Orchards Golf Course
Rating Snapshot
About
The Orchards Golf Club in Belleville offers an 18-hole championship course designed by Belleville native and former Masters winner Bob Goalby. With four sets of tees, the course appeals to a wide range of skill levels. The layout starts out with a gentler front nine where you won’t find any doglegs on the first six holes but as you move towards the back nine, the course gets more challenging. The golf course has an interesting and diverse mix of holes, with the seventh through the 14th being a particularly notable stretch. You’ll have to contend with abundant out-of-bounds and both water and sand come into play often. In addition to the golf course, the Orchards G.C. boasts a multi-level driving range as well as a large practice putting green with a sand bunker.
| Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship | 71 | 6787 yards | 72.2 | 126 |
| Blue | 71 | 6407 yards | 70.3 | 124 |
| White | 71 | 5821 yards | 67.3 | 114 |
| Gold | 71 | 5420 yards | 65.5 | 110 |
| Red (W) | 71 | 5001 yards | 70.1 | 120 |
| Orange | 71 | 3572 yards |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Championship M: 71.8/128 | 458 | 208 | 369 | 553 | 440 | 186 | 503 | 224 | 451 | 3392 | 410 | 530 | 414 | 434 | 178 | 349 | 326 | 142 | 612 | 3395 | 6787 |
| Blue M: 70.1/124 | 428 | 173 | 357 | 532 | 404 | 170 | 493 | 210 | 440 | 3207 | 400 | 516 | 375 | 398 | 156 | 330 | 314 | 116 | 595 | 3200 | 6407 |
| White M: 68.0/118 W: 74.5/132 | 386 | 136 | 300 | 495 | 384 | 151 | 454 | 170 | 400 | 2876 | 375 | 470 | 340 | 359 | 132 | 304 | 290 | 110 | 565 | 2945 | 5821 |
| Gold M: 67.1/116 | 373 | 106 | 265 | 457 | 359 | 114 | 409 | 144 | 383 | 2610 | 342 | 465 | 338 | 344 | 114 | 290 | 272 | 93 | 552 | 2810 | 5420 |
| Red W: 67.7/115 | 337 | 97 | 252 | 411 | 296 | 119 | 403 | 144 | 370 | 2429 | 346 | 410 | 335 | 316 | 88 | 284 | 257 | 90 | 446 | 2572 | 5001 |
| Orange W: 50.0/90 | 247 | 94 | 212 | 339 | 267 | 67 | 342 | 92 | 220 | 1880 | 244 | 309 | 238 | 177 | 67 | 146 | 130 | 66 | 315 | 1692 | 3572 |
| Handicap | 3 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 15 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 10 | 18 | 2 | |||
| Par | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 36 | 71 |
Course Details
Rentals/Services
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RestaurantAvailable Facilities
Clubhouse, Banquet FacilitiesReviews
Reviewer Photos
great layout
Course was in great condition and was great that it was cart path only to not damage the perfect fairways!
Cart Path Only During Winter
Greens rolled well, fairways ok grass dormant, overall will be awesome warmer weather.
Enjoyed the Course
This was my first time playing the course in almost 20 years. Loved the layout. The course was in OK shape considering it was winter. The rate charged for a Sunday was reasonable. The course was cart path only so the round took 5 hours to complete. The staff was great. Amenities were good (driving range, putting green and bar).
Carts in fairway only. Hard eyeroll.
So the shape of this course was significantly improved around 2018 - 2019. But as far as I could tell it has back slid since I last played in 2020. The outer rough was uncut. I assume the natural grass look was better in the summer but for fall it was a real eyesore. All the issues I remembered that needed addressed were still there. Multiple poor collars, bad LHS green surround on 3, irrigation leaks, tee boxes of 7 beat to heck, some how still no walkway down steep slope to green on 17. Most notably would be that I'm told they have had a 'carts in fairway only' policy all season, yet the rough did not look good at all. A huge inconvenience to golfers for no improvement. I know the Superintendent who took over in 2020 and I could overlook his personality if the course was looking good but I saw no improvement since he took over. He was driving around in golf cart during our round to police our cart usage. My advice. OPEN THE ROUGH TO CARTS and just block off the bad spots. Rotate periodically and boom. Fixed. Maybe stop acting like a marshal and focus on improving the course.
Bring a Book to Read
My wife and I played this course to a pace of 4 hours and 40 minutes. We never let anyone play through but somehow wound up with 4 different groups immediately in front of us over the course of the round. The marshal wants to ensure no one drives in the rough but does nothing to drive the pace of play. Hit a shot, wait 8 minutes, hit next shot. If this were a drinking game you'd still be sober. The Orchards wants to be a premium course but manages like a mom and pop bootleg operation. We've played at least 25 courses in 6 states in the past year and this was the biggest disappointment. Stay away.
Aerated Greens
When I arrived I was told that I had to play the front 9 twice as they were aerating the back nine greens. I was not aware of this when I purchased from Tee Times. I paid 38.00 for the round, should have been $20.00 due to aerated greens. I will not make the 30 minute drive back to Orchards to play the course again.
Good value, fun course
A nice mix of holes. Some more open, some in the woods. Some flat, some rolling. Pace of play was great for a Sunday afternoon. The greens were in pretty good shape. I got above the hole on 14-16 and it was tough to 2 putt. Numerous bare spots in several fairways is the only criticism. A beverage cart would be nice too.
Dried out.
A very nice course, but it was very dry and bare and many places on fairways and in roughs.
Pace if play was not good.
It’s Back!!!!
It’s been a while since I played this course,stayed away because the greens were suspect but yesterday I can honestly say the course is back the Fairways were immaculate the greens rolled smooth and the Marshall Tom Biggs was very professional courteous and polite I will definitely be back!!
Thank you for the great review. We are so glad you had a great time! We hope to see you again very soon!
Impressed with the Course
For years this course has needed some loving and I think it has finally gotten it. That being said #18 fairway had spots that needed some loving. Same with #5 fairway. No greens were spray painted green or whatever covered the bare spots a couple of years ago. Overall I was impressed. The GolfNow price was $36 for a 12:06 tee time on a Monday. That’s the course weekday price. I thought the hot deals were a discounted price?
Thank you for the comment. We are still doing some work on some of the fairways, and we appreciate you noticing the work that has been going into the course. We are going to keep improving so come back and see us again soon!
good condition considering very hot, dry weather!
Fairways and greens are in better shape than many of the other courses in the area despite the extreme weather over several weeks.
The Orchards Golf Course
Staff was great. Greens were in great shape. Some of the fairways and tee boxes were a little rough
Thank you for your review. Some of the fairways and tee boxes do have a couple of tough areas after the massive amounts of rain we have had this spring. We are working to improve them, but it will take a little bit of time. We hope that you come out and see us again soon.
Excellent except the cart paths
Since this was the first time I was going to play this course, I read the reviews. The only thing people complained about was the cart paths (really only in a few places and really only on a few holes) are in bad shape. I'm surprised they don't fix them. The greens were very nice, true, medium fast, and mostly clear of ball marks, making me think that either people are great about fixing them, or not a lot of people who play there hit them! Fairways were great, rough was great, and tee boxes were great.
The clubhouse is very nice. They offer good options at the snack bar, they have humidified packaged cigars (the Oliva's were excellent), and the staff was top notch, professional and friendly.
They have a nice full-length driving range, and quiet, clean, and powerful electric golf carts.
I would say this is easily a top 10 public golf course in the St. Louis Area.
Thank you for the wonderful review!! We are very glad you enjoyed your round with us. We know there are a few spots on the cart paths that aren't great. We are planning to get them fixed. We hope to see you again real soon! Thanks for playing!
Nice course , but
It is a nice course and challenging layout. However, the course runs path only all off season, so made for a long round.
Thanks for the 4 star review! We appreciate you coming out to see us. Yes, we do go cart path only during the off season, but that is just to promote better turf conditions for the in season play. We thank you for understanding and we hope to see you again real soon!
Wish GN would add Course Situation to Reservations
There is nothing more annoying than paying for 18 only to get to the course and find out “sorry we are aerating the front nine and you have to play the back twice.” Why do courses risk angering regular players by deliberately not communicating about the course conditions in order to hoodwink unknowing players to come and play anyways? I wont be booking this again.
The Best of The Lake Package
Hi, Scott. Thank you for your review.
We at The Orchards truly feel that the course has been making improvements over the past few seasons. We are trying to keep that going.
To all future customers of our course, please do not let a GolfAdvisor review from a disgruntled former employee sway you on wanting to come out and play our course. We know there are still things that need improving, and we are doing our best to keep improving them. We hope to see you soon.