Timber Lakes Golf Course

Staunton sits in the heart of Madison and Macoupin counties, in the rolling agricultural country of southwestern Illinois about halfway between St. Louis and Springfield. This is working-class Midwestern golf country, where courses are built for regulars who play after work and on weekends, not for resort visitors chasing bucket-list experiences. The land here tends toward gentle, open terrain with mature tree lines breaking up what was once largely farmland and prairie.

Timber Lakes fits that tradition — an 18-hole layout whose name suggests the wooded corridors and water features that give it definition against the otherwise open Illinois landscape. Courses like this one form the backbone of local golf in small-town Illinois: affordable, unpretentious, and deeply rooted in their communities. They reward repeat play, because local knowledge matters — learning which greens break toward the highway, where the wind funnels between tree lines, and which holes look simpler than they play.

For golfers passing through on I-55, or anyone based in the greater St. Louis metro looking to explore the Illinois side, Staunton offers a genuine slice of heartland golf without the price tag of a destination track.