Woodland Hills Golf Course

Des Moines has a surprisingly robust municipal golf scene, and Woodland Hills sits within it as an everyday public option for the city's golfers. The name suggests what the setting likely delivers — tree-lined fairways and rolling terrain shaped by the wooded, glacially sculpted landscape that characterizes central Iowa. That kind of environment tends to reward course management and accurate ball-striking over raw power, with trees that genuinely come into play and ground that moves beneath your feet.

A par-71 layout signals something worth noting before you arrive: expect at least one fewer par 5 than a standard par-72 track, which typically shifts the scoring challenge toward a collection of demanding par 4s. That subtle difference changes how a round feels and how a scorecard gets filled.

For Des Moines golfers, courses like Woodland Hills function as the backbone of local golf culture — accessible, familiar, and honest. A round here is less about destination drama and more about the straightforward pleasure of playing good public golf in the middle of Iowa.