Quad Cities Golf Courses & Tee Times

Who runs public golf in Quad Cities

Cities run most of the public golf here. On the Illinois side, Rock Island Parks and Recreation runs two 18-hole courses: Highland Springs, a 1968 William James Spears design (par 72), and Saukie, an executive-length par 66 of just over 5,000 yards. First Tee Quad Cities runs its junior program at Highland Springs. Across the river, Golf Davenport runs Emeis, Duck Creek and the 9-hole Red Hawk, and Bettendorf's Palmer Hills was the Iowa Golf Association's 2024 18-Hole Golf Course of the Year. Privately owned daily-fee options include Golfmohr in East Moline, open since 1965.

Public courses worth knowing in Quad Cities

• TPC Deere Run: D.A. Weibring design on a former Arabian horse farm above the Rock River, over 7,200 yards, par 71; home of the John Deere Classic since 2000. Paul Goydos shot the 59 course record there in 2010.
• Saukie Golf Course: Thomas Bendelow design built in 1927 and opened in 1928; a city-run executive course, par 66, where many local golfers started.
• Highland Springs Golf Course (IL): Rock Island's longer city course, a 1968 William James Spears design, par 72 and slope 130 from the back; home base for First Tee Quad Cities.
• Golfmohr Golf Club: Ted Lockie design on a farm the Mohr family worked from 1867; opened as a daily-fee 18 in 1965 and now plays over 6,900 yards from the tips.
• Emeis Golf Course: Davenport city course opened in 1961 with a Palmer-Player exhibition; par 72 and home of the Quad Cities Amateur.
• Sugar Maple Golf Club: Par-72 18 outside Geneseo with bentgrass greens, bluegrass fairways and a grass practice tee.

Booking tee times in Quad Cities: the local rules

Rock Island's two city courses take tee times one week ahead for all open times, and groups can book further out by contracting an outing with a deposit. You need to be 18 with a driver's license to rent a cart. In Davenport, Emeis and Duck Creek book online, while Red Hawk is first come, first served. No resident-only booking windows turned up on either city's pages.

Why tee times in Quad Cities are hard to get

The season in Quad Cities runs roughly from spring to late fall. The first warm weekends in spring and the cool, dry weekends of fall are the hardest to book.

Most public courses open their tee sheet a set number of days ahead, often 7 to 14, and many municipal courses give residents or card holders an earlier window. The best weekend-morning times usually go the day they're released. Leagues and outings take blocks of the sheet before the public ever sees them.

When tee time cancellations happen

A full tee sheet rarely stays full. Many courses let you cancel without a fee up to 24 or 48 hours before your time, so spots tend to reappear in the last couple of days. A bad forecast shakes more loose, and a foursome that drops to three opens a single. None of it is announced. The time just shows up again on the booking page, and whoever looks first gets it.

How to get a tee time in Quad Cities

Doing it by hand? Here's what works.

1. Know the booking window. Find out how many days ahead each course releases times, and whether residents get an earlier window. Be ready the morning it opens.
2. Look again 24 to 48 hours out. That's when most cancellation deadlines pass and spots come back.
3. Be flexible on group size. Singles and twosomes fit into gaps a foursome can't.
4. Try twilight and weekday afternoons. They're the last to fill and often cheaper.
5. Widen the map. If your first choice is full, check the next town over. Rock Island has 2 courses on Yoink and Port Byron has 1.

Read the full guide to getting a tee time when everything's booked