Lincoln Park North tends to play second fiddle to the South course, but it's a solid layout in its own right. It's in a pretty setting featuring an elevated view of the lagoon and fountain. The design makes excellent use of the terrain in areas of the park that were previously under utilized . The loop layout leaves a bit of a walk back to the parking lot after the last hole. There are two concrete tee pads on each hole, with numbers visible on both tee signs and baskets. The signs are basic, wooden posts and the baskets have directional arrows at ground level to point out the next tee. The course maintenance is great, but, alas, there are no benches. No water or woods come into play, but use of elevation is excellent toward the beginning and end of the course.

The first two holes are two of the best. #1 is located east of the practice baskets. The two tees and two basket locations make this hole play like four, quite different, holes. In either basket position, there is a tree filled ditch to contend with and giant oak trees serving as sentinels on the fairways. #2 tee affords the lagoon view I mentioned earlier. The narrow fairway slopes away right and you have to take care or you'll end up OB in the road at the bottom of the steep hill. In the long position, the basket is situated on the edge of the hill, making for some risky putting.

Holes 3-7 work northward along the eastern boundary of the park. This section of the course seemed a little boring to me the first few times, but then I began to appreciate the subtle appeal of these shorter holes. The holes tend to be well guarded on their right sides, so I find myself using sidearm approach shots here much more often than I do on most courses. #8 turns back to the south, with the road on the right side menacing your drive.

Holes 9 and 10 have tee pads right next to each other. If there's no one behind you, it saves some steps to tee off on both holes. After you finish up #9 it shouldn't be far to your drive on #10. The basket on #10 sits behind several large conifers, making for a really fun upshot. To play the long tee on #11, you need to walk toward the swimming pool building to your northeast. The short tee is beside the road behind the softball backstop to the west. The road is a risk again from the shorter tee. #13 is is a fun, downhill ace run.

Holes 14-18 loop around an elevated part of the park. It's a challenge to get a 3 on #14. The basket for #15 is well guarded, with trees in front and the road right behind. #15 is one of my favorites. I'd recommend using the long tee, where a narrow fairway slopes downhill and back up again. The basket position makes for dangerous approach shots, with a steep drop off behind the basket and the road below just waiting to give you a circle on your card. #16 is another dandy, a downhill funnel that calls for left to right action on your drive. Holes 17 and 18 swing back toward the south. After you finish, take the road south to reach the parking lot.

In my opinion, there are 4 wonder holes at Lincoln North - #1, #2, #15 and #16. The course is well balanced as far as shot shaping, and there is a fair amount of risk/reward with the roads and elevation.

My only complaints are that some benches would be nice and the signs could be a whole lot better.

Lincoln Park has two 18 hole courses. With multiple tee pads, there are at least 5 distinct configurations you can play. The lack of directional help might be frustrating for first time players, but the layout on North is fairly intuitive and shouldn't be too much of a problem. The course comes out to 3.75 in my rating system, which will translate into 3 and a half stars on DGCR.

- Red/White/Blue tee pads (some shared)
- Fun layout with good risk and reward challenge
- For those with a lot of shots in your bag you will have a lot of fun.
- Good use of available land
- Great use of the road and parking lots as OB
- Many risky greens
- Lots and Lots of line choices
- True par 4s
- Many other activities in the park, including a water park.
- Non dgers seem to know whats going on and are courteous. A welcome change compared to what im used to.

- Inconsistent tee pads (I'm not holding this against the course. With budget cutbacks the cement pads are on hold)
- A few holes have un-level grass tee pads. #12 from the blue is half uphill, half level. #13 is uphill, others are not bad.
- #18 could use some serious trimming. There is not really a good line from the blue tee.
- No descriptive tee signs

*Played from the blue tees only*
North is the more fun out of the two courses. It is mostly flat with some elevation change, which is used well. This is a great course for INT level players to work their game. I would say course par for INT level would be a 56-57. Hole #11 is a definite par 4 and holes #15, #16, and #18 are par 3.5s. ADV and PRO players will enjoy this course as well but not find it as challenging.
Those with a limited shot selection may find redundancy here. But those with lots of lines to choose from will enjoy the replay value and appreciate the wide selection of line choices. Lefties and Righties are pretty equal here. Straight turnovers and straight hyzers are essential shots to have.
One of my favorite design qualities to this course, both actually, is the amount of risk at the greens. Steep declines and the road come into play often. Confident putting and approaches are mandatory.
A nice ting about the cement pads not being installed yet is that the tees can still be changed and the layout tweaked until they are ready. You can see evidence of this and I appreciate that those in charge are striving for the best design possible.
If you're in the area I recommend playing both of these courses. It's a short trip off of I55.

2nd 18 hole course in the same park! This course plays a little longer and flatter than the south course but it will make you use more of shot arsenal, rollers, forehand, annys, and hyzers as the straight at the pin option is usually not the best one. Has nice Mach 3 baskets with hole number clearly visible. A couple Do or Die putts, 2 and 15 come to mind, where if you run at it too hard you risk going OB because of steep hills behind baskets. The tee areas are now marked with blue 6x6 post with hole number on them, but tees at this point are still natural.

Natural tee pads at the moment. No sign at tee to show shot route or hole number, but will be soon. Long walk back to car after 18th hole, but hey exercise is good right?

All in all a good course. South is the more established but if your already at he park and it has two 18 hole courses why not play them both?

-nice location in the park.
-nice numbered posts telling you which hole and tee pad it was.
-a lot of variety of shots to choose whether be a forehand hyzer or a backhand hyzer.
-beginner friendly.
-right next to south course.

-no concrete teepads on all holes. (which is still in progress i believe).
-no maps of the holes.
-can be kinda confusing which the next hole is but can be figured out by following the arrows on the previous basket to the general area they are pointing to.

The course is still in progress but has got a lot better these past few months. the springfield members have been doing a lot of work to these courses and you can tell because it has been paying off. I really like how it is turning out.