I think if you took Jack Nicklaus’s name off Stonewolf Golf Club, I still could have told you a few holes in that this is Jack Nicklaus’s course. I basically grew up on The National Golf Club (Pinehurst No. 9 now since it was purchased by the resort) another Jack course. They are spookily similar. The use of elevation changes, bunkers, water, and most notably the multi-tiered slippery greens are all like coming home. As a result, I played it better than I would have otherwise because this is not an easy course.

From the tips, Stonewolf has a course rating of 73.5, so I missed shooting net even-par by two strokes. I still wasn’t confident off the tee and was kind of guiding the ball, but I felt better than yesterday. You can’t bully this course because even though the fairways are wide, you are basically dead if you miss it because OB and red stakes are only a few yards off the fairways on many holes. Also, there are lots of strategically placed bunkers right at an average carry distance from the tips, and a few of the holes have fairways that are cut in half requiring a layup. I blocked two shots badly — one went off the planet on the Par 5 14th, the other on the finishing 9th hole got lucky and ended up back in the fairway after a miracle bounce in the trees.

The greens and pin placements had the same deviousness as National. If you end up in the wrong spot around the green you are in a world of hurt. I did a pretty good job chipping and putting to make up for my poor iron play. The only hole that ate my lunch was the short par 4 16th. They put the pin on a ridge that was only 2 yards wide in the middle of the green with severe fall offs. I came up short with a 54-degree thanks to some wind. Next, I had to try and flop it onto the tiny landing zone and rolled off the back. Chipping back down I just barely rolled off the side of the ridge and couldn’t make the 15-foot breaker to save bogey.

It took me a little bit to get used to the green speed, but once I did I putted the lights out. I three-putted the 12th (3rd hole) because I ended up in a swale in the front of the green and didn’t putt it hard enough to get out of it and up to the pin on the top shelf. After that, I made some amazing lag putts and dropped in some long ones.

Stonewolf is just an amazing course. It is the best designed and maintained course I have played in the St. Louis Metro area outside of a country club. The Falls is its only competition among the public courses. They are the only two public courses that seem to know how to build a course with houses on it properly (Looking at you Bear Creek). I love Stonewolf. I could totally see playing it every day and never getting tired of it. There are so many different strategy options to play most of the holes. With the tiered greens, there are tons of pin placement options that make the hole play completely differently. Bottom line, Jack is a master.

The only downside is that it’s nearly a 40-minute drive from St. Charles. I don’t mind driving to Illinois to play, but unfortunately, you have to take I-70. It isn’t terrible outside of rush hour, but everyone still drives like maniacs all the time. The speed limit is like 55 going into and through the city, but everyone goes 75 and then you have the guy weaving through three lanes of traffic going closer to 90. The only time I drive that route is going back to North Carolina. I don’t even go that way to get to most of downtown like Busch. If you hit traffic at the wrong time with all the construction they are doing on 70 it could be a nightmare. If I lived on the other side of the Mississippi, I would play Stonewolf every single day.

Side Note: One oddity is that they appear to have flipped the nines at some point. I went off 10, so I played the original configuration on their website and in GHIN and 18 birdies. It was a bit confusing after hitting my tee shot on 10 to drive up to a grass cliff at the end of the fairway I didn’t know was there. I was glad I didn’t try to mash it because I would have rolled off the end and been penalized for a better drive. Either configuration of the nines is fine. 18 is more of a looker, but 9 is a great tough uphill par 4 to finish on.

I just thought of this as I was finishing, but the original configuration start is almost identical to National. First hole- par 4 with fairway that ends, a valley, and then a green guarded by a front bunker. Hole 2- Long par 3 with water/marsh short. Some courses let you warm up a bit, especially “links” style, with straight forward holes to start. Jack tests you right away.

Photo Courtesy of Stone Wolf Golf Club because I forgot to take a photo I was playing so quick and enjoying the course so much.