Far Oaks Golf Club

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.

Far Oaks is a nice course in pretty good shape except for the slow greens and bunker reconstruction. The pace of play was around 5 hours, which is very high but unfortunately every course in the St. Louis area is that way as no one wants to enforce pace.

The thing that got me, is while this course is fairly nice, it’s not $83 green fee nice. At that price one would expect perfect condition, pace, and generally just a higher tier course with more robust design and ameninities.

The staff was very nice.

I always enjoy playing here. Everything was in great shape, especially the fairways. Greens rolled true. Plus I played really well for once! I'll be back.

4-some always waited for a 2-some all holes. Could only tolerate 9 holes at this poor pace.

Great layout, greens recovering from aeration but held iron shots very well, some tee boxes a little rough, many sand traps were “muddy”…could have been from previous days rains (don’t know how much they got).

Staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful. Lots of rough and “void” areas along cart paths. Lots of maintenance staff out and working the grounds so I’ll assume they’re doing their best to make the course the best it can be over time. Would have liked to see the beverage cart a few more times.

Overall a darn good day and a darn good course…well worth the price unlike many area courses.