Saint Louis Country Club, MO, USA

8th hole, 360 yards; A true Cape hole in that not only does the fairway swing around a hazard but the green itself protrudes into the same hazard.

While trees unfortunately obscure the view of the creek along the inside of the dogleg to the right,

...the creek's presence is strongly felt at greenside, where it hugs the right and back side.

12th hole, 175 yards; While St. Louis Country Club possesses the four essential Macdonald/Raynor one shotters (a Short, Eden, Redan and Biarritz hole), it has a unique fifth one as well. The hole enjoys natural properties inherent upon playing across a valley but what makes it famous is a series of mounds that ring the back of the green. Raynor didn't build them as the work was apparently done some time in the late 1930s, though no clear records exist. As Macdonald/Raynor didn't believe in 'framing' greens, these mounds are out of context and yet the hole still exudes a charm all its own.

The view from the 12th tee, named the Crater hole.

The mounds that ring the back third of the 12th green have been there between 50-65 years.

13th hole, 570 yards; One of Macdonald/Raynor's very best Long holes, thanks to their superb skill in routing the hole across the rolling land. Death awaits the golfer who goes right off the tee as the ground falls sharply away. Further ahead, bunkers pinch the fairway and replicate the strategic benefit of carrying Hell's Bunker at St. Andrews. The finally hurdle is a false front, which has sent many a ball back into the fairway.

This bunker complex - locally referred to as the snakes - separates the 5th and 13th fairways and once
cut across the 13th fairway and ran up its right side.

14th hole, 410 yards; A first rate two shotter to a reverse redan green. Hopefully, Litva and Silva will be successful in restoring the missing front portion of the green.

The 14th green once extended another seven paces into the fairway. Seeing a running approach
shot drift from high left to lower right across this fully restored green would take forever
and be a sight of great beauty.

15th hole, 500 yards; Given today's technology, many a good player will give the green a go in two but there are an extraordinary amount of recovery shots that he may have to execute to secure his birdie, thanks to a superb Double Plateau green. As Silva points out,  the 15th green complex screams for 'the ball to be put on the ground!!!!!  What could be a better example of this than the 15th green - hell, the 14th is another Redan so its good from that regard as well - but it is 15 that really is awesome. Airborne golf just doesn't work nearly as well, especially to the back shelf locations.'

These diagonal cross bunkers divide the 15th fairway at the 330 yard mark from the tee.

Many a three wood approach ends up in this bunker. Though shallow, the resulting long pitch
is made all the more difficult by the out of bounds that is behind the back level of
the Double Plateau green.

16th hole, 185 yards; The Redan one shotter here is a reverse one with a sharp slope from high front left to its low back right corner.

The left to right cant of the Reverse Redan green is evident in this photograph.

Just as at North Berwick, if the golfer misses the green on the high side (that is to say,
the left side on a Reverse Redan), he will find himself in a bunker.

17th hole, 380 yards; Called the Log Cabin, there is no reason to suspect that today's hole is patterned after any hole in particular. However, Litvay has discovered that the green was once double in size and wrapped around in an upside down 'U' manner the deep bunker that guards the right hand side of the green. Based on Litvay's discovery, the authors can't help but wonder if this green complex was once something akin to the famous Lion's Mouth hole at The Country Club of Charleston?

18th hole, 410 yards;  This Alps hole requires solid hitting to the very end to avoid the cavernous pit guarding the green, which in turn is sunk in its own little dell.

This pit guards the front of the 18th green.

St. Louis Country Club is located in the tony suburb of Ladue, and the chances of it acquiring additional land to extend several tees is negligible. However, within its current 6,500 yards, there are many more enduring architectural features than on the 7,300 yard monsters that are presently being built. While it will never host another U.S. Open, the student of classic architecture should head here long before seeing any of the modern, longer courses in the Show Me state.

One sign of St. Louis CC's appeal is that Litvay continually gets requests from architects to come study the course. These architects undoubtedly gain plenty of inspiration from just one walk around and it can only be hoped that they will translate much of what they see into some of their future designs. Such an occurence would certainly please Charles Blair Macdonald if he were around today.

© Copyright GCA 1999 - 2000. All rights reserved.