lcbgolf

There are some good and bad things about playing Tapawingo (Woodlands/Prairie). Let's start with the bad:

The tee boxes are awful. Many of the tees had weeds growing on them. Many had no grass. The grass around the tees were not mowed on the first few holes.

They are struggling with fringes and the grass next to the fringes. They have many sodded areas and the nearby grass is brown and looks dead.

The bunkers were not raked.

The greens were ok but nothing special.

For a weekend price of $68, I expect more.

The good things about Tapawingo...

The pro staff and restaurant staff are excellent. One of the best hot dogs you can have.

They are allowing more holes you can take a cart out to the fairways.

They have put in a directional pole for the tee shot on hole 5 (Woodlands)

I love the design of the Woodlands course except hole 8. The Prairie has some quality holes but some quirkiness.

Meadowbrook is one of the underated country clubs in St. Louis. Always in great condition and is a very challenging course. Many fairway bunkers and elevated greens that are protected by greenside bunkers. The green complexes are interesting and difficult. You're not going to have a lot of double bogeys are worse but it is a challenge to get pars.

The staff is always helpful and wonderful.

I always enjoy playing Sunset Hills CC. It has some quirkiness but all the holes are different. The staff there are extremely friendly and helpful. They are doing some major renovations near the 1st tee to open up the view of the lake. It will look great when it is done.

The tees and greens were good. Some of the fairways had a few rough spots but overall very good.

We played the Redbud/Dogwood nines, which are the two nines you want to play. The course gets a lot of play and is a decent course.

I thought the price of $50 was too high for early April, considering the course was recently aerated. I played Far Oaks a couple days earlier this week and it is a much better course. Has better design, conditioning and cost less than $50.

I thought the conditioning had slipped some. Several tees not in good shape. Most of the fairways were decent but there were some bad spots.

The tree by the green on hole #8 on Redbud needs to be trimmed. When pin is on the left, your approach shot will hit the tree limbs.

Far Oaks is in my Top 5 courses in the St. Louis metro area. Wonderful desigh, picturesque, playable and the brand new white sand looks great.

They are always making improvements but they still got a ways to go to become a top tier course.

They finally cut down all the trees, brush in front of the 12th tee. It looks great and really opens up the hole. Kudos to the course for doing this. The greens were in good shape too.

However, here are some issues that still remain, Weeds in fairway 1, fairways have bad areas: 3, 4, 5, 15, 12th tee has little grass and a former bunker to the right of 18 green is now just dirt.

It is always a treat to play Annbriar. Everyone is friendly and you feel so welcome here. The coures has wonderful design and is always in good shape.

They have renovated the restrooms that were getting outdated. The new renovations look great.

Get out and play Annbriar. You won't be disappointed.

This course was just ranked by Golf Pass as the 18th best par 3 course in the nation. All the holes are different, ranging from around 115 yards to 185 yards from the white tees. Course is in great shape considering we are still in March.

The only thing I observed was you could still see the aeration hole spots from the fall aeration on some of the greens. It didn't affect the greens, it just look unusual. Looks they they will be aerating thier greens in the next week or so.

The hospitality of this place is outstanding. Everyone I take out to play Hawk Ridge, just loves it. Usually the best par 3 course they have played.

Annbrair is the best course in the metro St. Louis area. With a senior rate in the low 40's - you can beat this. The course has great design and playable for all handicaps.

We have had a warm February-March and the dormant zoysia grass has a tint of green to it already.

They will probably aerate the greens after the Women's Missouri Valley Conference Golf Championships, which are being head at Annbrair for the second straight year. April 14-16, 2024.

Everyone understands golf courses must aerate their greens twice a year. However, what you will see outlined below - this is about as bad as a golf course could have handled this situation.

When I called last week to make my tee time, the pro shop made no mention the greens would be aerated. Understand, this course is notorious for sending out emails when the course is closed due to weather. No email sent that the greens would be aerated starting the week of 3/11/24.

When I arrived at the course, there was a note on the counter that said aeration started 3/11/24. Nothing further said by the person in the pro shop – just the sign. Most golf courses take two days to complete the aeration process. Some courses keep 9 holes open while they aerate each 9 holes. My thought was the greens were just aerated and I should be getting a discounted green fee.

The price was $40, which is what you would expect for an off-season rate at this course. I would have expected a rate of $30 if the course had just been aerated.

We started our round and to our dismay, they were still aerating some of the holes while we were playing. There were FOUR temporary greens/flagsticks in the front of the greens on holes 4, 5, 6 & 9. No communication from the pro shop, cart attendant or starter that there would be temporary holes. Yes, FOUR temporary holes they ALL forgot to mention. I went on their website this morning, there is no mention of an aerating schedule, temporary holes, etc.

In summary, this was a complete money grab by the Landings at Spirit Golf Course. The poorest display of communications I’ve seen from a golf course. The Landings at Spirit Golf Course should be ashamed and embarrassed. If this is how they want to treat their customers, take your golfing rounds elsewhere.

We played 3 courses on this trip. Coral Springs ($102). Eagle Trace ($120) and Jacaranda West ($212).

When a golf course is double the price of the other two courses we played (and we like them), we are expecting excellent conditions and service. This course did not come close to the price they were charging. With the high green fee, we didn't see very many groups on the course.

Many of the tees were awful (especially hole 1), with some of them not flat. The fairways had numerous spotty bad areas and had sections that had no grass and only a sandy base. Any grass they had in any fairway was good.

The greens were in good shape but a little on the slow side. Many of the greens are elevated and you need to take extra club. It is the only course I've ever played that has a distintive edge, seperating the green from the collar. Looks very strange and can affect a putt from off the green.

When we paid our pricey greens fees, they said it was cart path only today. On the back nine, we start seeing carts in the fairway. I called the pro shop and they tell me they have no restrictions on the carts today. Very strange and why didn't a ranger come out and tell us? Poor service on their part.

Another strange thing was each cart came with a rake. Not sure why because there were racks by the bunkers. The rake just got in the way of your clubs.

It didn't care for the 18th hole. Target golf with water left and a fairway bunker in the middle of the fairway.

Things I liked about the course was it had GPS, Very helpful. The service and food in the restaurant was outstanding. Love they use a different colored painted line on the cart path, for each course to help you navigate the 1st tee, 9th hole to 10th hole and 18th hole to clubhouse. Overall, the course has a nice layout too.

However, the greens fee of $212 is ridiculous. You should expect so much more and most of the experience of playing Jacaranda West was disappointing.

We played 3 courses on this trip. Coral Springs ($102), Eagle Trace ($120) and Jacaranda West ($212).

This course is fairly flat and is basic in thier design. The tees and fairways were better than Eagle Trace. Thier greens were good but not as good as Eagle Trace. Little slower and about 3 greens had some small bad areas. The par 3, 9th hole is the best hole on the course. For the price of $102, this course is worth playing.

This course has numerous rangers and pace of play was excellent.

A couple of negatives about the course is the mixture of sand and paved cart paths. Just gives the course an uneven feel. It would be helpful if they had GPS or maps of the holes on the scorecard. When playing it for the first time - this would have been helpful. The 18th hole is really short.

We thought the food and service in the resturant was excellent. One of the best pulled pork sandwiches. They also had the new Buffalo Trace's whiskey called the Traveller, which was a nice touch.

This course was a former Honda Classic on the PGA Tour from 1984 to 1991 and then again in 1996. It has a huge clubhouse, however, it does need some renovations. We did have lunch in the clubhouse and we thought the food was good.

We played 3 courses on this trip. Eagle Trace ($120), Coral Springs ($102) and Jacaranda West ($212).

This course has excellent design and greens (best of the 3 courses we played). The first 3 holes are straightforward and then the course gets more interesting.

The only negative about this course are the fairways and tees. It is the old wiry Bermuda grass and it is not very consistent throughout the course.

This course has an unusual feature. They have numerous burrowing owl nest throughout the course. They used to be always in the greenside bunker on hole 15 - not anymore. I saw owls on hole 2 near the green and hole 18 (right rough).

The course is still in great shape with the zoysia grass being dormant. A fun and enjoyable course.

My friend made the tee time at Spencer T. Olin because he was told they allow carts in the fairways when it is dry. When we arrived, we found out that Spencer T. Olin is another course not allowing carts in the fairway when the zoysia grass is dormant. We would have played somewhere else if accurate info would have been given to my friend.

More courses are doing this. Courses can do what they want. However, they will lose business in the off-season and you can expect extremely long rounds. Our round was 5 1/2 hours. Totally unacceptable and no ranger found on the course.

Spencer T. Olin is one of my favorite courses in the Metro St. Louis area, however, not on my list with the cart path rule and no ranger to stop the 5 1/2 hour rounds in the off-season. Play Gateway, Far Oaks or Annbrair, who allow carts in fairways in the off-season.

I thought the course was in excellent shape for late February. Greens were really good. The price of $35
was attractive. What is unusual about the course in the off-season, they only have one tee marker on each tee. Not sure what the reason is behind this.

Difficult to review a course in February, but I could not complain about anything. All the bunker reconstruction is complete. The bunkers they have kept are white sand now. It will look really good when the grass turns green.

The greens fee of $34 for February is tremendous for this quality of golf course. The greens were in good shape, smooth and had good speed.

I always enjoy playing Gateway National. At a rate of $44 for early February, you can't beat that in the St. Louis area. The people there are very friendly and they even had a beverage cart out in February. I thought the greens were in great shape and putted smooth and were on the fast side. They have done their controlled burns of the grasses between the holes. We played the yellow (senior) tees which were on many holes further back than normal. With it being a windy day, it made several holes play extremely long.

My only concerns were the pace of play was really bad. On hole 17 (our 8th hole), there were 3 groups on that hole. The tee box on hole 4 is like a pitcher's mound. The 7th green had blackish footprints on the green. Maybe someone walked into the burnted areas before walking on the green. It just looked unsightly - the greens was fine.

They need to emphasize to fill in your divots more. The course needs to have these divots filled by players and/or develop a plan to fill these in the off-season.

Osprey Point is one of the 5 courses on Kiawah Island. I did not play the Ocean Course as it requires walking in the off-season, a caddy and the price was $350 for guest residents. The Osprey Course allows carts and the price was $147 for guest residents. Osprey Point is a Tom Fazio design. Everything is out in front of you, wide fairways and adequate rough areas where you can feel free and easy off the tee. Fazio likes several short holes and the par 5’s have plenty of trouble if you try for the green in two.

The course was in excellent shape. The fairways were a bit thin but that could be because we are playing in the off-season. My friend who played the Ocean course said their fairways were thin there too. The greens did not have any tiers, just some slope to them. The greens had a lot of grain in them and you need to understand this to help you with your putts. The sand was well groomed with white sand. On the 6th hole, par 3, there is a sand bunker that is just off your backside and runs most of the way down the left side of the hole.

The bag drop attendant was very friendly, along with the starter. They fill your coolers with bottled water and the snack shop provides free coffee. Their Cherrywood BBQ & Ale House is excellent, inside the clubhouse.

There were only a few things I didn’t care about the course. The landing area on hole 18 seemed mounded, slanted to the left toward the water and then to the right towards the OB markers. There was too much of a yardage difference between the Silver (6,162, slope 131) & Blue tees (5,376, slope 111). Nearly 800 yards. Need to have a yardage between these two, using arrows to play some holes from the Blue and some from the Silver.

The last thing to note are the critters on the course. There are signs throughout the course to warn you about the alligators. Only saw them near the clubhouse. There are plenty of crows on the course. If you get something to eat at the turn, you need to finish it on the 10th tee because the crows will scavenge your cart and take your food, when you walk toward the green. One of the neat things about the course is a bald eagles’ nest on the 18th hole and we witnessed two bald eagles flying around the course.

Spencer T. Olin is one of my Top 5 courses in the St. Louis metro area. Good mixture of holes. The challange on this course is the greens. The staff there is extremely friendly too. For late November, course is in excellent shape. The senior weekday rate of $28 cannot be beat. Best course for the money.

When we arrived, we knew there would be a frost delay. The individual gave us an update and told us we could go into the restaurant until it got nearer to when we could go out. He visited us in the restuarant and gave us another update. Excellent customer service which Annbriar always has.

The course is in excellent condition for mid-November. Always a pleasure to play this course.

Annbriar is a top notch golf course. An excellent course to play your fall/winter golf. The course is beautiful with dormant fairway zoysia grass contrasting with the lush green grass of the rough. The greens are in outstanding shape. There was nothing to complain about at this course. One of the best in the St. Louis Metro area.