Reviewed by: ProV1Steve, Shoots in the 70s, from Missouri

Summary:
Golf Course: 18 hole, par 71 public course. Zoysia fairways, blue grass rough, and bent grass greens. Rated one of the top seven toughest public courses in the St. Louis area by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Deer Creek has a beautiful 30,000 sq. foot clubhouse with banquet facility that rarely gets used now that the course is public. The pro shop is limited to a few golf balls, but has a very good deli.

Layout: This valley style course is tree lined, with a smallish creek that comes into play on five holes on the front nine and two holes on the back. The front nine has one pond to carry, and the back has four ponds that are lateral hazards on five holes. The wood line comes into play on all fairways, so driving accuracy is important. There is only one par five on the front nine. No houses are built along this course, which makes it somewhat unique and creates a lot of beautiful scenery.

Tees: There are four sets of tees (professional-gold, championship-blue, men’s-white, and lady’s-red). The professional tees are small boxes that rarely get used, tucked back into the woods making this option extremely difficult given the tight driving conditions. Twenty or so yards separates the blue and white tees on par fours, but the blues move all but one of the par three’s into the 200 yard range. The lady’s tees do not give much of a distance break to the women.

Condition: Fairly good. The Zoysia fairways are like carpet because they are usually mowed little on the long side—the ball sits nice and high. The greens are always slow and rarely aerated. Some tee boxes and bunkers are in poor condition.

Pace of play: During the week, this course sees very little action, so the pace of play is excellent. On the weekends, it can be slow due the many ball searches taking place in the wood line and creek.

Quirks: The original layout did not bring the players back to the clubhouse after the ninth hole. In order to get the players back to the deli at the turn, the hole numbers were changed. This means that players are crossing some fairways to get to the first tee, as well as other tee boxes creating a somewhat dangerous situation for golfers not paying attention.

Practice facility: The driving range grass is always too long, and the landing area floods easily, so it is closed much of the time during spring and early summer. Range balls are usually in fair condition. The putting and chipping green is small, and does not represent the speed of the golf course greens. There is no practice bunker.

Customer Service:
Customer service is only adequate due to the limited number of people on staff. The Pro Shop does not have a teaching pro.