lcbgolf

This was the first time I’ve played Old Hickory in nearly 15 years, since I had a corporate membership for several years. Old Hickory is a private club with bent grass tees and greens and zoysia fairways. The course is designed by P.B. Dye (the son of Pete Dye who designed the TPC Sawgrass – home of the Player’s Championship). Holes 7,8,9 are like holes 16, 17, 18 at the TPC Sawgrass. The first 6 holes are carved through numerous single standing tall trees.

Hole 4 green was under construction and they had a temporary green. Doing repairs to the cart path on hole 2. The walkway had astroturf to the 8th green but now was covered in dirt and you had to walk on boards to get to the green. Doing some work on the 8th tee also.

New items to the course since I last played here. White sand is now in all bunkers. In the low-lying areas (water run-off areas) on the front nine have been filled in with rock. I believe they removed the railroad ties around the 8th green.

Old Hickory has some solid holes but what distracts from the design of the course is the tricked-up and sometimes unfair holes. Certain holes, you must be very conservative to leave your ball in certain spots or a very high score will result.

Hole 1. Green is very small with a lot of slopes.
Hole 3. A 3-tiered green. If the pin is in the front, there is no way to keep your putt on the green if you are on the 2nd or 3rd tier. If the pin is upfront, it is best to miss your shot short of the fairway.
Hole 8. The green is a tabletop with severe slopes on the sides.
Hole 11. Another smallish green with only a small flat section of the green and edges sloping off.
Hole 12. Very tricky green with difficult up and downs if you miss in the wrong spot.
Hole 14. The hourglass green. If the pin is on the right side, the green is so small and going over the green is nearly impossible up & down. Best to land your ball short in the fairway.
Hole 16. A boomerang green, which has two distinct green areas.

The conditioning of the course is very good, however, not as good as it was 15 years ago. A pretty course but with the seven holes listed above, the course has never been high on places I want to play.

Tonto Verde – Ranch Course is closer to the Tonto National Forest. You have many shots with the mountains in the backdrop. Compared to the Peaks Course, the Ranch Course has more rough before the desert, making it more playable. However, it does have more bunkers and 6 transition areas. These areas may require you to hit less club off the tee.

The course is in outstanding shape. The greens were slightly softer than the Peaks course but still really firm. You still did not need a ball mark repair tool. My favorite holes are 7, 14 & 15.

The staff is always friendly at Tonto Verde. The conditioning of the course is the best. Again, the firm greens make it difficult to score.

Tonto Verde – Peaks Course is a private course in Rio Verde, AZ. There are many reasons to like this course. From the friendly staff, to music playing on the practice green and a board showing the stimpmeter ratings of the greens you are about to play.

The conditioning of the course is about the best you can find. The greens are very smooth and putted nicely. The only issue I have with the greens, is that they are way too firm. You never leave a ball mark, your ball can bounce as high as the flagstick and your ball is constantly rolling off the green.

There are numerous holes that have the Four Peaks mountains in the backdrop of your shots. Holes 6, 9, 13 & 17 were my favorites. The Peaks course is tighter than its sister course the Ranch. It has less rough before the desert starts. It only has 4 transition areas (rocky, water run-off areas) compared to 6 on the Ranch. You must pay attention to these, as your drive may roll into these. May force you to hit less club off the tee.

Love playing the Peaks course. Conditioning is superb. However, the overly firm greens makes it very difficult to score on the course.

I have not played Stonewolf in nearly 3 years. The last time I played it, I thought the conditions were decent but improvements needed to be made. 3 years later, I was a bit disappointed that the course did not look better.

Stonewolf is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Design. Generous fairways but it is a 2nd shot golf course. With plenty of greenside bunkers and greens set at angles. I like to play the course around mid-April when the redbuds and dogwoods are blooming.

Let’s first look at the good things at Stonewolf:

The price of $38 on a Wednesday, in mid-April.
All the bunkers were raked.
The greens were recently aerated but putted well. I think the greens will be terrific once it warms up. They are a mixture of poa annua and bent grass.
They changed the tee markers to pieces of wood and brightly painted on both ends. Looks good. They do have colored dots on the cart paths to indicate where the tees are located. Not sure why that is needed because you can easily find the tees you are playing.

Now, the parts of Stonewolf that were not so good:

The range was closed and the grass looked brown.
Numerous sand bunkers have been replaced with grass bunkers. Holes 1, 5, 9, 14, 16 & 17. However, the grass is very thin or patchy.
Lots of drainage issues with this course. Hole 7 has always been an issue.
Hole 8 had bare spots in front of the green.
Hole 10 landing area is awful. Drainage issues and grass is bad.
Hole 12 yellow tee was bad. The fairway was thin in areas. Unfair pin placement too.
Hole 14 right side of the fairway on your 2nd shot is brown and thin.
They have put some white sand in on holes 16 & 17. Very unusual to only have it on 2 holes.

I would still recommend playing Stonewolf. It is a pretty course and the greens are good. Just remember you will have to put up with some bad spots on the course that will make your round not as enjoyable.

This is the best course in the St, Louis area based on price, design, quality and conditioning of the course and the hospitality the staff gives each player. You know it is a great course when the Women's Missouri Valley Conference Championship is being played at Annbriar - April 16-18.

The greens have not been aerated yet, the rough is the most plush I've ever seen it and the fairways are very firm. The zoysia fairways are just starting to turn green. With the dogwood and redbud trees blooming, the course is just beautiful.

Far Oaks has always been one of my favorites. A fair, fun layout with every hole being different. Looks like they will be doing some work on the bunkers. Looks like sand piled up in the parking lot. They have cleared a lot of trees in the area of the 8th tee, 10th green and 11th tee. Looks totally different.

I thought the tees, fairways and greens looked great for early April. With warm weather coming up, the course will look beautiful. The greens were aerated several weeks ago and the greens were pretty smooth already.

The bunkers on hole 2 need some work and have been like this for sometime. Lot of erosion off the 11th hole cart paths and in front of hole 15 near the cart path.

Overall, get out and play Far Oaks. One of the best.

The greens were aerated in mid-March and were a bit bumpy. Overall the course was a great shape for early April.

A terriffic upscale par 3 course. With yardages ranging from 107 to 183 yards from the middle white tees. Not an easy course but enjoyable. I bring people out to play here and everyone loves this place.

The greens were just recently aerated but they used the small aeration holes which made it playable on the greens.

The hospitatlity and friendliness of the staff is the best too.

The greens at Oriole Golf Club are the showstoppers. Excellent condition and they actually fill spongy while you walk on them. Even with this spongy feel, the greens give up very few ball marks.

When you drive up to the parking lot and see the clubhouse - you are not impressed. But the course is decent with outstanding greens. This is a playable golf course that allows you to run the ball up to the green - no forced carries over bunkers. There was a beverage cart on the course too. The price of $60 for a late Monday morning tee time seemed reasonable.

This course has plenty of large iguanas roaming the course.

My only major concern of the golf course is the 18th tee shot. Any ball hooked to the left, heads toward the parking lot. There is only a chain linked fence and no netting. There has to be many cars that are hit. So, when you park your car, park on the left side and closer to the clubhouse.

When you pull into the parking lot, there is nothing impressive about the clubhouse. Overall, the course is rough on the edges but it is their greens that save this golf course. They are not outstanding but are well above average.

There is a lot of OB and water on this course. The slope ratings of 116 (white tees) & 111 (gold tees) seemed way too low. The pace of play was very slow.

A couple of concerns during the round. The #1 tee was in rough shape. The 7th green had numerous weeds in it. The 15 & 16 green had a chemical burn. The grass seemed ok, just unsightly. No beverage cart on course either.

The 8th hole is extremely difficult off the tee. The landing area is between two bodies of water and only 20-25 yards wide. Hole 13 has hidden water off the tee, so you need to hit an iron to just put your ball into play.

The price on a late Friday morning of $56 seemed reasonable.

The first few holes at Eagle Trace are very bland and vanilla. After the 3rd hole, the course design gets much better. It has some very picturesque holes. The greens were truly outstanding. Smooth, with some speed to them. The greens were firm and you hardly ever had to fix a ball mark. With the greens being so good, on the other hand, the tees and fairways are nothing to get excited about. Just average at best. The sand bunkers I was in had nice white sand.

The course is a former PGA Tour stop and has an impressive clubhouse which is outdated inside. The course has plenty of staff and they seemed to be very organized.

This course has burrowing owls that nest in the lip of some bunkers. We only saw owls in the 15th green bunker. This time, two owls were outside the nest.

I’m not an expert on Florida golf green fees. We paid $86 for a 2:00pm tee time on a Tuesday.

The Courses at Forest Park is a municipal golf course, located in the middle of the largest park in St. Louis – called Forest Park. It consists of three – nine-hole courses. Hawthorn, Dogwood & Redbud.
Hawthorn is a completely flat course which ends with a par 3 hole. The other two courses are hillier, with some elevation changes. Some of the holes on the Redbud course are quirky. The par 3, 6th hole has a green that has a front and back tier, with the middle tier being a bowl. The next hole, the 7th hole has a rectangular shaped green.

This course gets plenty of play but the staff is very organized. Usually, the pace of play can be an issue. The condition of the course for mid-February was good/decent.

Here are my concerns about the course. We played the Redbud/Dogwood course.

My biggest complaint about the course is the course set-up. They had the yellow tees at the same distance as the black tee (back tees). Numerous holes played way longer than I wanted to play at.
Hole 5, on the Redbud course had a ridiculous pin location. Sitting on top of a mound on the right side of the green. Almost everyone in our group putted the ball off the green.

The park can get very busy on a warm day, with people not realizing the path they are walking on is on a golf hole. This slows down play because you have to wait until they are out of range. Pace of play was very slow the first 6 holes but was fine after that. No ranger on the course.

The golf course does not have enough parking. This will result in people parking on the sides of the parking lot, making it only one lane to get in and out of the course. Sometimes, you must park on an adjacent road to the golf course.

I felt the price of nearly $52 for mid-February, on a municipal course was too steep. I just played a much better designed and conditioned course 4 days earlier for only $26. The course is called Spencer T. Olin, located in Alton, IL and designed by Arnold Palmer.

For winter golf, you can't find too many better places to play. The cost of $26 for a senior and you're on an outstanding Arnold Palmer designed course. The greens were truly outstanding for mid-February. They were smooth and fast. There is plenty of slope on the greens and with these fast greens, putting is difficult. You're going to have some three-putts.

The course received plenty of rain the day before, fairways were soggy and it was carts on path. The staff is always friendly and it is a great place to play.

The good thing about The Landings at Spirit was the off-season price of $37. They have now have started to follow other courses, not allowing carts off the path in the dormant/winter months.

One thing a course has to do is mow the greens everyday. The greens at the Landings were so hairy, it ruined the entire day. You had to hit your ball so hard, even on a downhill putt. No excuses for this.

Also, the tee boxes were not recently mowed either.

This is my favorite course in the St. Louis metro area, I really love coming to this place because I know the staff will be friendly and welcoming. With a off-season rate of $47 - nothing comes close to Annbriar. Plus, it also has the best layout in the area too.

It was early November and the contrast of the dormant zoysia fairways and the green rough was beautiful. Course in great shape for mid-November.

When we played, they were adding sand to the bunkers. Also, the new starter pavilion is taking shape, with the same red roof as the signature smokehouse near the clubhouse.

Just a pleasure to play this course. Always look forward to playing Annbriar.

This was my 1st time playing Green Valley Ranch. The course is located near the Denver International Airport and it held the 2016 NCAA D-II Golf Championships.

Upon arrival, they have a driving range near the golf shop, with free balls to hit and music playing in the background. They have a nice short game practice area too. They also have a par 3 course which you can play anytime the day you play their 18-hole course.

My initial impressions of the management of this course were they “are on the ball”. It snowed the day before we played. They sent us emails giving us updates if the course was going to be open, any frost delays, if tee times were delayed, etc. I guess the course has a sandy base under the fairways, because it was carts in the fairway after 4.5 inches of snow the day before.

The most impressive thing about this course was it was relatively flat and all the holes were different. I could remember all 18 holes after the round. We were standing on the 14th tee box and everyone in my threesome said we were really enjoying the course. The course is right and front of you and there is no trickery to it at all. The course is generous off the tee, which makes for an enjoyable round.

The greens are huge and were in great shape for early November. Looked like they were a mix of bent and poa annua grasses. The fairways were outstanding too. This course had some of the most consistent, dense rough you will ever see. It was mowed short, so your lies in the rough were perfect. With huge greens, too many people are forgetting to fix their ball marks. The carts had GPS screens on the dash of the carts. The GPS gave you the option to see a flyover of the holes too.

There are mountain views throughout the course, with more of them on the back nine. I thought the back side was more picturesque. On the front, my favorite hole was hole 2, with strategically placed two large trees. Hole 10, the second shot is scary with trouble just off the green on both sides. Hole 12, you need to pick the correct line as the fairway is just past the water - at an angle. Hole 13 is a beautiful par 3 with water in front and mountains as the backdrop. We all thought the 15th hole was the prettiest. Hole 16 requires you to review the flyover screen to get a feel of the short par 4. I also thought the par 3, 17th hole was picturesque too - with a huge green. Hole 18 requires you to be precise on your second shot as the fairway cuts across with trouble on both sides.

The course has a good mixture of long and short holes and it is a fun, playable course. We really enjoyed Green Valley Ranch.

I last played Far Oaks in August and I was happy to find numerous improvements have been made.

The right side of the #1 green is much improved with just high rough now. Greens 8, 11 & 17 have recovered from the summer heat and have been saved. The ditches in front of holes 6 & 14 were trimmed and looked great. Even the ditch in front of hole #12 looked better. The fairway bunker on hole #3 had the weeds removed and pace of play mproved dramatically.

However, this course still has plenty of work to do. The bunkers on hole #2 still have not been improved. Looks awful from the tee. Some of the fairways still have some bad spots. Holes 3, 4, 5 come to mind. Still no yardage marker on the par 3 #6 hole. Only slows down play. I'm not sure how they have the starter position set up is the best option. He is handing out cart keys by the clubhouse and then getting into his cart to grab people on the range or/and handling the duties on the first tee.

The biggest complaint is the course was charging $72 on a weekend morning, when the greens were just recently aerated and we are now near November. Way overpriced for dormant fairways and aerated greens. This is the main reason I cannot recommend playing Far Oaks.

I received an invite to play Highland C.C., located in Highland, IL. It will celebrate its 100th year anniversary this month. From what I could research, looks like the 9-hole course was built in 1957. The club has a pool and a large area for outdoor events. The guest fee was only $25 – you can’t beat that!

Several interesting facts about the course. There is no pro shop. A bar area is on one side of the clubhouse and the dining room on the other. Most members have their own carts which are stored and charged in a new cart shed. There are no tee times except for the weekends in the summertime. If you arrive and there are several groups on the tee, many members go to hole #3 to start their round. When you finish your first nine holes, you have the honor of teeing off on hole 1 first again.

With the course being built in 1957, it is of the older architectural design. Very little earth was moved and you will have very few flat lies. It is hilly, many blind shots and the greens are mostly tilted from back to front – with several greens being very severe (especially hole 3). The condition of the greens were splendid. It is wide open off the tee and it is a second shot golf course. On holes 1, 3 & 4, your approach shots are extremely uphill to the greens. Sometimes it is hard to see the flagstick. The course has plenty of character and challenge, that you would never get tired of it.

The yardage switching from playing the whites/blues each nine is 6,450 yards. Holes 4 & 6 switch from a par 4/5 on one nine and just the opposite on the next nine. If I was going to compare the course to something I’ve played in St. Louis, it would be Normandie. However, Highland C.C is much hillier than Normandie.

After the round, we stopped into the bar area to grab a bite to eat and have a few drinks. The service was outstanding and the burgers were exceptional. The club gave off a friendly atmosphere vibe. Looked like a fun place to be member, with yearly dues roughly $2,000/year. While we were there, they had a Halloween Party for the children of the members.

If you get a chance to play here, will it be like a country club you find in St. Louis – no. What you will find is a small town, fun 9-hole country club which has a friendly membership vibe. Can’t wait to be invited back next summer when the fairways are not dormant. Enjoyed the invite very much.

This course is fun to play and has a great location in St. Louis County. However, it is overpriced for what you are getting. It always has some of the best greens in the area – however, the rest of the course is in just decent shape. Some fairways and tee boxes need some work. They are charging $69 because they are in a prime location in St. Louis County. By driving another 30-45 minutes to the other side of the river in Illinois – you get much better golf courses.

Spencer T. Olin $52
Annbriar $70
Far Oaks $76

The front nine is more tighter, longer and harder. It gives you the feel of British Open golf with some double greens. Hole 9 is one of the toughest if the pin is back right. The back side is more of a modern flat, links style course. It is wide open off the tee. The only defense of this golf course are the greens. Plenty of slope and numerous tiers. Located adjacent to the Spirit of St. Louis airport. With numerous takeoffs/landings.

The greens were not aerated. Looks like the course is using the verticutting approach. Very little disruption to the greens surface. On the far right of holes 2,3,4 & 5, they are bringing in dirt which looks like it came from the bottom of a lake. Not sure what is going on here.

What is GOOD about the course…
The greens. They have consistently had some of the best greens in the area.
Location. Located in West St. Louis County.
Friendly. The staff is very accommodating and nice. The starter is great.

What is NOT SO GOOD about the course…
Some of the fairways/tees are not the greatest. They have drainage issues throughout the course and you will find numerous bare spots.
The course is flat. No elevation changes.
They are charging too much considering there are better course designs and pricing options available in the area.
Cart paths. Probably the worst cart paths you will ever experience.

The course is in great shape for mid- October. With the bent grass fairways, the course is still green Only the 13th fariway is in rough shape but that is because of the flooding in late July, which the course had no control over. The course has not aerated the greens yet. The greens were perfect. They had the beverage cart out early, which was a nice touch.

Gateway National has the highest weekend morning greens fee for mid- October. Not a lot of players playing on Sunday because of the NFL and still charging this high price.

Currently, mid-October pricing of the top upscale courses in the St. Louis metro area. Gateway $85, Missouri Bluffs & Far Oaks $82, Annbriar $70 and Spencer T. Olin $52.

You won't be disappointed playing Gateway National but there are cheaper options available.