Pros:
Lakewood is located in a very beautiful park in Southwest Seattle. The local players take great care of this course in the midst of vandalism and trash leavers. The course is mainly open with lots of big lines - bring your imagination!
Deceptive holes - My favorite aspect of this course is how you are constantly thinking about ways to improve your average score on some of these holes. Ones that come to mind are 4, 13, 14, and 17. My first impression of how to play these holes is vastly different than the way I play them now and I expect will be revised in the future as well. There are also a few tricks out there such as the fence bounce hyzer on #3, the fence roller on #2 long, and generally using hillsides effectively (landing "above" the basket) on several other drives.
Multiple ways to approach several holes - Probably due to the openness of the park, there are often many ways to throw a particular hole which allows for different interpretation which is always cool. This becomes an even greater factor when the wind starts blowing as you may have to throw a different shot to minimize the wind.
Danger - Almost all of the holes out here have some form of OB danger which makes this course GREAT for tournament play. You have to stay focused the whole round to avoid it all.
Windy - Wind is usually present in some form and adds a fair amount of challenge to even some of the easier holes.
Aesthetics - The course is gorgeous with rolling hills and well maintained lawns. While there is a significant problem with graffiti and trash, golfers, the parks dept, and a neighborhood group "Friends of Hicks Lake" do a great job of keeping on top of things.
Cons:
Some challenge in navigation - Not too much difficulty but there are some extra tee pads floating around out there and a couple of places where you will have to backtrack or will need to know where you are going (after holes 7, 11, 13, 16).
Shots are not extremely challenging - Its more about how many shots you can execute on a given day rather than learning new shots. There aren't many "technical" holes which require placement shots or a specific shaped shot - its usually open enough where you can stick with your strengths off the tee.
Other Thoughts:
I'd say this course is the "sweetheart" of the Seattle courses - pretty much everyone enjoys playing here no matter what skill level.