Far Oaks Golf Club

The bunker restoration is coming close to the finish line. The new, white sand looks outstanding. Overall, the course is in great shape for early November. The $43 green fees is an excellent senior rate on a weekday - for this quality of course. However, it was $5 higher than a few weeks ago and we are in the off-season starting November 1.

The course needs to be aware of how unsightly certain holes look because of the lack of maintenance of excessive foliage in front of tees or greens. The worst is hole 12, where small trees in front of the tee can come into play on a drive and you have a hard time seeing the fairway. Other holes with foliage situations are holes 6 & 15. The is a beautiful course and this lack of maintenance makes the experience less memorable.

Another course I haven’t played in a while but glad I gave it another chance. They finally paved the parking lot, so that was a nice surprise! We got a very good weekday rate of less than $40.

The bunkers are being redone, and the new ones look outstanding. The sand was very nice, white and fluffy. Some of the tee boxes were just OK, and a couple of the fairways were pretty beat down. Greens were very good and had a nice roll.

The course was pretty crowded but we still played the front nine in less than two hours. However, the back nine was bad and took nearly three hours. Started to bog down at 12 and we had to wait on every shot on every shot after that. Holes 14 thru 17 took forever to play. The par-3 16th had four groups on it!

Some of the short holes were quite easy while a number of holes were very challenging. But the layout is fun to play so give it a try.

For the end of October and a greens fee of $38, there are not too many issues with playing Far Oaks. One of my favorite courses in the St. Louis Metro area. They aerated their greens early and the greens show no sign of any aeration holes. They were in good condition and had good speed.

The bunker restoration is still continuing. The holes that have the white sand – the holes look spectacular! The clubhouse felt that there were about 2 more weeks left. They have removed the two left/front bunkers on hole 2, made the left fairway bunker on hole 3 much smaller, removed the 2 left greenside bunkers on hole 10, looks like they are removing the left fairway bunkers on hole 12.

The biggest thing the course has to do is remove the vegetation/trees that block the beauty of these holes from the tee: 6, 12, 15 & 17.

Found this course on Golf Now. Played an afternoon round after travel day. Great greens. Layout very fun. Staff was awesome.

Far Oaks is the best public course I've played in years. Love the layout of the course. They are redoing all their bunkers with white fluffy sand. All in all it's a great course for all skill levels

my favorite course in the area, very well maintained with constant improvement going on!

Challenging course. Unfortunately it was cart path only so play was very slow. Course conditions were very good especially since we had heavy rain the day before.

Really always enjoy the course and now with the work to improve the bunkers it wlii become even better!

Let’s start with the good news. The bunker restoration is continuing. On holes 2 & 3, they have put in the new WHITE sand. It looks phenomenal. The senior weekday rate of $38 on this course, it can’t be beat. Overall, the greens were good and putted at a good speed.

However, there is too much bad news to give this course an above average rating. I can be a 5-star course someday, if they only add a little extra care to the course.

The number one issue of this course is the excessive vegetation/small trees in front of the 12th tee. You cannot see the fairway now and several tee shots in my group hit the small trees in front of the green.

It absolutely looks terrible. Also, in the creek in front of the par 3, 6th hole, has too much vegetation in the creek. To tell you how bad it is, my friend hit a hole-in-one on that hole and I could not see it go into the hole from the side of the tee. What a disgrace!

Need to start working on some of the fairways. The second part of the fairway on hole 3 is bad. Holes 4 & 5, the fairways are rough too. The end of the fairway on hole 15 is weeds and dirt.

On one of the hottest weeks, they did not have fans on the greens, except for hole 17. Overall, without the fans, the greens were in surprising, good shape. But, why would you only have the fans on one green? The 12th & 13th greens had some small blemishes and the green on hole 14 is showing some stress.

After the bunker restoration and some effort on some of the fairways and removing some excess vegetation/small trees, this course will be one of the best in the St. Louis metro area. However, it is not there yet.

Course is in great shape and once the bunker project is down it will be one of if not best public courses in the Metro East.

Bunkers are still under repair but the course is gorgeous and is really enjoyable to play. I also shot the best round i have in the last 2 years. #17 and a par 4 a couple holes before are totally drivable as well. Just gotta hit blindly over the trees

Far Oaks is one of my favorite courses in the St. Louis metro area, mostly because of the design of the golf course. When you walk into the front doors of the club, you see a large sign that says, “Attention golfers – bunker restoration in progress”. This may take 6-8 weeks depending on the weather. Always good to see a course making improvements to the course. The big change so far is the 2 bunkers to the left of the green on hole 2 – have been made into grass bunkers. We played on a Monday, at a senior rate of $38. Great price for this course. We also had the cart attendant bring a cart out to our car, which was a nice touch.

The greens were in good shape. Putted a little on the slow side. The only green showing any stress was hole 14.

This course still has plenty of issues after the bunker restoration is completed. Here is the list:

Improve Beauty of Course: They are letting high weeds, small trees, vegetation ruin the views of the holes. Views from the tee box would be spectacular if these areas were maintained. Holes 6, 12, 15 & 17. The views are what make this course special.

Improve Fairways: The course has many bad spots in the fairways, mostly due to poor drainage. Holes 3, 4, 5 & 15. They have always had issues with drainage on hole 17. Looks like they have decided to grow high grass in the 3 areas of the fairway where the drainage areas are. I just looks strange. Also, near the left fairway bunker on hole 10 is just dirt.

Improve Tee Boxes: The tee box on the par 3 – 6th hole is really chewed up. When you walk up to the 12th tee, it is mostly dirt. The 12th tee box is awful – bare spots and weeds.

Improve Fringes: Some of the fringes on some holes have a crabgrass issue. Holes 2 & 8.

I would recommend playing this course during the week. The weekend price of $79-82 is too high for a course going through a bunker restoration and all the concerns listed above.

Don’t go play between 7-11 at that $90 rate and deal with slow play, wait for the afternoon and pay between $45-$55 and it’s a great value at a faster pace. Greens are the best in the area and they’re always improving.