Red Tail Run Golf Course

Red Tail Run is one of central Illinois's most celebrated public layouts, a Roger Packard and Andy North design that opened in 1991 on the prairie land outside Decatur. The course takes its name from the red-tailed hawks that patrol the wide-open skies overhead, and the bird sightings are frequent enough to feel like part of the round. Packard and North — the latter a 2-time US Open champion turned architect — crafted a course that embraces the flat, expansive Illinois landscape rather than fighting it, using strategic mounding, native grasses, and a series of well-designed water features to generate genuine challenge and visual interest.

The layout has earned a strong regional reputation and consistently ranks among the top public courses in Illinois. The finishing stretch is particularly demanding, and the course rewards careful course management over raw power.

Decatur sits in the heart of the Midwest corn belt, and Red Tail Run gives that agricultural flatland a distinct sense of purpose — proof that prairie terrain, handled thoughtfully, can produce memorable and serious golf.