 feet. I say ‘soft’ because an errant shot can still yield a birdie as you can get up and down from just about anywhere off the tee. There are some very ace-able holes as well, with another six holes coming in at 200 feet or less. Overall, the course is a fun and uses the elevation and landscape to create a great experience. For advanced players, it’s a great place to score well and feel good about your game, and for beginners, there’s plenty of challenge to keep you coming back.
For me, disc golf and breweries are like peanut butter and jelly, so whenever I can find a good spot that is close to a course, I must count that as a win. One such place is the Rivalry Brewery located just minutes from the course. It’s the perfect place to unwind and talk about all the ‘almost birdies’ you missed that day. Next time you find yourself near the Northeastern border of Illinois and Wisconsin, be sure to swing by and check out Silver Lochs in Antioch, IL.
