Missouri Bluffs Golf Club

The Bluffs has done a great job under the new ownership. One of my favorite courses in STL is coming back. You can tell they've put a lot of money and work into the course and clubhouse. The lunch deal is an incredible bonus as well.

The only thing that still sucks is the pace of play. I realize this is a public course but when your round takes almost six hours to complete, that is just unacceptable. They have several marshals driving around the course - why aren't any of them making the slow groups move along faster?

I really like this course but the pace of play absolutely ruined the overall experience.

Wonderful course. Probably the nicest I have every played. Would highly recommend. Also teeing off on 15 above the trees was something else.

One of my favorite courses in the STL area. Love Fazio designs. But the bunkers Sunday were terrible. Felt like we were hitting off of asphalt. Disappointing especially since they are taunting bunker improvements

Good: The course was in good shape and is a fun layout. Carts are nice too.

Bad: Tee times were running 30 minutes behind (at 9:30 in the morning) and a 5 hour round (for a threesome), which makes for a very long day (and the main reason I don’t play more often). Also, the course greens were WAY slower than practice green.

Ugly: Dude in the pro shop seemed rude or crabby or both.

I will never play this course again.

Side note: No public course should ever be allowed to have a hole 1 par 5.

What is so disappointing about the Missouri Bluffs is they have significantly increased the number of people playing at the course because of the free lunch and beer program, included in the price of your green fees. However, they are doing nothing to improve the course. For example, they are replacing all the sod of the driving range currently. They need to put this sod on the tee boxes and fairways that are in bad shape. They are putting the new sod on the driving range because that is a moneymaker for them. Golfers will continue to play the course with free food/drink program, even though the course conditions are not up to standards.

Issues with the course. Bunkers are a disgrace. They have not been attended to in a long time. The greens are in good shape but way too slow. 4th tee box and fairway in poor shape. 5th fairway on the right side in poor shape. Blue tee on 6 in awful shape. Fairways of 7, 9 and 11 are bad. Tee box on 11 is awful. They put the pin on a ledge on hole 3. There is no sand in the containers on the carts to fill in divots. Not paying attention to the little details. No soap in men’s restroom.

They are aerating some of the fairways now. Holes 1, 15, 16 & 18. Unless they are overseeding with zoysia (which I did not see), this does not help areas that have no grass.

On their website, there is no way to indicate you are a senior and you want the senior rate. You have to ask for it at the pro shop. I don’t think we received the senior rate even though we asked for it. Usually, the weekday senior rate is $62 and we were charged $68.

If you look at previous reviews, slow play is a big concern at the Bluffs. They are timing you now once you pass the white tees on hole #1. We had a twosome in front of us and a threesome behind us. We were told we were holding up the course on hole 5 and there are 2 holes open in front of us. If you are a ranger, you need to use some common sense. If you are a foursome and a twosome is in front of you, there will be significant distance between us and them. If you have a threesome behind a foursome, they will be waiting all day behind us. This did not go over well with our group. As a course ranger, you need to know the situation!

The Missouri Bluffs has a long way to go to become a top tier upscale golf course. I do not recommend playing here until significant improvements are made.

I always want to like this course, but every time I play there I’m disappointed by the upkeep. Overgrown tee boxes, bunkers are always washed out, and greens are beat up and *dreadfully* slow. The course has awesome bones and is visually beautiful. But for how much they charge and how busy it always is, it’s very disappointing.

Feel like the new owners have done a great job with the clubhouse. It looks very nice, the food was really good, and the wait staff was awesome.

Unfortunately, the course experience itself was not nearly as enjoyable. The starter was very unpleasant. We showed up at the tee box a few minutes before our scheduled tee time, and he immediately yelled at us for “missing” our time, even though our tee time had not passed yet. There was another twosome we had been paired with that had already teed off, and since there were already two carts and four people at the tee, we waited before heading up. We were then instructed to meet that group on the second tee.

As soon as we walked off the first green, another cart was waiting to hurry us along to catch the group ahead. After that, the round itself went fairly well, but multiple times while we were on the putting greens, grounds crew members were mowing the fringe immediately around us. I understand mowing has to happen while people are playing, but at most courses the crew will stop briefly or move aside until golfers finish the hole. Here, they continued mowing right next to us, forcing us to putt over the sound of the mowers and wait for them to pass before we could even walk off the green.

The clubhouse, food, and staff inside were excellent, but the on-course experience and pace management really took away from the day.

Fairways were in great shape. Greens were beat up from the long weekend. There was no drinking water on the course which made for a hot day.

They’ve unfortunately ruined one of my favorite courses in the area with 8-min tee times. I’ve loved all the changes they’ve made to the clubhouse, range, etc. but to implement revenuemaxxing by allowing over 300 people on the course (and to almost brag about it) is insane, and a rather quick way to ruin a great thing.

My tee time was supposed to be at 10:56 on Saturday, I believe we teed off at 11:25 or so. I walked off 18 at 5:00. Simply unacceptable. The staff were great, I felt bad for them. I think the starter told every person there that they’d have a 5+ hour round, so the customer service was great, but the execution is awful. I’ve seen the demise of quite a few courses from overbooking, and it really disappoints me that the Bluffs’ new owners are okay with doing the same to this beloved track.

With the new ownership, they are enticing people to play with lunch and a beer included in your green fees. You also get free peanuts/pretzels from the beverage cart. This model is hoping you buy more beer with you consuming these salty snacks. We paid $62 for a senior, weekday rate, Also, they have expanded the the driving range with lights, so if you just want to hit balls - you can do this. They have speakers playing music, aimed at the driving range.

The free lunch food is excellent. It is not hot dogs and brats. They have a full menu. The staff/service is excellent too. The draft beer is some of the coldest you will have.

New ownership is allowing you to drive carts in the parking lot - first time ever. With this food promotion and better range facilities, sometimes they have ran out of parking spaces. They have added 20+ spots right behind the range to help alleviate this problem.

The greens are in good shape.

However, with all the good things I've said above - they have some issues...

The course has many rough areas. Tee boxes have limited grass on them (holes 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 & 16). Fairways having bad areas (holes 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 15). Areas around green with limited grass (holes 2, 10, 13, 14). Some of the bunkers not raked (hole 2 was the worst).

The have divot sand containers on the carts - with NO sand in them. No ball washers on the carts. We had trash in our cooler they was not removed by who cleans the carts.

Cleaniness of the restrooms need attention. Paper towels overflowing the trash cans. The doors on the stalls do not lock.

They get a 5-star for the green frees with food/beer promotion and the quality of the food/service. Only get 3 stars for the shape of the course. The reason I'm giving an overall 4 star review.

My business customers and I had to leave after 11 holes because it took us 5 hours to just play 11. The pace of play was the slowest i've ever experienced and made the round of golf miserable. Good food and drinks, friendly staff but, we won't be back.

The new ownership has not served the community well. The pace of play is RIDICULOUSLY slow. 5+ hours on a Thursday afternoon. A friend experienced 6+ hours the week prior. Additionally, the Marshall was SUPER annoying. Saying park here, don’t pull forward. Yelled at to not proceed to t box even though box was empty. A real power trip-AWFUL. I used to play here 1-2x week since it opened. I won’t be back until pace of play changes are made.

With the new ownership, you can definitely tell a change has been made except for the conditioning of the course.

On a weekday (Thursday), over 300 golfers are playing. Not enough parking spots for all the golfers and range players. Attracting players in with a $57 weekday senior rate, which includes lunch & beer, free peanuts/pretzels from beverage cart. They have plenty of staff in the restaurant to manage all the free lunches & beverages. Driving range is getting plenty of use with range packages, lights and a football uprights to shoot at. Music playing with speakers aimed at the driving range. The inside of the clubhouse is very inviting now. It looks very nice. New carts with plenty of pick up.

Then you go play the course and you are hoping for significant improvements here too. But you leave disappointed. The tee boxes are not in good shape. The fairways are on the rough side. Not much improvement since the change in management. However, the greens are in good shape and have not been aerated yet. The bunkers still have rocks in them.

Terrible course set up with the pin placements. Hole 12, the pin was placed in the back right on a severe slope. Hole 15 was an embarrassment for the course. First, the pin was red and the location was in the middle of the green. It was sitting on a ledge. Any putts that did not stay within a 3 foot circle around the pin, rolled down the green 10-20 yards.

The Missouri Bluffs is on the right track with everything except for the golf course – which I feel is the most important thing.

I used to love this course before new management took over. While they have put a lot of money and effort into restoring the course to its former glory, the pace of play is AWFUL. The starter was very rude to us before we started, yelling at us like we had never played golf before. They have oversold the membership to this place and it stacks up routinely. 5 hour plus pace of play is pretty absurd for a Thursday round

Called ahead and was told ride alongs are allowed Monday - Thursday. Pre-booked my round with friends an a ride along for a Thursday afternoon and drove 40 minutes to play. I was denied my ride along when I got there because they overbooked tee times and put another single with me, booting my wife out of the cart. I offered to pay full price for an extra cart and was told they booked too many players and didn’t have one.

I pkay 3-5 times per week year round and I’ll never recommend this course to any family or friends and I certainly won’t play here myself.

Really great course, challenging, interesting layout. After 4 hours we still had 4 holes left to play. Pace of play was awful. The carts tell you where everyone is and how far behind you are, but there is clearly no one enforcing any pace of play. We ended up leaving the course early. I estimate if we stuck it out it would’ve taken 5+ hours.