Pros:
Even though I've been to Kickapoo State Park many times for camping and canoeing, I've never noticed the disc golf course. I decided to check it out because I saw it here, and obviously didn't expect much. What I found was a nicely kept course, designed for the average park visitor.
I'm pretty sure that the typical visitors to this course are not disc golfers. They probably are there to camp or fish, and just happen to have a $2 disc with them from the local megamart.
This course is designed to give such a person a taste of disc golf, and it succeeds at that mission.
The tees and holes are all in nice condition. I uploaded pictures of them in their current state. I noticed a bit of damage of hole #6, due to termites, but I'm sure the park will take care of it before it becomes a problem.
The fairways are nicely mowed, even if they are mowed a bit too narrow. The rough areas have long grass (almost waist high), but are almost completely free of weeds and fairly thin, so it isn't a problem finding your disc.
The wooded areas are pretty clear too. I wore shorts when I visited. This is obviously not recommended, but I'm pretty sure that I escaped without poison ivy, and I never had any problem with thorns, nettles, or thistles.
The course is nicely laid out. The parking lot is very close to tee #1 and hole #9, and nearly every tee is near the preceding hole. Even though there aren't any long holes, and not much for doglegs, there are two holes (3&5) that are uphill. Starting with hole #3, there are trees in play for each hole.
<span class="italic">Lastly, I should list all the standard nice things that reviewers say about every small courses:</span>
• The course is short enough that you can easily play through more than once!
• There is a fair amount of wildlife. I saw a deer twice (I think he was stalking me!)
• There are benches and a restroom.
• You can camp here or go canoeing after you finish.
• This is a great place to get your first ace. I just narrowly missed one on hole 3!
Cons:
Even though this course does a good job of meeting the needs of a casual visitor, I still have to rate it below average. Anyone who is here researching courses on dgcoursereview is probably going to be disappointed with the lack of challenge at this course. The park has plenty of space, even in this area, so it seems like it could easily be stretched out to make some decent par 4 and par 5 holes. If the woods were used a bit better, there could be some rather nice doglegs too. I would raise my rating by at least 2 stars if this was done.
Even though the blue painted beams for holes aren't terrible, they clearly could be improved if they were replaced with baskets. When you play this course, you'll need to decide whether bounce strikes will count or not, or you can just choose to only count the blue part of the hole. No matter what you decide, there is the possibility that a putt will be close enough that you can't tell whether it grazed or not.
<span class="italic">The rest of the complaints I have with the course are all minor, and rather standard issues. Rather than going into detail, I'll just make a list:</span>
• Tees #2 and #5 could be hard to find. A pole would help.
• The road by #1 can be an issue. I nearly had a disc smashed by a car.
• The playground by #9 can certainly be an issue. If there are kids playing there, you should probably skip it.
• There should be an extra set of tees, so it will be interesting if you play it twice.
• There's no trash cans, but the car is always close...lol
Other Thoughts:
The correct latitude and longitude for the course is (40.138321,-87.738144).
I've updated the course information on the first page. It used to list (40.140802, -87.735957), but I went there and just found the park office, which won't help you because they closes around 2pm each day!