Muscatine Municipal Golf Course – Muscatine, IA

I was back with the family over the holiday weekend and my nephew, StealthBuffalo, booked a tee time for his brother The DeliveryBoy and I. He talked about this course he had gone to with some of his friends and said it was a good course, so we were game. The DeliveryBoy brought his clubs (and his wife) up from San Antonio where he’s been doing a LOT of golfing.

We had a slumber party at StealthBuffalo’s house the night before and stayed up late, so our morning tee time came earlier than expected. That part was helped by my mom sending Alabama biscuits and sausage gravy home with StealthBuffalo for us to warm up before we golfed. StealthBuffalo can warm up food like it’s nobody’s business. Ha ha ha

We got to the course exactly at our tee time. They said we were next on the tee, so we ran out there, got everything ready and headed off. I won’t go into detail about every hole on the course, but I’ll tell you this: this course is really good. REALLY good. Probably the most difficult greens I’ve ever putted on. Not unfair at all, just really challenging greens. There were multiple elevation changes no some of the greens and the pin placements were really tough. LOTS of three and four putts to finish some holes (not that I don’t usually do that ha ha ha).

There were a few water holes as well (all of which I found without problem). The grass was in good shape, and there was definition between rough and fairway. Decent elevation and a couple of dog legs. Trees, but not any forest activity by any stretch.

We also played our fun side game called SPF, which the DeliveryBoy won without challenge (StealthBuffalo and I felt bad for him so we went easy on him). SPF is a two-part side game. Part 1: one stroke deduction for every tree you hit (the tree has to actually change the flight of the ball). Part 2: one hole is picked at random for each player to hit two balls – one ball is played normal. The other ball must be played using only one club, for driving, approaching, and putting. The person who gets the lowest score with the single club gets that number of strokes deducted from his score. The Delivery Boy ended up in the 80’s with the “adjusted” score (I won’t tell you whether that by playing good golf or bad golf).

Aside from StealthBuffalo hitting trees 5 feet from our cart (which sent his ball 25 yards behind him, and THEN nearly hitting the DeliveryBoy and I as we drove away laughing, he had the best line of the day. He questioned DeliveryBoy’s club choice on a particular approach. DeliveryBoy said he’d just planned to hit it forward and take his next shot. StealthBuffalo replied, “This sprinkler head say you’re 310 yards from the hole!” DeliveryBoy replied with “Really? It’s that far?” To which StealthBuffalo shut down the conversation with “I’m not the smart math-guy in the family, but I think that’s what three-one-zero means.” We laughed for 10 minutes about this. There was other hilarity, but I couldn’t capture it all here.

StealthBuffalo had trouble with the “Keep your eye on the ball” thing when the camera was out.

So the course is really worth playing. It’s kind of off of I-80, so it’s findable with some driving and a GPS system. And it’s very underrated. Consider playing this course – I was very impressed.

Top 5 things about the Muscatine Municipal Golf Course
1. Golfing with my nephews is ALWAYS fun – no matter what
2. Really challenging greens
3. I didn’t get sunburned
4. I came home with all of my clubs intact (unlike Coach the other week)
5. Nephew slumber party!!!

Bottom 5 things
1. Anything above 65 degrees is too hot for me
2. Lots of gnats
3. DeliveryBoy beat me (I totally let him though – he’s sensitive)
4. I came home with fewer golf balls than I started with… cough cough…
5. Coach had to work, so he couldn’t join us (also he doesn’t have clubs anymore)

ci.muscatine.ia.us/parks/golf