The toughest course in the Davenport-Moline, IA-IL combined area is Davenport Country Club, at slope 140 — ahead of Pebble Creek Golf Course at slope 137 and Crow Valley Golf Club at slope 133.
All 17 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Davenport-Moline, IA-IL is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it, crossing Iowa and Illinois — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— all 17 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | State | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davenport Country Club | IA | slope 140 |
| 2 | Pebble Creek Golf Course | IA | slope 137 |
| 3 | Crow Valley Golf Club | IA | slope 133 |
| 4 | Pinnacle Country Club and Golf Course | IL | slope 131 |
| 5 | Fyre Lake Golf Club | IL | slope 130 |
| 5 | Palmer Hills Golf Course | IA | slope 130 |
| 7 | Highland Springs Municipal Golf Course | IL | slope 129 |
| 7 | Valley View Golf Club | IL | slope 129 |
| 9 | Geneva Golf and Country Club | IA | slope 128 |
| 10 | Short Hills Country Club | IL | slope 125 |
| 11 | Glynns Creek Golf Course | IA | slope 124 |
| 12 | Hawthorne Ridge Golf Course | IL | slope 120 |
| 13 | Emeis Golf Course | IA | slope 116 |
| 14 | Byron Hills Golf Course | IL | slope 115 |
| 15 | Duck Creek Golf Course | IA | slope 113 |
| 16 | Indian Bluff Forest Preserve Golf Course | IL | slope 111 |
| 17 | Hidden Hills Golf Course | IA | slope 110 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 15 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | State | Hardest from the tips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davenport Country Club | IA | rating 73.7 |
| 2 | Glynns Creek Golf Course | IA | rating 73.3 |
| 2 | Pinnacle Country Club and Golf Course | IL | rating 73.3 |
| 4 | Crow Valley Golf Club | IA | rating 73.0 |
| 5 | Short Hills Country Club | IL | rating 72.5 |
| 6 | Fyre Lake Golf Club | IL | rating 72.1 |
| 7 | Hawthorne Ridge Golf Course | IL | rating 72.0 |
| 7 | Highland Springs Municipal Golf Course | IL | rating 72.0 |
| 9 | Palmer Hills Golf Course | IA | rating 71.3 |
| 10 | Byron Hills Golf Course | IL | rating 70.5 |
| 10 | Geneva Golf and Country Club | IA | rating 70.5 |
| 12 | Emeis Golf Course | IA | rating 69.9 |
| 13 | Hidden Hills Golf Course | IA | rating 67.8 |
| 14 | Duck Creek Golf Course | IA | rating 66.9 |
| 15 | Indian Bluff Forest Preserve Golf Course | IL | rating 66.7 |
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 27 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 26 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rustic Ridge Golf Course | IA | 3,284 yds between tees |
| 2 | Muscatine Municipal Golf Course | IA | 2,987 yds between tees |
| 3 | Short Hills Country Club | IL | 2,930 yds between tees |
| 4 | Fyre Lake Golf Club | IL | 2,167 yds between tees |
| 5 | Tpc Deere Run | IL | 2,102 yds between tees |
| 6 | Glynns Creek Golf Course | IA | 1,939 yds between tees |
| 7 | Davenport Country Club | IA | 1,888 yds between tees |
| 8 | Pinnacle Country Club and Golf Course | IL | 1,864 yds between tees |
| 9 | Palmer Hills Golf Course | IA | 1,812 yds between tees |
| 10 | Oakwood Country Club | IL | 1,571 yds between tees |
| 11 | Highland Springs Municipal Golf Course | IL | 1,523 yds between tees |
| 12 | Crow Valley Golf Club | IA | 1,431 yds between tees |
| 13 | Geneva Golf and Country Club | IA | 1,331 yds between tees |
| 14 | Byron Hills Golf Course | IL | 1,207 yds between tees |
| 15 | Indian Bluff Forest Preserve Golf Course | IL | 1,147 yds between tees |
| 16 | Emeis Golf Course | IA | 1,076 yds between tees |
| 17 | Springbrook Country Club | IA | 1,018 yds between tees |
| 18 | Pebble Creek Golf Course | IA | 958 yds between tees |
| 19 | Hidden Hills Golf Course | IA | 885 yds between tees |
| 20 | Red Hawk Golf Course & Learning Center | IA | 714 yds between tees |
| 21 | Sunrise Golf Course | IA | 569 yds between tees |
| 22 | West Liberty Country Club | IA | 548 yds between tees |
| 23 | Duck Creek Golf Course | IA | 320 yds between tees |
| 24 | Wapsi Oaks Country Club | IA | 260 yds between tees |
| 25 | Saukie Golf Course | IL | 239 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— all 19 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | State | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal Island Golf Course | IN | opened 1897 |
| 2 | Indian Bluff Forest Preserve Golf Course | IL | opened 1920 |
| 3 | Springbrook Country Club | IA | opened 1921 |
| 4 | Short Hills Country Club | IL | opened 1922 |
| 5 | Davenport Country Club | IA | opened 1924 |
| 6 | Duck Creek Golf Course | IA | opened 1945 |
| 7 | Pinnacle Country Club and Golf Course | IL | opened 1948 |
| 8 | Fyre Lake Golf Club | IL | opened 1951 |
| 9 | Emeis Golf Course | IA | opened 1961 |
| 10 | Highland Springs Municipal Golf Course | IL | opened 1968 |
| 11 | Valley View Golf Club | IL | opened 1969 |
| 12 | Wapsi Oaks Country Club | IA | opened 1970 |
| 13 | Palmer Hills Golf Course | IA | opened 1974 |
| 14 | Hidden Hills Golf Course | IA | opened 1982 |
| 14 | Sunrise Golf Course | IA | opened 1982 |
| 16 | Geneva Golf and Country Club | IA | opened 1993 |
| 17 | Hawthorne Ridge Golf Course | IL | opened 1999 |
| 18 | Tpc Deere Run | IL | opened 2000 |
| 19 | Red Hawk Golf Course & Learning Center | IA | opened 2002 |
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 28 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | State | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geneva Golf and Country Club | IA | 839 ft |
| 2 | Rustic Ridge Golf Course | IA | 787 ft |
| 3 | Fyre Lake Golf Club | IL | 766 ft |
| 4 | Glynns Creek Golf Course | IA | 753 ft |
| 5 | Red Hawk Golf Course & Learning Center | IA | 729 ft |
| 6 | Hawthorne Ridge Golf Course | IL | 705 ft |
| 7 | Highland Springs Municipal Golf Course | IL | 704 ft |
| 8 | Springbrook Country Club | IA | 703 ft |
| 9 | Hidden Hills Golf Course | IA | 702 ft |
| 10 | Muscatine Municipal Golf Course | IA | 696 ft |
| 11 | Oakwood Country Club | IL | 694 ft |
| 12 | West Liberty Country Club | IA | 690 ft |
| 13 | Byron Hills Golf Course | IL | 684 ft |
| 14 | Crow Valley Golf Club | IA | 683 ft |
| 15 | Indian Bluff Forest Preserve Golf Course | IL | 682 ft |
| 15 | Short Hills Country Club | IL | 682 ft |
| 17 | Arsenal Island Golf Course | IN | 677 ft |
| 17 | Emeis Golf Course | IA | 677 ft |
| 19 | Wapsi Oaks Country Club | IA | 675 ft |
| 20 | Pebble Creek Golf Course | IA | 672 ft |
| 21 | Davenport Country Club | IA | 671 ft |
| 22 | Saukie Golf Course | IL | 670 ft |
| 23 | Sunrise Golf Course | IA | 669 ft |
| 24 | Tpc Deere Run | IL | 667 ft |
| 25 | Palmer Hills Golf Course | IA | 648 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.