This was course number nine on the trip and I played an early morning time here on 09/07/12 from the gold tees at 72.0/129/6610 (par 71). I was looking for a memorable course on the Missouri side of St. Louis and since Missouri Bluffs has been rated as one of the top public courses in Missouri, I decided to give it a try. The course is in a hilly, natural setting without any homes in view which always makes for an enjoyable day. The 1st hole has an elevated tee box near the clubhouse but then the course drops into the surrounding vegetation. After playing a handful of holes I noticed that many tee boxes are elevated, including all the par 3s. I like to see where I have to hit the ball, but there were a few too many elevated tee boxes for my liking. I will also mention that the course is a par 71 and has five par 3s and four par 5s. I am glad that Tom Fazio (the designer) kept four par 5s, but all the par 3s seemed the same to me. Four of the five par 3s were between 183 and 201 yards while the other one was 171 yards. Every time I got to the next par 3 it felt like I was playing the one before. Maybe it is just me, but if I am playing that many par 3s I like a short one where I can hit a wedge to a smaller, challenging green. The par 3 8th was a good hole because it did have a decent elevation drop. Most of the other holes kept my interest as they had a good mix of shorter and longer and uphill and downhill par 4s and par 5s. The signature hole has to the 15th hole which is a shorter par 5 that drops a couple clubs off the tee, it was a fun tee shot to hit as it stayed in the air forever. Holes like #15 made it a “pretty” course to play but it was very penal as any shot off the rough line (it had reasonably wide fairways though) was probably going to be a lost ball. I found the course difficult to play, not too tricky, but just tough. The wind was blowing, but it really only affected the ball above the tree line and between that and the elevation change it was tough for me to pick the right club. I paid ~$45 on golfnow.com and it was probably was worth the green fee, but the course maintenance was not what I had hoped for and I was disappointed with the overall conditioning. The fairways were in pretty good shape, but the rough had many bare spots which affected play and the greens did not putt very well with many putts bumping off line. The greens had a lot of ball marks and seemed thin, almost like putting on dirt in some places. I understand that the area is having a drought, but I felt like the course was not cared for like it should be. The pace of play was good and I got around in around 4 hours on a Friday morning so no complaints there. I am glad that I played here because it is a good layout with interesting holes, but I wish that I caught it in a bit better condition.
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#10 green:
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#15 green:
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