The 18-hole “Union County” course at the Union County Country Club facility in Anna, Illinois features 6,533 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 71. The course rating is 71.1 and it has a slope rating of 125. Designed by Gary Kern, ASGCA, the Union County golf course opened in 1954.
The Union County Country Club (UCCC) was launched with a 9-hole course having sand “greens”. The golfer would hit to the “green”, measure the distance to the hole and then move the ball to a packed strip equal distance from the hole for the putt. It didn’t take many years for the members to realize that they had to have grass greens if the club was to survive. Through fund raisers (raffles, etc.), money was raised to replace the sand “greens” with grass.
In 1960 the club initiated the Bunny Bread Tournament (now the Sheeny Elkins Classic). It was the first tournament of the year on the Southern Illinois golf schedule.
After several years, it was decided that the course had to have new greens. A golf course architect was engaged to design the greens and after a year of having the course closed to play, the members were treated to playing on some of the best greens in Southern Illinois. The club next sowed the fairways with Bermuda grass and now enjoy some of the better fairways in the area.
New greens and new fairways do not make a complete golf course. In 1998, UCCC embarked on building a additional 9-holes. The front 9 has a lot of rolling hills and trees, the back 9 is a link style course with mounds and bunkers. The Front 9 Fairways are Bermuda while the Back 9 are Zoysia. The greens are Bent grass.