Must-Play Public Golf Courses in the Iowa City Area

As most Iowans know, Iowa City is a pretty lively, exciting place – especially during football season! But, you can find some needed peace and quiet at some great golf courses in Iowa’s former capitol.

If you’re in town for the weekend, or playing hooky from work, here are 6 great public courses you can test your game at. We’ll start with the courses closest to the heart of Iowa City.

Finkbine Golf Course

Finkbine is the home of the Iowa Hawkeyes golf teams, and recently finished some massive renovations and upgrades in 2020, including the 19,000 square foot Nagle Family Clubhouse.

This 18-hole golf course is mostly tree-lined, and demands accuracy on several holes. Finkbine is one of the best-kept courses year after year and conditions are usually great (barring terrible droughts).

This is a complete experience, and if you’ve never played, you should keep an eye out for hole 13 – a par 3 over water (with two different greens!) and two very gettable birdies at holes 6 and 15 (both par 5s).

Some might not know that Finbine was once host to Iowa’s very own high-profile golf tournament, called the Amana VIP. For 23 years, golf pros and celebrities came to Finkbine to battle it out in front of many spectators.

Brown Deer Golf Club

Brown Deer Golf Club is another 18-hole public course just north of the I-80 Iowa River exit. If you want two very different 9-hole layouts, play here.

The front 9 is very open, but still forces you to avoid a few different hazards. You can definitely be more aggressive on this 9. The back 9 features more dog legs amongst the trees and neighborhood homes, but still has some short holes that are birdie opportunities if you aren’t spraying the ball.

Most golf is expensive nowadays, but Brown Deer is arguably the best value public course in the Iowa City area, as it’s not in the center of Iowa City, and is almost always in great condition.

Pleasant Valley Golf Course

Pleasant Valley is on the south side of Iowa City, and is a bit shorter than your typical high quality 18-hole golf course (tipping out at 6,472 yards). Don’t take it lightly though. This 18-hole course demands accuracy, and features in-course out of bounds as well as water hazards. This is a fun course with many birdie opportunities for those who want to take on the trouble.

Pleasant Valley has a pro-shop, bar and restaurant, and a practice range for anyone needing some more reps or a post-round bite or beverage.

Blue Top Ridge Golf Course

Blue Top Ridge is Iowa’s famed Rees Jones (son of Robert Trent Jones Sr.) designed championship course. This is a resort course connected to the Riverside Casino in Riverside, IA – about 15 to 20 minutes south of Iowa City.

Blue Top Ridge is a one-of-a-kind Iowa golf course that tips out at over 7,400 yards and offers golfers great views at the top of the course (around holes 3, 4 and 5). This course is home to the annual Iowa Open that’s run by the Iowa PGA Section.

Make a weekend of it and have a little fun at the casino, but know that a round at Blue Top isn’t too cheap compared to the rest of these Iowa City courses. 18 holes with a cart will run you $85 to $95 in peak season.

Saddleback Ridge Golf Course

This 18-hole course is in Solon, about a 20 minute trip from Iowa City.
Saddleback is a bomber’s dream. You can pound the ball all over this course off the tee. There is some fescue you’ll need to steer away from, but not on the entirety of the course. As of the last few years, Saddleback has been kept in great shape.

One unique feature of this course is that there are three par 3s, three par 4s, and three par 5s on each of the front and back-nine, giving golfers a lot of variety and scoring opportunities.

Stone Creek Golf Club

The only 9-hole golf course on this list, this great course is a little west of Iowa City (about a half hour down I-80) in Williamsburg, IA. This course was designed by 5-time Tour Champ D.A. Weibring, and even earned a spot on Golf Digest’s 2010 list of the 25 best 9-hole courses in America.

Stone Creek features some of the smoothest greens in Iowa, and while they roll great, they can fool you. These greens have subtle undulation you shouldn’t take for granted. You’ll also need to try and avoid the 18 bunkers that hug the narrow fairways and tough greens.

Stone Creek also has a beautiful 2-level clubhouse for events.

Wrap Up

These are the best public golf courses that anyone can play in the Iowa City area. Three of these are in town, and three are outside of town, so Iowa City area golf offers just enough variety for those who need to get away, or those who just need a different test of golf.

Feel free to let us know what you think about any of these courses if you’ve played.

Hit em straight!