Travel File : St. Louis

Golf Digest, Nov, 2000 by Scott Smith

Used to be that the best golf in St. Louis was strictly a private affair, played by the country-club set on such nationally ranked courses as Old Warson, Belle-rive and St. Louis C.C.

No longer. The nationwide boom of the "country club for a day" has graced the Gateway City with a dozen or more spanking new upscale daily-fee layouts. Today, within a 30-mile radius of Eero Saarinen's soaring Arch along the downtown riverfront, there is great golf to be played by one and all.

It's easy to see why developers considered the area underserved by high-end public courses. The Greater St. Louis region draws business golfers from around the country--the area ranks fourth in the U.S. as a headquarters location for FFortune 500 companies. About 4 million visitors from the Midwest and beyond tour the Gateway Arch and its Westward Expansion Museum each year; upward of 3 million fans flock to nearby Busch Stadium to see the St. Louis Cardinals and Mark McGwire play ball.

Take your pick of venues from a veritable who's-who of golf course architects: Tom Fazio, Arthur Hills, Michael Hurdzan, Gary Kern and Keith Foster (a former St. Louisian) have each crafted notable courses in the area. The design teams of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have also created layouts representative of their bosses' work. And homegrown pros Hale Irwin and Bob Goalby have helped blueprint solid new layouts on both sides of the river as well.

St. Louis has been called "the easternmost western city and the westernmost eastern city." That not only describes the historical tenor but also the terrain, as the Eastern hardwood forest gives way in fits and starts to the tall-grass plains of the Midwest. A number of courses in the area--Far Oaks, Annbriar and Tapawingo, to name three--manifest this destiny by boasting one nine largely carved from the woods and a second nine laid out on prairie-like floodplain. Another geographic plus: Golf visitors have their pick of turf to tee it up on: Some local courses feature plush zoysia-grass fairways, while others boast short stuff of fast-rolling bent.

Prices for these upscale public courses range from the eminently affordable to bordering on the budget buster. But there's been so much course building of late, the top green fees may not hold forever: "We're all competing for the same dollar," says Wayne Viers, director of golf for Tapawingo. "I'm not sure if another upscale public course opened around here it would make it."

For now, and for a long time, there's plenty of golf to go around in St. Louis. It'll only get better, and may soon get a touch cheaper.

Three by the Big Three

....11/42 Spencer T. Olin Comm. G. Cse., Alton, Ill. $25-$55 (618-465-3111). Competitive players will want to check out this popular Arnold Palmer design, site of the 1996 Women's Amateur Public Links, 1999 Men's Amateur Public Links and 1997 U.S. Open local qualifier.

.... Stonewolf G.C., Fairview Heights, Ill. $45-$74 (618-624-4653). Some golfers might be put off by the close proximity of the McMansions that line many of the holes here; others will be too busy testing their mettle against Jack Nicklaus' design talents to notice.

.... Tapawingo National G.C., St. Louis. $50-$60 (636-349-3100). Of Gary Player's three nines here, the best is The Woodlands Course, which winds up through wooded hollows before descending back onto the Meramec River floodplain. The par-3 third hole, which plays over water to a green rimmed by walls of rock, may be the best one-shotter in town.

Shades of Valhalla

....11/42 Annbriar G. Cse., Waterloo, Ill. $35-$63 (618-939-4653, 888-939-5191). This family-run prairie-and-woodland layout has it all: Shot values, scenery, wildlife. When you get to the ninth tee, phone in your lunch order of pork steak, a local specialty.

.... Far Oaks G.C., Caseyville, Ill. $49-$75 (618-628-2900).

Bob Goalby design, another new farmland classic, with perhaps the best greens in the region. Also play "Little Oaks," their par-3 course.

Fazio and friends

.... Missouri Bluffs G.C., St. Charles, Mo. $45-$65 (636-939-6494). Don't come here expecting to be dazzled by river views--it's actually a couple of miles from the Missouri--but do expect lots of elevation changes and some wonderful routing by Tom Fazio. The vista from the 15th hole is stupendous. Search out the old pioneer gravestone beside the fifth tee.

.... Pevely Farms G.C., St. Louis. $59-$69 (636-938-7000).

You'll feel like landed gentry (at least for a day) when you step up to this clubhouse, with its commanding view of the Arthur Hills course spread out on former pastureland below. Most of the holes follow the lay of the land, with lots of doglegs, sloping lies and risk-reward opportunities.

Gateway National Golf Links (unrated), Madison, Ill. $28-$59 (314-421-4653). Keith Foster has done fascinating things with what was once a stockyard hard by industrial wasteland, now located just past a spiffy new race-car track. There's plenty of length to this linksy layout.

A walk back in time