St. Louis Country Club (SLCC) is a country club located in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is recognized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) as one of the first 100 Clubs in America.
Club history
Founded in 1892 as a polo club, in 1895, the club moved to a site in the city of Clayton where it hired James Foulis, winner of the 1896 United States Open Golf Championship, to build a nine-hole course. The course opened in October 1896. In 1913, with Clayton becoming more populated, the club looked to move further west. It found a site at the corner of Ladue and Price Roads, owned by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. After some negotiations, the club purchased the land from the Archdiocese.
It then contracted with Charles Blair Macdonald to build a new 18-hole course. With golf chairman George Herbert Walker alongside, Macdonald began construction of the course. He hired Seth Raynor to do the engineering on the course, making the St. Louis course one of the few Macdonald-Raynor designs.
Macdonald, who was also among the founders of the United States Golf Association, was also the first champion of the United States Golf Association's Amateur Championship. The St. Louis course would be the furthest west Macdonald would go to design a course. Other courses he designed include National Golf Links of America, Sleepy Hollow, Piping Rock, Greenbrier's Old White Course, Yale Golf Course, the Mid Ocean Club, and the Chicago Golf Club.
Like many clubs throughout the United States, SLCC has a history of anti-Semitism and racism. Long considered a pinnacle of WASP culture in St. Louis, the club disaffiliated from the USGA in the early 1990s rather than admit any Black members and chose to remain unaffiliated several years later even as other clubs began admitting Black members. As of 2006, the club had one Black member.
The USGA Championships
1921 U.S. Amateur - First Amateur played west of the Mississippi
In 1919, Stewart Maiden left East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, to fulfill a promise he made if St. Louis was awarded the 1921 U.S. Amateur. He remained at St. Louis through 1921 as head professional before returning to East Lake. At the 1921 U.S. Amateur, a 19-year-old Bobby Jones was a participant, though he lost in the quarterfinals to Englishman Willie Hunter, the recent winner of the British Amateur. The Jones-Hunter match was well played during the early holes. However, on the 8th hole - the club's Cape Hole, Jones attempted to drive over the trees, which guarded the right side of the fairway. When his ball clipped a tree, it fell into the creek running down the right side, losing the hole. He never recovered and Hunter went on to win the match 2 and 1. In the other quarterfinal matches, Charles 'Chick' Evans downed Jess Sweetser 1up, while Robert A. Gardner defeated Rudy Knepper 4 and 3, and Jess Guilford bettered Harrison Johnston 1 up. With Guilford winning 5 and 4 over Evans in the semifinals, and Gardner defeating Hunter 6 and 5, the Finals pairing was set. In the championship match, Guilford defeated Gardner 7 and 6.
1925 U.S. Women's Amateur
In 1925, the St. Louis hosted the U.S. Women's Amateur. Alexa Stirling (Fraser), the 1916, 1919 and 1920 champion and the 1922 champion Glenna Collett (Vare) reached the finals, with Collett winning the final match 9 and 8 over Stirling. Collett would go on to win a total of six U.S. Women's Amateur Championships, with the last coming in 1935. Stirling, a 3-time U.S. Women's Amateur Champion, was another of the East Lake "whiz kids" taught by Stewart Maiden. Collett was a member of the first Curtis Cup team in 1932 and served as Captain on four occasions. In 1975, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
1947 U.S. Open
In 1947, St. Louis played host to the U.S. Open Championship. Among the favorites for the title were: Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Bobby Locke, Jim Ferrier, and Sam Snead. While it was generally believed that the course, playing 6,542 yards, would be overwhelmed by the players and that Ralph Guldahl's record score of 64 would be broken, in the end, the pros would shoot no less than 67, with amateur Jim McHale Jr. posting the championship's lowest score of 65 in this third round. At the conclusion of 72-holes, Snead and Lew Worsham were tied with 282 totals, setting up a playoff on Sunday. (Before 1965, the final two rounds of the U.S. Open were played on Saturday)