-Decent Layout, use of area
-Good mix, technical/open, long/short
-Couple of water carries, but not really worrisome

-Baskets have seen better days
-Grass tees, an orange strip metal for the front of the box
-Tee signs fading, differ from orange strip of info
-Was re-designed sometime before 2014 away from the lake
-Plenty of room to make 18, could include most of old layout
-Long walk from #9 basket back to parking (about 1/4 mile)

Hickory Hills is a lovely county park about 12 miles south of Waterloo, IA. From an old map and old pictures, this course has had holes 3-9 completely moved from it's inception. Looks like sometime between 2012 and 2014 (based on pictures and past reviews). The current layout has a lot going for it. After an easy start on 1 and 2, 3 is a blind drop off near the road, 4 and 5 both have water carries (less so on 5, but still in play) 6-9 meander up a hill to a meadow and back down again off another corner. What really lacks here is the mechanics. The baskets are old and worn. The tee signage is old and worn. There is currently a little orange strip of metal that designates the tee box with hole number and distance, but this differs from most of the old tee signage. With some effort, this could be a much better course. Add concrete tees. Add decent signage. Replace the baskets. There is all kinds of space to add 9 more holes, either using the previous layout or other areas of the park (especially west of the 7-9 section). If taken care of, this could really be a destination course, there would even be possibilities for multiple pads on most of the existing holes to add dynamics. The potential is here. As is, it's a nice 9 hole course in a county park. I would play here again.