Licking your chops at Lick Creek Golf Course in Pekin, Illinois
PEKIN, Ill. -- Are you one of those golfers who think that a municipal course that costs around $40 to play and ride is "below" you? Then either stop reading now or be prepared to be disabused of your prejudice.
Lick Creek Golf Course in Pekin, just outside Peoria, delivers enjoyment and challenge to golfers of all skill levels, and it's in excellent conditioning from tee to green. If you plopped Lick Creek into a major metropolitan area, it could be a hoity-toity private club. But be grateful that it is not, because the muni atmosphere only adds to the fun.
Lick Creek is a Larry Packard design that opened in 1974. Packard, who died early in 2014 at 101 years of age, designed courses with average recreational players in mind. Accordingly, Lick Creek has a wonderful mix of easy and hard holes, including the course's own Amen Corner -- nos. 5, 6 and 7 -- nicknamed "The Triangle" by the regulars. The 586-yard par-5 sixth is an absolute bear, with a long forced carry, uphill, off the tee to a narrow sliver of visible fairway, a semi-blind lay-up and a tucked green.
Before you get to that stretch, though, the layout opens with a short par 4, where a gentle draw to a blind landing area leaves a downhill approach to a table-top green. The par-5 second, par-4 third and par-3 fourth are also all forgiving. Lick Creek Golf Course's short par-4 10th is a wicked cape hole that loops left to right around a pond to a fairly severe uphill green. And the split-fairway par-5 18th requires both power and precision -- and a couple of good decisions -- to navigate successfully.
Don't let the slightly dog-eared muni clubhouse fool you: Conditions at Lick Creek are excellent. The course underwent an extensive renovation in 2006, during which bent grass was laid down from tee to green. The bunkering was redone throughout as well, and several greens were tweaked.
The results will have you licking your chops.