Mystic Creek Golf Club: Golf in El Dorado, Arkansas

Mystic Creek Golf Club is at 191 Clubhouse Drive, El Dorado, Arkansas 71730. South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field (ELD) is 5.96 road miles from the course. Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, in Little Rock, is 124.25 road miles from the course. The US Census geocoder, run on Golf Digest's own published coordinates for the course, returns Union County and no Incorporated Place; a control point run through the same benchmark and vintage inside downtown El Dorado correctly returns "El Dorado city" as its Incorporated Place, which confirms the geocoder's Incorporated-Places layer is working and that the course's own coordinates genuinely fall outside any incorporated place. El Dorado itself is the county seat of Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas.

Golf Digest's Best in State ranking lists Mystic Creek at #3 in Arkansas, rated 4.4 from 6 panelists, with the note "Best In State Previous rank: NR"; unlike the two Private courses ranked above it, Mystic Creek carries no editorial blurb on the ranking page. Golf Digest's own course page repeats the label and rank: a "Public" facility badge, a "#3" rank pill, and an About block reading "Facility Type … Public." The operator's own Golf page states, in full: "Operating as a semi-private club, Mystic Creek has membership opportunities available and is also open to the public." Golf Digest separately records the facility type as "Daily Fee." The Book Tee Times page's "Public Tee Times" link leads to a booking page that loads for an anonymous visitor with no sign-in required; a separate "Member Tee Times" link leads to the member portal. Membership status affects only a loyalty discount tier on the booking page, not whether a visitor can book, and no advance-booking window, sponsor requirement or residency rule appears anywhere on the operator's site. Golf Digest names the architect as Kenneth Dye, Jr., ASGCA with Finger Dye & Spann, a credit the operator's own site does not repeat anywhere. Golf Digest lists no year opened for the course; the operator's own Golf page states the course "opened in May of 2013." Golf Digest's own record for the course lists a price of $179, dated by the record's own last-updated timestamp of 15 December 2025; Golf Digest's note on the figure states it "covers all ranges of greens fees" and directs readers to check with the course on specific timing and pricing. No dated green-fee figure appears anywhere on the operator's own site. The club's own Membership page separately claims it was "voted the #1 Course You Can Play in Arkansas for the past five years" and, elsewhere on the same page, "Named #38 Top 100 Public Courses in America by Golfweek - 2022" against "#37 Top 100 Public Courses in America" earlier on that same page. These are the club's own claims about a Golfweek award, distinct from the Golf Digest ranking this guide is anchored on, and this guide states them only as claims the club makes about itself.

Mystic Creek closes every Monday: the operator's own Hours of Operation page lists "Monday | Closed" for the golf shop, the practice facility and golf hours alike, open Tuesday through Sunday otherwise. The club's own public event calendar additionally lists the club closed 14-20 September 2026 for the El Dorado Shootout; the calendar's own event page for that closure reads "Closed for the El Dorado Shootout / Event Date: 9/14/2026 / Event Time: 7:00 am - 9:00 pm." The same calendar lists Mystic Creek hosting tournaments beyond that closure: a Stroke Play Championship on 5-6 September 2026, a Share Foundation Tournament on 26 September 2026, the SAU Mulerider Invitational on 16 October 2026, the Mystic Cup on 17-18 October 2026, and monthly One-Man Scramble events.

The course's own restaurant, The Mystic Grill, serves on site; the operator's Dining page describes it as having "high ceilings with exposed beams cut from Southern Arkansas timber, floor to ceiling windows on three sides framing the panoramic view of the award-winning golf course and the towering cathedral pines," with a deck "overlooking the 18th green and fairway." The operator's Dining page and its Hours of Operation page give materially different weekday and Sunday hours for the Grill; the one point both pages agree on is that it is closed Monday, so that is the only hour stated here. For lodging, the operator's own Stay & Play page names The Haywood El Dorado, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, describing a bundled package of "2 nights' accommodations at The Haywood El Dorado, Tapestry Collection by Hilton and 2 rounds of golf at Mystic Creek Golf Club." The page states a per-person, per-night package price but attaches no date and no season to it, so this guide names the package without repeating that figure.

El Dorado's second publicly accessible course is Lions Club Municipal Golf Course, at 1420 E 19th Street, El Dorado, Arkansas 71730. GolfLink's own course-detail page lists it "Public," 18 holes, par 72, 6,282 yards, slope 107, rating 69, with a driving range, and states it "Opened in 1954." The City of El Dorado's own tourism site lists the course as a venue, and Wikipedia's entry for El Dorado records that "City parks include Lions Club Park and Golf Course." GolfLink separately publishes an estimated green fee for the course, undated and explicitly labelled by GolfLink itself as an estimate rather than a current rate, so this guide does not repeat that figure. No operator website for Lions Club Municipal could be reached, so this guide makes no claim about its current hours.