I think no one who lives in St. Louis will be at all surprised by the beginning of this note. I woke this morning and realized I couldn't go bike riding because of the rain. But, I was delighted and donned my rain gear and headed off. It was perfect:
I walked much too long and am simply exhausted.
I parked at the boat house, walked the new back trail to the Grand Basin, circled it, and then walked over by the golf course. From a long distance I could see one lone golfer trudging along in the pouring rain, in rain gear like me, and the clubs as carefully covered at the golfer!
By the time I got down to the club house even that golfer had given up and I had the course to myself. I was really happy about that since I had never yet been able to either bike or walk the cart trails along the course. For those of you who knew the old 9 hole course, it started at the Jefferson Memorial (now Missouri Historical Society Museum) and the first three holes went west to Skinker. # 4 was a short park three coming back east. Where the old green was for # 6 (just across the street from the water fall,) is where the new club house is.
There are three courses now. ON the grounds of the old 9 is mainly the Hawthorn course. # 1 begins by the water fall, # 2 goes very close to Skinker. # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 all come back east and the green of the par 5 #7 is almost all the way to the History Museum. I didn't follow the rest, but there are definitely more than 9 holes on this old grounds.
An interesting feature of the course (which by the way is simply BEAUTIFUL and perfectly maintained) is that each tee has four different tees. The black tees are farthest from the green, then red, yellow and white. There is a HUGE difference in yardage for each hole depending on which tee you use. For example, one has the black tee length of 450 yds while the white tee is only 307 yards. That's a huge difference. This was true of every hole. One par three had the black tee at 165 yards and the white tee of only 90 yards. If one used the black tee for the par 5 #7 you were shooting a respectable 487 yard hole.
The course has a cut main fairway of about 20 yards wide, the a second cut of higher grass (but certainly not rough). This is a lovely little course, but not a huge challenge. The challenge course will be mainly on the grounds of the old 18-hold course, across the street, which is still not finished.
I talk a lot about the bike trail, the main perimeter of the park trail. Today I found a new map and scanned it in to my web site and offer you a description and discussion of this wonderful trail. See:
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After nearly 2 hours I made it back to my car. Just exhausted. Now it is time for a meal in the mid afternoon and I'm not sure I'm even up for cooking. That would be a bad idea. All that healthy walking, then eat some lousy unheathy restaurant or carry-out meal. Hmmmm. This is a test of my discipline.
Tired and hungry though I may be, it was just a delightful morning in the park.
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