Burns Park Golf Course

Designed by Joe Finger and opened in 1961, Burns Park Golf Course is a par-71, 6,737-yard public layout set within North Little Rock's 1,700-acre Burns Park on the Arkansas River. Finger's routing takes advantage of the park's mature hardwoods and rolling terrain to create one of the state's most popular municipal golf experiences.

Burns Park Golf Course is a 36-hole public facility operated by the City of North Little Rock within Burns Park — one of the largest urban parks in the United States at over 1,500 acres along the Arkansas River north of downtown North Little Rock. The Championship Course was designed by Joe Finger, the Houston-based architect who also designed Bella Vista Country Club in northwest Arkansas, and opened in 1961. Finger's layout for the Championship Course used the Arkansas River bottomland terrain to create a parkland layout where a bayou crosses three holes and four lakes influence four additional holes. The course measures 6,352 yards from the championship tees at par 71, and the combination of water, mature bottomland hardwoods, and the narrow, tree-lined fairway corridors creates a challenge that plays more demanding than its yardage might suggest.

Among the Championship Course's distinctive features is the 15th hole bridge, modeled after the Swilcan Bridge at the Old Course at St. Andrews — the most iconic golf crossing in the world. Joe Finger's decision to install an homage to the Swilcan Bridge at a municipal park course in Arkansas represents a statement about the aspirations he held for the design, connecting a public facility accessible to all North Little Rock residents to the traditions of golf's most celebrated venue. The bridge has become one of the best-known features of Arkansas public golf and gives the 15th hole a visual and symbolic resonance that players remember long after the round.

A second 18-hole layout, the Tournament Course, was added in 1995 and expanded the facility to 36 holes. The two-course operation gives Burns Park the capacity to accommodate the substantial golf demand from North Little Rock and the greater Little Rock metropolitan area — a combined urban population exceeding 700,000 — while allowing the city to manage turf conditions independently across the two layouts and provide different playing experiences within the same park setting. Burns Park as a whole is one of North Little Rock's most significant civic assets and one of the largest municipal parks in the American South. The park's development was driven by the availability of Arkansas River bottomland along the levee that the city could dedicate to recreation without displacing established commercial or residential uses.

Alongside the golf courses, Burns Park includes athletic fields for baseball, softball, soccer, and football; a dog park; a disc golf course; equestrian facilities; a velodrome; and extensive natural areas with hiking and cycling trails. The park's multi-use character gives the golf courses a natural community context that reinforces their identity as genuine public amenities rather than commercial operations, and the broad network of park activities and natural spaces makes Burns Park a year-round destination for North Little Rock families well beyond the golf season. The Championship Course has hosted Arkansas state amateur and open events throughout its more than six decades of operation. Finger's Bermuda grass fairways and Tifton grass greens — warm-season specifications well suited to the humid subtropical Arkansas climate — have maintained their quality across multiple course superintendents and management regimes, reflecting both the soundness of the original agronomic design and the City of North Little Rock's commitment to maintaining Burns Park as a first-class public facility.