Rend Lake Golf Course

Rend Lake Golf Course in Whittington is the most ambitious public-access facility in Southern Illinois, a 27-hole championship complex designed by E. Lawrence Packard (ASGCA) that opened in 1976 under the Rend Lake Conservancy District. Packard is a prolific Midwestern ASGCA architect (Pennyrile in Kentucky, multiple Illinois and Indiana courses), and Rend Lake is one of his larger surviving public works. The three-nine layout (East, West, South) sits approximately 90 miles east of St. Louis and 90 miles west of Evansville, just 2 minutes off Interstate 57 running between Chicago and Memphis, which makes it a genuinely well-positioned stop for I-57-corridor road-trip golfers. The complex includes paved cart paths, mature trees, wide fairways, large greens, beautiful landscaping, fountains, a lighted driving range, and a USGA-pro-staffed pro shop. The three-nine format means 27 holes available across multiple 18-hole combinations, giving Southern Illinois golfers plenty of variety for repeat rounds. For the Southern Illinois Trail / Little Egypt / Shawnee National Forest trip visitor, Rend Lake is the anchor round of the region, paired naturally with Hickory Ridge (SIU, Carbondale) and Kokopelli (Marion, Hale Irwin) for a three-round Southern Illinois package. At muni-to-daily-fee pricing, Rend Lake is also one of the best values per-hole in the Midwest public-access landscape.