Gateway National Golf Links

Overall a good course but to charge $90 is truly outrageous. There are a few holes that are absolutely beat up and on hole 17 there is absolutely no fairway, it’s a par 3 that consists of a tee box a green and then about 115 yards of nothing but mud and swamp.

Great course and service from the staff. I’ll be back next week.

Overall I thought the course was ok value. Some holes were in hard shape. A few had been flooded then possibly burnt out? I thin the courses in forest park are in better shape for less.

Consider this a warning. Do not pay $100+ to play Gateway National. The course conditions continue to decline. In my honest opinion this is a $40-$50 golf course. It may have bent grass fairways, tees, and greens but many tee boxes are in pitiful shape and the greens need some TLC. I understand the challenges that recent flooding have caused. Many areas are GUR and washed out. It amazed me how poor the rough areas were. Very inconsistent... Hardpan due to lack of watering, no grass, or totally overgrown. I get it... keep your ball in the fairway, but it appears that all efforts go towards the bent grass. Hopefully the grounds crew is able to turn things around. Otherwise, this place will be turned into a parking lot for Nascar fans. I hope that doesn't happen because the course layout is good and the St Louis area needs a higher end course like I recall this course being in previous years.

Overall this is a great course to play. Recent floods have the course in repair and while not bad there are defiantly some areas that are being worked on. Pace of play is hit or miss this time I played, we must have had a group clogging up the course. Took 4.5 hours for our group to finish. Waiting on one or two groups on every tee was agonizing.

The week was filled with unprecedented amount of rain in the St. Louis area. From Monday night to Thursday afternoon – 14 to 18 inches of rain. The grounds crew was working hard to pump the water off the course to make it playable by Sunday. I would guess, most of the course was under water at some time. Considering all the rain, the course conditions were still very good.

Here were the changes that were made on Sunday:

Hole 5, par 4 – changed to a par 3

Hole 8, par 4 – changed to a par 3

Hole 11, par 4 – tees moved up

Hole 12, par 3 – green was only half mowed because half the green was still wet from being flooded.

Hole 13, par 5 – changed to a par 3

Hole 15, par 4 – tees moved up

Hole 18, par 5 – green very damp from being flooded.

Due to these changes and course conditions, Gateway National gave every golfer a $10 off coupon on their next round at Gateway in 2022.

All my playing partners and other people I talked to this week, felt this was not enough. We played with all these alterations at the full rate of $83. How can you charge the same amount of a normal day with all these alterations? A head scratcher. The $10 off for a future round was a nice gesture but most people will lose the coupon or forget about it the next time they play Gateway. They really needed to reduce the green fees on that day by $20. I don’t want to come down too hard on Gateway because they were dealing with record rainfall and doing a fine job just to make the course playable. Kudos to the greens keeping staff there. But, maybe if something like this happens in the future – they should think about reducing the greens fees on the day people play the round.

The greens and fairways were in their usual outstanding shape, in the areas not flooded. However, I cannot give them a 5 star review because the compensation offered by the course was not enough.

I had heard nothing but great things about Gateway from multiple people so i was excited to play there and brought a few friends with me.

The course layout was fun, but challenging at times.

We had some pretty bad flooding leading up to our round, so i completely understand the course being in rough shape. My issue is that we received no communication that multiple par 4's and par 5's had been converted into par 3's and one hole was actually going to be shut down all together and we still paid full price for the round without essentially being able to play a full round.

In addition to that, something that the flooding had nothing to do with, the bathrooms are disgusting and certainly not what i would expect from a course that costs almost $100 to play at. Both on course and in the clubhouse were in terrible shape.

More than likely won't be returning as the facilities are not worth the price in my opinion.

I always look forward to playing rounds at Gateway National. The greens and fairways are ALWAYS some of the best around the STL area.

Course is well maintained and greens are not slow (unlike most STL metro courses of equal quality). Keep those greens rolling true!

First few holes was in a steady drizzle, but cleared up and it was a great round.

Top public course in the metro area. Greens are immaculate and layout fair and challenging.

Gateway National offers views of downtown St. Louis and the Arch. It is the only all bent grass public course in the St. Louis area. It is a links style course with berms between the holes where you feel like you’re the only one on the course.

Gateway National is always in good shape, but this time, it may have been in the best shape I have ever seen it. There really was nothing to complain about with the conditions. The greens had a little firmness to them and rolled at a great pace. Now, they have even added GPS screens in the carts. The yardages are all to the center of the green, not the specific pin locations of the day. The rough was manageable and pace of play was outstanding. They had plenty of water coolers on the course, water machine and ice chest in the restaurant and the beverage cart was out before 9:00am. The snack bar on hole 10 was already open by 9:00am.

The only small issues I saw were the 3rd green had some splotchy areas on the slope in the middle of the green. The 4th white tee is small and gets beat up some. There are a lot of ball marks on the greens but this is not the course’s fault. It is the players not fixing their ball marks. Overall, you will not find a better conditioned golf course in the St. Louis metro area.

I did notice they let the high fescue grow to the left of the fairway bunker on hole 8. Eliminating you trying to cut the corner over the left side of that bunker.

Of my top 4 Illinois courses, Gateway National is the most expensive. We paid nearly $79. You can play Spencer T. Olin in the low $50’s as a senior and Far Oaks & Annbriar for around $70 on the weekends. However, I would pay a little extra to play this course that is in impeccable shape.

Was in town & wanted to get out quick. Really solid course, well maintained. Well kept tee boxes & greens, good fairways - really nice course. I’d play again if back In STL area.

From new range balls to great course conditions the Gateway team nailed it. From the front desk to the greens keeper everyone was on point! Snow Wolf should have their entire staff come take notes!

Highly recommend.