This is such a disappointing review to post. Let's start with the positives. This golf course is a fantastic design. Coming in at just 6600 from the tips, it feels and plays longer. There are four or five truly outstanding holes, and it is a classic shotmaker's and thinker's golf course. You cannot overpower it. It requires thought and strategy.
The greens are tiny but contain great, subtle undulation. There is a decent amount of water, and some great natural foliage. The staff we encountered were friendly and knowledgeable. The prices are decent. Unfortunately, this is where it all ends.
The condition of the course is so absolutely horrid that it makes the greatness of the design worthless. And I don't mean condition due to bad weather or when greens get diseased - that's just golf life. I mean the condition of The Prairies is due to one simple thing - neglect.
Whether that's because of lack of money, or whoever owns it just doesn't care, I don't know. I just know it's heartbreaking to play a track that you can see was once an outstanding course.
The greens - we played at 8:45 on a Monday and they weren't mowed or else mowed to fairway length. And half had dirt and hardpan patches in places. The holes were cut so badly and uneven your ball had no chance of going in unless it rolled directly into the middle.
The tee boxes - many had uneven footing and stances, some had no grass whatsoever and others had patches of weeds two and three inches tall.
The fairways - this is the worst. Every fairway, yes EVERY fairway is a disaster. The "good" places had uncut grass that was more like playing out of 1-inch rough. The bad places had either no grass at all; tractor tire gouges as much as 3-4 inches deep - NOT impressions from golf cart tires - these were caused by heavy equipment - the greenskeeper's machines; weeds 2-3 inches; and rocks.
One hole on the back nine is a very strategic 90-degree dogleg par 4. You have to land your tee shot in about a 25 by 30 yard area to have a shot at the green. From the tips (which we played) it's a 4-iron or hybrid. What a great challenge! Both myself and my partner put our tee shots in the middle of the fairway exactly where we needed to be... only to get up there and find so many deep tractor tire indentations and weeds and tree roots that it was impossible to play. We had to move our balls into the rough to make it fair.
I would love to have left a 5-star review here because of the staff and the course design. But The Prairies is almost dead. And if someone doesn't dump a healthy amount of money into it soon, the STL area will lose yet another great old golf course. read more
