Sunset Hills Country Club

I always enjoy playing Sunset Hills CC. It has some quirkiness but all the holes are different. The staff there are extremely friendly and helpful. They are doing some major renovations near the 1st tee to open up the view of the lake. It will look great when it is done.

The tees and greens were good. Some of the fairways had a few rough spots but overall very good.

They did not move much dirt at this course, This is a hilly course which requires course knowledge before you can play it. Many blind shots.

The clubhouse is old. Looks like a school building and very outdated.

The greens amd tees were outstanding. The fairways were above average. The rough was average and the bunkers were awful. You really did not feel like you were at a country club except for the tees and greens. Felt more like a good, public course.

The course has excellent cart paths but are missing on hole 11 and part of hole 17. The staff there is extremely friendly and the bar/restaurant was very good.

This is a very nice course and I would recommend it. You just might want to lower your expectations. They layout is very vanilla. Other than a nice par 3 (12), not one hole stands out as unique. Aesthetically its nothing special. In fact the huge lake in the middle of everything is a real eyesore and stinks to high heaven.

Hidden away in the small town of Edwardsville, IL, Sunset Hills appears - when you first drive in - as if you're driving into the middle of a neighborhood. And you are. This made me nervous as I despise courses crammed among houses causing forced OB's and taking away the feeling of "golf" when golfing.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Sunset Hills is not this at all. While the course is tight, with many OB areas, it is not because of backyards and swimming pools right off the fairways. The course winds its way into a beautiful, natural woodsy area, and if you miss the fairway and rough you're in what my son and I call "the shmutz." Trees and bushes and canyons, etc.

The course is beautiful tee to green. Once you get past the first tee, you see only a few houses and they are not intrusive. The terrain is hilly with many blind shots and elevation changes, but again, unlike some newer courses which are tricked up with terrain changes, Sunset Hills is all natural and feels natural.

The design is smart, rewarding well played shots - you can go low here - and penalizing bad shots - you can score high easily, too. There is a good variety of holes - you're not feeling like you're playing the same 4 holes over and over - and several holes are worthy of taking photos.

The greens are in good shape and run true, if not that fast. The tee boxes - a big tell if a course has a good superintendent - are all well maintained and offer true, flat tee surfaces.

The pro shop is well stocked, and the staff was extremely friendly. This is a private course and I was able to play due to reciprocal privileges with my home course. John the head pro went out of his way to make me and my son feel as welcomed as if we were Sunset Hills members.

The locker room and restaurant areas look nice and are well maintained. The food we tried was good, if not spectacular.

My only criticism is that due to some lengthy distances between greens and tees, the course is not really walkable. But that's a small critique considering everything else.

If you get a chance to play here, I highly recommend it. And if you are able to consider membership, I think it'd be a great club to call home.