Congo River Adventure Golf: Falls Course

The second 18 holes at Congo River Adventure was the Falls Course.

They had the same “scavenger hunt” thing going on - once again we loved it, and THIS time we found all the objects!!!  (Actually, we never found the spear, but the girl at the front desk gave us both the prize anyway!!  If you find all the hunt items, you get a yellow bouncy ball with a smiley face on it!!)

The over-under hole.

  
You know, this course was pretty full when we played it.  We started a little after 10:00 a.m., and finished at 11:50!!  Normally we play faster than that, but we were looking for the scavenger hunt items, plus there were people in front of us.

I love water falls.  Even if they ARE blue!!   A blue not found in nature!!

 
And I love the bridges.  And I love stepping over water!!

 
These holes - they actually are a lot like regulation golf.  Complete with really rolling terrain.

 
Oh, look at the ridges in this one!!

 
Ha!!  No Con Go!!!  It makes me think of the Star Trek episode “No Kill I”.  Remember that one??  My brother Dave just mentioned it last week.

 
You know, the amazing thing about this course - actually, both halves of this course - was that our balls NEVER bounced out of bounds.  Seriously, there were some pretty steep down-hills, and I often worried that our balls would be going so fast by the time they got to the bottom that they’d just bounce off the rocks and keep going.  But they never did.  Marvelous engineering, I’m thinking.  The same kind of engineering that made these holes all so friendly.

 
And look at these lovely picnic tables at the end - still in the Congo River theme.

 
I ought to mention that we both really enjoyed the music on this course.  It was REALLY diverse:  we heard Stevie Wonder, an Israeli folk song, some 50s doowop, some contemporary world music.  I don’t know if there was a central player that shuffled through that vast an array of music, or whether different holes had different genres.  But we really liked it!!

There was a game arcade at the end - with a Family Guy pinball machine.

 
Statistics:

Par:  40
Aaron:  46
Peg:  49

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts  (but higher for children on account of the really long fairways and steep up-hill holes).

Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  7.5 balls according to Aaron.  8 balls according to Peg.  Aaron liked how there were a lot of down-hills.  Peg liked the friendly, friendly cups!!

Coming next:  Wii Golf!!!

Congo River Adventure Golf: Rapids Course

Congo River Adventure Golf
1325 N. Barrington Road, Hoffman Estates, Illinois

First:  YAY!!!  Aaron is back from Dollywood!!  Wahooo!!!!

Dang!!  Look at this sign!!  Do you think they have a lot of broken putters???  Sheesh!!!

  
Hey, look at these low scores!!  We did WAY better than that!!  We should’ve told them our scores!!!  RATS!!!!

 
Practice green.  Gotta love that.

  
OK, so, at Congo River Adventure, there are two 18 hole courses - which you can play in combination for $11.95.  Not bad.

We played Congo River Rapids first.

  
One of my favorite things about this course was the “scavenger hunt”.  They had a bunch of decorations you were supposed to look for throughout the course.   If you saw one, you were supposed to write down what hole you were playing when you saw it.   If you saw all six of the hunt items, they’d give you a prize: a smiley-face superball!

Man, this was BRILLIANT!!  It meant that if you were waiting behind a slow party, you could spend your time looking for the hunt items.  It meant that kids who were waiting for others in their party to putt could also be looking for the hunt items.  It was just a BRILLIANT idea!!! (Pictured below is the "mask" item. It's mounted on the shack.)

 
Look how lovely this course is!!  Although, once again with the blue water!!

  
There were lots of bridges you got to walk on - I loved that.

  
You know, in general this course had long, interesting “fairways” that you really wanted to think about your strategy, and then they had exceptionally friendly cups.  Seriously, the cups were often just slightly depressed, compared to the surrounding green, so that if you were sort of headed in the direction of the hole, you’d tend to roll in.  This made you feel like a really super-competent golfer (and would be GREAT for kids).

 
There were a lot of holes where you putted into a hole on the top tier and then were spat out below - none of these gave automatic holes-in-one, though.
 
Look at this guy drooling blue water!!!

  
We got to this hole, and thought it was a hole with a couple of REALLY harsh gaps, and then we realized that the hole was set up so that once you were in the water you’d be automatically routed onto the green below.  I have to say, I love a hole where you get to putt into the water!!

 

See this cork-screw hole??  There were a lot of holes like this, where, really, you just teed off in the general direction that seemed logical, and then you got spat out on a very friendly green.

 
Wait a minute!!  What happened to this guy??  Is he a guy who’s dead and sunk into the sand??  Or is he just a sleeping stick figure??  And why does he make me want to sing “Particle Man”??

 
Statistics:

Par:  41
Aaron:  53
Peg:  46

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts  (but higher for children on account of the really long fairways and steep up-hill holes).

Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  7.5 balls according to Aaron.  8 balls according to Peg.  Aaron liked how there were a lot of downhill putts.  Peg liked the friendly, friendly cups!!

Coming next:  Congo River Falls

Par-King Skill Golf, Part 2: Black Course

NOTE: You can click on the embedded photos to make them larger.

Today’s blog is Par-King, Part II:  the black course.  But first, here's some Par-King trivia:

      -The lowest verified score on a Par-King course is 33.
      -The lowest possible score is 17.  (you can get a zero on the
            roulette wheel - hole 18)
      -The rollercoaster is made of over 750 wooden pieces.
      -The chances of winning a free game are 1 in 32.

The first hole is The Guitar.  I liked this hole simply because it WAS a guitar!!

 
The Tiki Hole was cool - I like putting into someone’s mouth.  And there were troughs and lots of cool rolling around, but basically, it didn’t matter how you entered the Tiki mouth - the outcome on the putting green was random.

 
The Four Aces was interesting - there was a hole mid-way down the fairway that would supposedly put you in a good place on the green, and Aaron tried this approach, but Barb and I just went for the longer putt and I think it worked better that way.  That hole mid-way doesn’t necessarily put you into the final hole.

 
OK, what was up with the Whirligig???  Where does the ball have to go in to get the good outcome??  We each went into a different place, but we all came out the same place.  ARGH!!!  This made us sad.

The Roller Coaster!!!  You know, the only thing that does this hole justice is the little film that the Travel Channel did.  It is way, way cool.  Travel Channel movie (The link will allow you to download the video in MP4 format): 
http://www.par-king.com/tc_clip.html

Look at this lovely alligator!!  You know, I read someplace that if you play a B flat to an alligator he won’t attack you.  I think they REALLY need to test this on Mythbusters.  If this is true, wouldn’t you think they’d make Alligator-deterrent whistles that just play B flats???  Or is it crocodiles??  It seems to me the article I read played the B flat on a French Horn.  Could be people who go to Florida should be sure to take along a French Horn player.

 
I liked the statue better than the hole.  And, dig his shoes!!!  I WANT this pair!!!

Another rotating hole!!

  
Oh, look at these lovely fish!!  

 

OK, is it just me, or does hole 12 bear a creepy resemblance to John Wayne Gacy?  Eeeeeeew!!!  Also, he tips his head, and you need to putt in when he’s tilting the right way.  But it’s hard not to get knocked back.   This hole is just evil.

 
Once again with the Mt. Rushmore.  How weird.

  
Nice elephants.

 
Oh, LOOK!!!  Here I am with my best friend in the whole wide world!!!  How WONDERFUL!!!  On this hole, exercise moderation, and take the middle path!!!  

 
And then, hole 18 - the roulette wheel again.  I’m not fond of the roulette wheel, as we said last time - and LOOK, you can see why!!!  There’s my ball in FIVE!!!!  

 

Statistics:

Par:  41
Aaron:  48
Peg:  48
Barb:  48

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  6.5 balls

Once again, the random-ness of some of the holes, and the impossibility of figuring out where your ball was going inside some of the machines brought down the score of a creative and whimsical course.  We all thought little kids would really dig this course, though.  And I also have to say, we loved the music.  They played The Monkees, Five for Fighting, and a lot of classic rock.

Coming next:  a history of the golf ball!!!

Par-King Skill Golf, Part 1: Red Course

 NOTE: You can click on the embedded photos to make them larger.

Today’s course was Par-King Skill Golf at 21711 Milwaukee Avenue Lincolnshire, IL 60069.  This is a course with a lot of history.  It began life as George's Gorgeous Golfing Gardens.  That original course (built in the 50s) is gone, and the current course dates back to the 60s, although some of the original decorations are still in use in this course.  The clown and the turtle were created for the original course.  Every winter all the decorations are taken indoors and re-painted and maintained.

There are two eighteen hole courses at Par-King, and there’s no discount for playing both eighteens!!  Man, ALL the courses we’ve played before had a discount for playing both courses!!!  $7.00 is the fee for 18 holes here, and that seems about right.  But most other courses give you the second 18 for half-price, and Par-King doesn’t.  Bummer.

Anyway, there’s a red course and a black course.   We played the red course first.

You know, they had a different type of putter here than I’ve seen anywhere else. These putters didn’t have a line on top.  You know - a line on top of the head of the club - so you could see which way you’re heading your ball, sort of.  I have to say, I really missed that line.   But then, I’m geometrically challenged.

We liked the plastic tee plates.  They didn’t seem to trip us up the way the metal tee plates did at Novelty Golf.  They weren’t as pretty as the metal plates, but we liked that there were three different tee options.

 
The second hole, Totem Pole, had a really cool red silhouette that was slightly sunken, so once your ball got into there you couldn’t roll any further from the hole.  
 



 


On the Carousel hole - I got a hole-in-one!!!!  Wahoooo!!!

 

The Statue of Liberty was the first water hole.  You were supposed to hit your ball

across a narrow bridge.  You know, I have to say, there were signs by all the water holes saying that there was a TWO stroke penalty for going into the water.  TWO strokes!!!  Who ever heard of a two stroke penalty???  My sister, who was our guest golfer today, said they just weren’t explaining it right, they meant that we should just pretend we were teeing off at our second shot.  Hmmm.   In any case, the two times one of us went into the water, we didn’t use the TWO stroke penalty - we just used the one stroke penalty, like in real golf.  Sheesh!!

 

This hole rotates!!!  

Super Looper!!  OK, we loved this hole!!  You putted into the center, and your ball goes up the elevator and then comes out at the top of a loop-de-loop.  Man.  It was so fun to watch the mechanics.  It reminded me of the game Mousetrap.  Man, I loved that game.  






 
The Buck-a-Roo is great if you get your ball in the designated area, because then the bucking bronco statue moves and the cowboy rides him.  But, my sister’s ball got STUCK inside the mechanical thing - here she is attempting to free her
ball, which had gotten stuck on top of a ledge in the corner.   She says we should re-name this the Big-Butt-Blog!!!



 


Barb got her ball stuck on the Queen’s Castle, too.  Huh.  

 

The Sears Tower (right, the Willis Tower) had an elevator inside - it just comes out the other side, though.   (But, wait, if this is a REPLICA of the Sears Tower, built while the Sears was still the Sears, then is this replica STILL the Sears???)

 

Barb got a hole-in-one on this heart hole - she’s a straight shooter!!!

 

Oh, look, it’s a Farmville hole!!

Hole 18 was a roulette wheel.  Man, we REALLY didn’t like this hole!!!  If you’re a
kid, and you’re getting sixes on all the holes this might be a nice hole, but the thing is, you just putt in and your ball goes to a roulette wheel, and you just take the score of where your ball lands!!  How much does that suck???  There is a one in 32 chance that you’ll win a free game on this hole, but to me that doesn’t make up for getting a SIX or SEVEN that ruins your score!!!!!!!  SHEESH!!!!!!

Statistics:

Par:  41
Aaron:  47
Peg:  47
Barb:  43

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):   6.5

You know, there was too much randomness on this course.  We LOVED the goofy decorations, and the Rube-Goldberg-like contraptions.  But there were way too many holes where you couldn’t figure out where the ball needed to go into the contraptions in order to come out the pipe that would give you a good placement.