GolfPass Icon
Rating Index Rating
Tooltip Information Icon
3.8
165 Reviews (165)
5 Stars
42
4 Stars
43
3 Stars
33
2 Stars
15
1 Stars
32
Conditions
3.6
Value
4.1
Layout
4.2
Friendliness
4.5
Pace
4.1
Amenities
3.6
80.8%
Recommend this course
112 out of 165 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.9
10 Reviews (10)
5 Stars
4
4 Stars
3
3 Stars
2
2 Stars
0
1 Stars
1
Conditions
3.6
Value
4.5
Layout
4.3
Pace
3.8
Amenities
3.5
StaffFriendliness
4.4
80.0%
Recommend this course
8 out of 10 reviews
Read Reviews
Average Rating
Avg Rating
3.9
46 Reviews (46)
5 Stars
20
4 Stars
14
3 Stars
5
2 Stars
1
1 Stars
6
Conditions
3.7
Value
4.1
Layout
4.3
Pace
4.0
Amenities
3.6
StaffFriendliness
4.5
80.4%
Recommend this course
37 out of 46 reviews
Read Reviews

About

Holes 18
Type Public/Municipal
Par 72
Length 5952 yards
Slope 119
Rating 69.3
Book a Tee Time at
River Oaks Golf Course
Powered by GolfNow.com

Course Details

Year Built 1968
Golf Season Open: 3/01 Closed: 11/01
Architect Dick Nugent (1968)

Rentals/Services

Carts Yes
Clubs Yes
Pull-carts Yes

Practice/Instruction

Driving Range No
Bunker Yes
Teaching Pro Yes
Pitching/Chipping Area Yes
Putting Green Yes

Policies

Credit Cards Accepted VISA, MasterCard Welcomed
Metal Spikes Allowed No
Fivesomes Allowed No
Walking Allowed Yes

Food & Beverage

Snacks

Accolades

  • Golf Advisor: Top 25 Most Improved U.S. Golf Courses (2022 #5)

Reviews

3.8
165 Reviews (165)
Advanced Filters
Overall Rating
Recommended
Handicap
Age
Type of Golfer
Gender
Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Average
Pace Fair
Amenities Poor
Played On
Reviews 2
I Recommend This Course
3.0
Previously Played
Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played

Hot trash

Front 9 is decent. Fun layout, but course conditions were sub par, back 9 is absolute trash. The 15th?! Hole was a par 3 literally stuck in the middle of a fairway. The “green” cannot be caked that without quotes. I feel robbed of money and I played on a “hot deal”. Don’t do it.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Average
Pace Poor
Amenities Poor
Played On
Reviews 1
1.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Average
Pace Fair
Amenities Average
7b43acf0-4b3d-5c62-9802-067f134fc496
Commented on 11/10/2020

Thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear that you did not have an enjoyable experience at our course. Please know that we take customer feedback seriously. Please reach out to us directly if you would like to discuss your experience further.

Played On
Reviews 1
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Course in terrible shape and I requested a refund

The course was in horrendous shape with hard ground, bald grass areas in the fairways, tee boxes were like concrete as you attempt to place a tee in the ground, Hole 12 was closed and the course was modified with 2 holes replacing the next Par 5 on Hole 15. River Oaks was in the worst condition that I've ever seen.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Average
Pace Average
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate
7b43acf0-4b3d-5c62-9802-067f134fc496
Commented on 10/19/2020

We appreciate your feedback and have been actively working on course improvement projects in recent months. These are ongoing and still in progress. We understand that there may be inconveniences during this time. We would like the chance to discuss this with you further. Please reach out to the golf shop directly.

Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Average
Pace Fair
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 6
1.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Fair
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 5
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

The worst

Close down until the course is in playable conditions. You can't have mountains of dirt and rocks in the middle of every fairway. Your green and tee boxes look as if they haven't been touched since last year.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Fair
Pace Fair
Played On
Reviews 2
Handicap Don't know
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
First Time Playing
Perfect weather
Used cart

Course should be shut down to make improvements

This was the worst course I have ever been to. We could barely tell where the fairways were. They had orange flags, which we thought indicated the middle of the fairway. But no, the fairways were filled with 3 foot deep holes in which my friend accidentally fell into. We couldn't find half our balls because they had white bird feathers everywhere. There was also tons of bird crap. Bird crap was on the fairway, on the greens and even on tee box. We had a hard time not stepping in it, had to spray our shoes off afterwards. Trash was all over the course. Terrible mud puddles in front of the greens. Not maintained at all. The best thing about this course was that you could leave it and never come back. I would not recommend this course to my worst enemy.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Poor
Pace Good
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
1.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Terrible Condition

Course is in terrible condition. Almost unplayable. Do not recommend

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Average
Pace Good
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 10
Handicap Don't know
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
1.0
Previously Played
Hot weather
Used cart

R.Oaks, Cal. City - under construction in 2020

This place should be discounted. R.Oaks, Cal. City - under construction in 2020. This place should be discounted. Hard and bald fairways. This place should be discounted. Under renovation - 12 deep holes [sprinklers heads] down most of the fairway. This place should be discounted. Hole 12 was closed. A hole was then poorly created by splitting hole 15 in half EXCEPT there was no real putting green. Yikes. Tee box markers were missing on hole 5. Other holes only had 14 of 6 markers. This place should be discounted.

This place should be discounted until renovations are finished.
This place should be discounted until renovations are finished.
This place should be discounted until renovations are finished.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Poor
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Difficulty Fairly Easy
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Beginner
Plays Once a month
1.0
First Time Playing

Worst course I’ve ever played

This was the worst course I’ve ever played. Poorly maintained. Most areas were so hard it was like playing off concrete.

Conditions Poor
Value Poor
Layout Average
Friendliness Fair
Pace Poor
Amenities Average
Played On
Reviews 2
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
3.0
First Time Playing
Conditions Fair
Value Good
Layout Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Fair
Played On
Reviews 2
Handicap 10-14
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
1.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Hot weather
Used cart

Used to be nice.

I callled to see I could schedule an early morning single was told nothing available until 10am. booked a 6am twosome. No one was there to open and unlock carts. A groundskeeper unlocked the cart at 6:15 an apologized. (later brought us out a score card. His rating is 7 stars!). Grounds crews could have cared less about the golfers. A single jumped in front of us and then held us up on about 6 holes. A single behind us hit into us. The fairways are in bad shape and one hole is completely closed. Used to be a nice course.

Conditions Poor
Value Fair
Layout Poor
Friendliness Poor
Pace Fair
Amenities Poor
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
2.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played

Fairway not cut rough not trimmed, sand traps horrible

Conditions Fair
Value Poor
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Poor
Played On
Reviews 1
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
1.0
First Time Playing

Do Not Book Golf Here

We booked a Hot Deal on Saturday at 11:40am. We arrived 20 minutes before our tee time, and noticed online that there were still a ton of openings for the day. When we arrived we saw maybe 25 people waiting to tee off. We were told “oh it’s going to be a while” when we checked it. After speaking to some others waiting we found out that the 9:45am tee time still didn’t tee off. Meaning they were over 2 hours delayed with no reason given. No weather issues or anything like that. River Oaks only has Hot Deals, so you cannot cancel for a refund. They do this to screw the customer only. They purposely overbook and give the customer the choice of waiting 2-3 hours to tee off or be down $80+. Just a horrible business plan. We couldn’t wait because we had a party to go to and lost out on the money. The WORST part was that they didn’t remove the openings online. So I’m sure this happened to numerous others the same day. Golf Now needs to remove this course as an option.

Value Poor
Played On
Reviews 8
Handicap 15-19
Skill Intermediate
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Verified Purchaser
Previously Played
Perfect weather
Used cart

Nice track, not in great shape though

Really friendly staff. We got off just fine, no real traffic ahead of us at 6:20am tee time. Course has seen better days. The back 9 is a little jacked up since the 12th hole has been eliminated and they've split the par 5 15th into 2 holes, a par 3 and a par 4. A little strange since they don't have the new holes marked yet and your GPS will be off of course. Overall, nice time. Still like the layout.

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Good
Difficulty Moderate
Played On
Reviews 22
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Like that most holes are different and really good value

Most holes are different a few holes you have to position your ball to get to green sand traps and fairways could be better but for what you pay it’s really a great value staff is friendly and the manager Nicole always very welcoming and friendly

Conditions Average
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Fair
7b43acf0-4b3d-5c62-9802-067f134fc496
Commented on 06/22/2020

Thank you so much for your review! We appreciate your feedback and hope to see you back soon.

Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Advanced
Plays A few times a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Verified Purchaser
First Time Playing

Short but tough

Course has a great layout. Some holes really make you out a tee shot in play, especially with a long iron. I also had an ACE on #6. 153 par 3 with an 8 iron!!! I will definitely be back for another round!!!

Conditions Good
Value Excellent
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Average
7b43acf0-4b3d-5c62-9802-067f134fc496
Commented on 06/22/2020

We appreciate and value your feedback Jdelby314. We are thrilled to hear that you want to come back and we hope that you do!

Played On
Reviews 3
Skill Intermediate
Plays Once a week
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Previously Played

Nice course

Nicely maintained tee boxes and fairways...good value

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Nearby Courses
Burnham, Illinois
Public
3.3288823529
114
Lansing, Illinois
Private
0.0
0
Glenwood, Illinois
Public
3.8606
44
Riverdale, Illinois
Public
3.8888882353
246
Homewood, Illinois
Semi-Private
3.7115647059
498
Hammond, Indiana
Public
4.4559352941
461
East Chicago, Indiana
Public/Municipal
4.0
1
Homewood, Illinois
Public
4.3490705882
740
Munster, Indiana
Municipal
4.1053823529
106
Hammond, Indiana
Public
4.4559352941
461
Highland, Indiana
Public
3.7404941176
294
Chicago Heights, Illinois
Municipal
4.1243235294
83
Golf Packages

SW Michigan Golf Around Package

FROM $127 (USD)
GRAND RAPIDS/KALAMAZOO | Enjoy 3 nights’ accommodations at Quality Inn – Battle Creek and 3 rounds of golf at The Medalist Golf Club, Angel’s Crossing Golf Club, and The Grande Golf Club.

Best of Battle Creek Package

FROM $147 (USD)
GRAND RAPIDS/KALAMAZOO | Enjoy 3 nights’ accommodations at FireKeepers Casino Hotel and 3 rounds of golf at The Medalist Golf Club, Riverside Golf Club, and Binder Park Golf Course.

SentryWorld Stay & Play Package

FROM $347 (USD)
STEVENS POINT, WI | Enjoy 3 nights’ accommodations at The Inn at SentryWorld and 2 rounds of golf at SentryWorld Golf Course (site of the 2023 U.S. Senior Open).

Destination Kohler - To Dye Four Golf Package

FROM $557 (USD)
KOHLER, WI | Enjoy 3 nights’ accommodations at The American Club or the Inn on Woodlake and 4 rounds of golf at Blackwolf Run (River & Meadow Valley Courses) and Whistling Straits (Straits & Irish Courses).

Destination Kohler - Champions' Trail Golf Package

FROM $617 (USD)
KOHLER, WI | Enjoy 2 nights’ accommodations at The American Club or the Inn at Woodlake and 3 rounds of golf at Blackwolf Run (River or Meadow Valleys Course) and Whistling Straits (Straits or Irish Course)
Now Reading