Hickory Ridge Golf Center

Hickory Ridge Public Golf Center in Carbondale is Southern Illinois University's home course and the Southern Illinois region's top public-access championship track, a William J. Spear (ASGCA) design that opened in 1993 and has since become the anchor round of the Carbondale area's golf map. Spear is an ASGCA member best known for Midwest university-golf and muni-scale work, and Hickory Ridge sits firmly in the championship-muni category: 6,863 yards for par 72, 73.3 rating, and 137 slope on zoysia-grass fairways. The course serves as the practice and competitive home of the SIU Salukis men's and women's golf teams, which means the setup and conditioning are maintained at a higher bar than a typical Southern Illinois public course. Mature hardwood corridors define most fairways, with subtle ridgeline elevation changes through the back nine giving the routing genuine strategic variety. For the Shawnee National Forest / Little Egypt / Southern Illinois Trail trip visitor, Hickory Ridge is the anchor round, paired naturally with Kokopelli Golf Club (Marion, Hale Irwin design) for a two-round Southern Illinois package.