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Bear Creek Golf Club
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| Tee | Par | Length | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grizzly | 72 | 7005 yards | 73.9 | 136 |
| Black | 72 | 6535 yards | 71.7 | 132 |
| Silver | 72 | 5940 yards | 68.6 | 129 |
| Silver (W) | 72 | 5940 yards | 75.2 | 135 |
| Green | 72 | 5195 yards | 68.6 | 129 |
| Green (W) | 72 | 5195 yards | 70.8 | 123 |
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black M: 72.8/138 | 365 | 460 | 175 | 510 | 410 | 184 | 335 | 530 | 410 | 3379 | 414 | 510 | 200 | 355 | 405 | 558 | 240 | 288 | 442 | 3412 | 6791 |
| Blue M: 71.3/134 | 345 | 430 | 166 | 500 | 390 | 175 | 325 | 510 | 386 | 3227 | 407 | 490 | 195 | 335 | 385 | 530 | 210 | 282 | 418 | 3252 | 6479 |
| White M: 69.8/128 W: 75.8/139 | 340 | 368 | 142 | 490 | 375 | 158 | 300 | 445 | 358 | 2976 | 395 | 480 | 180 | 310 | 375 | 479 | 166 | 257 | 383 | 3025 | 6001 |
| Yellow M: 64.8/115 W: 70.2/122 | 290 | 350 | 130 | 420 | 335 | 120 | 250 | 385 | 323 | 2603 | 320 | 435 | 145 | 280 | 290 | 393 | 138 | 214 | 260 | 2475 | 5078 |
| Orange M: 62.2/104 W: 66.2/117 | 245 | 296 | 115 | 352 | 275 | 115 | 240 | 328 | 275 | 2241 | 245 | 363 | 119 | 275 | 245 | 345 | 125 | 205 | 255 | 2177 | 4418 |
| Handicap | 15 | 3 | 17 | 9 | 1 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 14 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 4 | |||
| Par | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 36 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 | 72 |
| Handicap (W) | 13 | 5 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 17 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 16 | 18 | 6 |
Hot Deals at Bear Creek Golf Club, St.Louis
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Slow play
Tee time was 11:56. Was not allowed to tee off until 12:35. Pace of play was extremely slow. No marshals on course to speed up play. Took 5 1/2 hours to play 18.
Bad condition
I have played Bear Creek plenty of times when I find a cheap deal on golf now and that would be the only time I would play this course. They charge as if its a private country club, but really it shouldn't be over $20 for a round. Hole 6 had weeds all over the green and just huge dead spots on it. Hole 4 had so much sand on the green that when you hit your putt it would kick up sand.
They had a tournament the same day we played. They had us paired with another twosome which was fine because they were nice, but everything felt rushed. Again I would play this course again if the price was under $20, just be careful
Thank you for your review of our course. Considering the heat and rain conditions this summer has brought us, the course is in fantastic condition. #6 green has some spots and weeks on it, but is putting fine. We have top-dressed #3, #4, and #6 greens to smooth out ball marks. We do enforce a program to keep the pace of play up, not to rush golfers, but to keep the pace for everyone's enjoyment. Please try us again. We think you will be very pleased.
Nice course
I booked the round thru Golfnow and got a great deal. Clubhouse was very nice and the pro was also very polite.
Just a few complaints about the course, the greens were not good. They were either full of weeds or dying grass. The same with the tee boxes. Fairways were very good, well trimmed and manicured.
My only other problem was that on 2 of the holes, the grounds people just kind of stayed by us as we were trying to address the ball. They kept the mowers running despite the fact we were trying to finish the hole.
I will play this course again because I enjoy the layout but hope the greens keeper are a little more patient when players are playing the holes
Thank you for reviewing our course and for your recommendation. We apologize about the inconvenience of the mowing during your round. We have been trying our best to keep up with mowing despite wet conditions and have to take advantage of dry time as much as possible. We hope that in the future this will not be an issue during your round again. We look forward to seeing you back on the course!
Good value
Some of the greens are perfect and some are very rough
Thank you for taking the time to review our course. We have been battling periods of heat and periods of significant rain throughout this summer which have caused us to have to work hard to keep up with the course conditions. We appreciate your recommendation of our course and hope you will return to see that rough conditions are not always our norm.
Week day afternoon
Fairways and greens were quite plush with regular rain all summer. Great views and interesting holes.
Thank you so much for your feedback after playing our course. We are happy to hear that you were pleased with our course conditions. We look forward to seeing you out on the course again soon!
Yikes
Not sure if they are trying to be like St Peter's course but they are resembling it more and more!
Overbooked tee times made pace of Play horribly slow
Players had tee shirts on
Tee boxes were overgrown
Very disappointed this course is on the descent
We are very sorry to hear about your less than satisfactory experience with us. We have been battling wet conditions the past few weeks which have limited our ability to cut the grass as much as we would like, but have been working hard to try to keep up with it. The players in tee shirts must have slipped by our starter, but we assure you, this is still not allowed in our policy. Pace of play has been better this year than it has been in the past two years and we are getting better and better at nailing it down to an enjoyable pace. We apologize if this pace did not fit your preferences and can promise that we are working hard on this issue as well. Regardless, we thank you for coming out to play and hope you will come out again to see that these conditions are not our norm.
Spots getting a little rough
Middle of the day so pace was good. Plenty of tees and some greens have issues with weeds or burn. Overall average but for the hot deal it was fine.
Thank you for taking the time to review our course! We have been in a constant battle with the weather all season trying to keep the course in good shape. We are also glad to hear your pace of play was good for the time you played! We look forward to seeing you back on the course again soon.
Bear Creek Disappoints
The once beautiful golf course was very disappointing. The 18 hole round took six hours to complete. We complained to the marshals twice and nothing was done about the pace of play. The course itself was in fair shape which is far below its former glory. Three tee boxes had descent grass on the tee boxes. The remaining 15 tee boxes were covered with weeds and high grass. A number of the greens were becoming covered with weeds. Overall a very disappointing round.
We apologize about your most recent experience with us. Given the alternating periods of dry heat and heavy rains we have had all summer, it has been a fight to maintain golf course conditions. However, we can assure you that we are taking every measure possible to keep it in playable shape for our customers as often as possible with the weather conditions. The weekend you played, we had pleasant weather that resulted in a high volume of play. We apologize for the pace of play the day you played and work very hard every day to try to keep up the pace. We will utilize your feedback to help us improve those conditions. We hope you will come out for another round soon to see that these are not our normal conditions and that we are making conscious efforts to keep improving on them.
The little things matter
The course itself was decent for just having rained but the common everyday amenities were terrible...no water to drink along the course (almost triple digit heat index by the way...every third hole or so had a stand for a water jug but no water), trash everywhere, cart paths in such bad shape that I think I lost a filling, tee boxes in shambles (some didn't even have post markers) and a major problem with the green on 18. I have played this course before and had issues with slow play but the rate of play was just great...maybe because no one is golfing there anymore!
We apologize about your less than satisfactory experience with us. On August 2nd, the day you played, we had received over 1 inch of rain by 8:30am that morning. We had a morning tournament cancel as well as all of our morning tee times. Drinking water stations are typically set out by 7:00am everyday, however, given the circumstances that morning, they were not put out and our morning marshall did not make his normal rounds. We do have drinking water fountains as well as vending machines set up throughout our course that are always available. Trash may have been scattered throughout the course due to storm winds the previous evening and that morning, and we can assure you it was cleaned up by the time our leagues went out that evening. Our green on Hole #18 receives a heavy amount of foot traffic that we have been treating significantly over the past few weeks. This area has recently been aerated and seeded and should be in better condition by now. We apologize for your experience but hope you will come out again to see that these are not our normal conditions. Still, we thank you for taking the time to review our course.
Great course
A++++ definitely recommend. Nice course.
Thank you so much for taking the time to review our course and recommending it to others! We look forward to having you out for another round soon!
Needs improvement and different management
Tee boxes were below average and pace of play was horribly slow. A beginner group of 5 were permitted to play as long as they played a scramble. Tee time was already delayed 15 minutes and took an additional 20 minutes before we could tee off at hole 2. Called the clubhouse as they instructed to do if the group of 5 were slow. They promptly came out and spoke to them but the pace of play did not improve. Ended up calling them again but nothing changed as far as pace of play. Finally passed the group of 5 at hole 10 only to run into another group of 5. It took 5.5 hours for our group of 3 to complete 18 hole. Staff was very apologetic with exception to the manager Kirk who I guess assumed we were asking for a refund. I was informing the starter that the pace was horrible and that if they continue to send out knowing beginner groups of 5 on weekends and holiday weekends that I'd probably not be a returning customer. The manager stepped in and directed me away from other customers I assumed to acknowledge the bad pace of play but to my surprise he wasn't pleasant or apologetic at all and ended our conversation with "you got to play 18 didn't ya!" In other reviews this managers response has been to go to Sun Valley in Elsberry if you don't find their pace enjoyable. I've played her quite a bit but until there is new management, I will not be returning. The one bright spot is we were supposed to be a group of 4 but one of our players had a minor car accident on the way and couldn't make the tee time. Staff did not charge us for our fourth as they should have per their policy. Just wanted to put this out there as the manager has pointed this out in response to my reviews left in other forums. I guess this is supposed to make up for the horrible pace and lack of tact from him.
Thank you for taking the time to review our course. We agree with your comment that we had a beginner fivesome group ahead of you that was unable to consistently keep the pace throughout their round. We worked hard with them during their round as much as possible and apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused you and your group. After playing, one of the golfers in your group asked what we were going to do for you. This is when General Manager, Kirk Porter, commented that you had already played all 18 holes and he was unsure what your group was wanting. The reason we mentioned the fourth player in your group, who was unable to make it the day of play, in a previous review was to let you know that management would not be charging for your fourth player, which is our standard policy when a foursome is booked and not all players show up to play that day. This was not to compensate your group for slow play, but was done as a courtesy due to unforeseen circumstances with your fourth player. On busy days, we encourage groups that play in twosomes and threesomes to pair up to a foursome so that they can enjoy their round at a foursome pace. As a threesome the day you played, your pace of play was higher than our other booked groups. Regarding Sun Valley, which we mention in past reviews, we do frequently promote and suggest that our golfers try our sister course. We have owned and operated Sun Valley for over ten years and conditions there have often been better suitable and/or preferable for some of our golfers. Sun Valley has some of the fastest pace of play times in peak demand periods for our area. Part of the success there is that it is an easier course, has fewer bunkers, lower volume of play, and smaller groups booked, which help keep the pace of play up. We encourage all of our clientele to play at Sun Valley, as well as play at Bear Creek. Again, we are sorry to hear that you had a bad experience on your last visit. We hope that you will understand conditions for the particular day your group played and that you will return for another round to see that this pace of play is not the norm for our course.
Enjoyed our round!
My son and I played here for the second time and found the course to be really in pretty good shape. On a number of holes we met with greenskeepers who were fertilizing, watering, etc... There is obviously a solid effort being made here to keep this course in shape.
Saw a few dry spots on the tee boxes, but in reading other reviews, guys, this isn't a $100/round course so lets keep some perspective in our expectations for a STL course in the dog days of summer. The weather in the area has been upper 90's plus and dry the last couple of weeks so its a challenge to keep any course green in that climate.
I would also submit that the people who constantly complain about the conditions of a green are the same guys who never repair a ball mark or replace a divot. I've taught my son to fix his and at least one more. I fixed at least 8 fresh ones from the group in front of us.
The course load was moderate; we never had to wait and there were quite a few other twosomes out there. Also nice to see real restrooms and a beverage machine in the middle of both nines.
Clubhouse staff was very friendly - that's getting hard to find. Bartender and Pro Shop manager specifically were very friendly and helpful.
We plan to return soon!
Thank you so much for taking the time to review our course. We are very happy to hear that you enjoyed your experience and appreciate the positive feedback. We work very hard to maintain our course conditions despite set-backs in the weather, especially the conditions this summer has brought us, and we appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge the hard work we put in. We are happy to have you out on our course and look forward to seeing you again soon!
Overrated under-maintained
I had heard great things about Bear Creek. That it was one of the toughest tracks around; that it was worthy of tournament play, etc. So I was very excited to finally play. What a disappointment.
We made a tee time on a Thursday afternoon and when we arrived were informed that due to "leagues" we'd have to tee off immediately (despite being there 45 min ahead of our tee time), and that we would need to check in at the turn because we likely would not be able to go off of 10 tee.
When we got to the #1 tee box we saw it was hard and had many dirt patches. Neglected tee boxes are the first sign you've got a course with either a bad superintendent or one working with no budget.
As we played on, the course condition never improved. Most all the tee boxes were not only in bad shape, but some it was impossible to get your tee into the ground, and several had uneven surfaces - forcing you to play your TEE SHOT either above or below your feet.
The greens were in fair condition. I've seen worse, but only on muny courses that charge much less to play. The back nine layout is definitely better and more fun than the front - which is very basic and boring. The back had a few really great holes that made me wish the course was in better condition.
As for the difficulty, it's all hype. The course is tight because of houses, but otherwise there's nothing out there to contribute to the high slope rating. Unless you count back condition. And you can't buy the "no rain" excuse as other courses in the area deal with the same weather, yet manage to keep their properties in great shape.
If you enjoy walking, Bear Creek is not for you - as there are many long travels & elevation changes between greens and the next tee.
The pro shop is well stocked and the staff is generally friendly - although, as I said, when we made the turn, we had to check-in and were sent to the 12th tee to start our back nine. When we finally got to #10 (our 17th of the day) we were behind 2 very slow foursomes... so slow that we were unable to finish our round, giving up after waiting 30 minutes before we could even hit to #10 green.
We apologize for the league play on Thursday that interrupted your round. We have a men's league and a ladies' league that tees off on Thursdays at 5:30pm on both nines. The time you booked should have been allocated for nine holes only, yet our staff tried to accommodate 18 holes, but was obviously unsuccessful. We apologize for this mistake. You are correct that the course was dry on June 23rd. We were experiencing 95+ degree temperatures with over 27 days with no rain. We irrigate nightly and try to maintain a balance between too wet and too dry conditions, but it sounds like the day you played may have been one of those times when we were unable to keep up with the heat. We have recently received over five inches of rain, so the tees are now good and soft. As far as the course rating and slope assigned to Bear Creek, the Metropolitan Golf Association has a rating service that it provides to all area golf courses and they rate regularly for slope. This is a standardized system that Bear Creek was re-rated with last year. The six lakes, creeks, and 46 bunkers add a challenge to your round. Depending on your handicap, you may consider playing the Grizzly Tees which is a total of 7005 yards. If your handicap is between 6-14, we encourage the Black Tees, at 6536 yards. If between 15-23 handicap, you should play the Silver Tees and 23+ handicap should play the Green Tees. We are not sure which tees you played during your round, but you may look into the options available for you, according to your personal handicap. One of the nice features of our course is the variety in lengths to fit each skill level of golfer. We have received many compliments from the Gateway PGA Golf Professional as well as the competitive golf arena on our Gary Kern design and daily maintenance of our facilities. We hope you will come out to give us another try on a different tee level to get the full Bear Creek experience.
Course in good shape,,,,,for the most part
I played the course yesterday. Tee boxes were OK. Not great, but OK. Fairways were great. Greens were in great condition and rolled true. Rough was tall and thick. There were some areas that had sizeable bare spots. These should've been marked as ground under repair and they should get started repairing them. The bunkers were, for the most part, far below average. For the life of me I cannot figure why courses don't take better care of their bunkers. This course just rebuilt every bunker on hole 8. Yet the bunkers were very poorly maintained. Huge disappointment....
So...other than the bunkers and some of the rough areas, the course was in good shape and was good value at $40 on a holiday. I'll play there again this summer. The course is challenging but fair.....
Thank you for your feedback on our course conditions. We have received a heavy amount of golf traffic so far this year and we are doing our best to keep up. The bunkers have been an ongoing concern and we are working on this issue to bring them up to standards. We appreciate your review and look forward to seeing you back out on the course soon!
Front 9
Seems to be a well maintained course. My only complaints would be that the greens are not in the best shape. Otherwise the course was well maintained!
Due to the high volume of play Bear Creek receives, ball marks and foot traffic can be our enemy. We have purchased a new greens top dresser and two greens rollers, and we think this will help smooth things out and fill in the voids. Please come back and try us again and let us know about your next experience.
Take your time pkease
Again I booked a Friday tee time here at Bear Creek. There were not a lot of golfers out when we teed off just before noon. There was 2 trees ones ahead of us so we didn't think the pace of play would be bad. The weather was "iffy" because of storms and the course had received over 2 inches 24 hrs before we played.
I like this course except for 1 thing, there are never any marshals out on the course during the week. At least in the 10+ times I have played here I have never seen one.
We were on #5 and let a single play through only to meet him on #6 reebok. We went ahead and made it a threesome and it took us 4 1/2 hours to play 18 holes. The threesome ahead of us was a hole and a half behind the group in front of them and nobody made them pick up their pace.
I really like the course and the staff but I don't know how many more times I am willing to put up with a 4 1/2 hour round of golf on a day when there was maybe 20 golfers on the course ahead of us.
We are sorry for the delay in your round of golf. Even on a slow day, we may have some groups who do not know proper golf etiquette and to let groups play through or to keep a consistent pace. We do have marshals during the week on busier days and on weekends and holidays. Please try us again so you can experience our normal pace which has been very enjoyable so far this year.
Waste of money
I have played here dozens of times over the last few years. Sure, it's cheap. That's why the hackers come out. Tee times every 8 minutes. 4 groups on every hole. You'll wait on the tee box and on your approach to the green. Course management is awful. Can't get a tee in the ground because they don't water. They probably haven't cut the greens in a week. If you're looking for a good course, don't play Bear Creek.
We’re sorry that the pace of play was not up to par that day. It was a Sunday and we were extremely busy. We do sometimes have one or two groups per hole playing that hole. But seldom is there four, unless it is a par four or par five. As far as the tees being dry, we have had the irrigation system on and off during the periodic rains and it is hard to get the surface just right. Once the heavy rain period quits, the tees will get the right amount of water on a regular basis with our irrigation system. We appreciate your feedback and hope you will play us again soon.
They over book there tee times
Golfers are to slow, need to pick up the pace!
We apologize for your wait during your play. We are experiencing a high volume of golfers at this time of year. We hope that as the season progresses you will be able to come out on a day when pace of play is better and see the efforts we are making to keep the pace up. Thank you for taking the time to review our course and we look forward to seeing you again soon!
Great course but super slow play
This is a great course but it took forever on each hole to wait for the group ahead of us.
We apologize for your wait during your play. We are experiencing a high volume of golfers at this time of year who are itching to get out and play now that the weather has gotten nicer. We hope that as the season progresses you will be able to come out on a day when pace of play is better. Thank you for taking the time to review our course and we look forward to seeing you again soon!
Challenge target golf
It's not "grip it and rip it" here. This course makes you think. the greens were firm and fast today. Last time here they were furry and slow.
For the golfnow price it was an excellent value. Give it a go.
Thank you for taking the time to review our course and coming out to play. We appreciate your tips to our future golfers and look forward to having you back out at our course again soon!
Thank you so much for taking the time to review our course. We apologize about the pace of play on the day that you played. We had a pre-booked outing that morning thathad more players than we originally thought, which crowded our tee sheet a little more than we anticipated. We are very sorry about this inconvenience and hope you will return again to see that these are not our normal conditions.