Sunset Country Club

Detailed description of Sunset Country Club

Sunset Country Club is a Private, 18 hole golf course located in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Sunset Country Club was formed by Adolphus Busch in 1910 reportedly because Saint Louis Country Club repeatedly rejected his membership requests.

Sunset Country Club, first named the Sunset Inn was initially invisioned to be a dining club. He wanted a hilly, undeveloped, wooded site that would permit privacy and an opportunity to share in nature's beauty, and one that would serve Anheuser-Busch products exclusively. From 1910 to 1916, the Sunset Inn served its 1,800 members with some of the finest dining available in the area.

With the death of Adolphus Busch in 1913, it fell to August A Busch Sr. to continue the legacy of Sunset. August Sr. acquired over 170 acres ajacent to dining club property. A descision to build a golf courses was made and The Foulis brothers - Robert, Jim and David - were selected to design the new Sunset Hill course.

One of the brothers, Jim Foulis, was the first golf professional in the western United States, serving as professional at the Chicago GC. When he won the second U.S. Open in 1896 at Shinnecock CC, his services as a designer, as well as a player, were in high demand. His brother Robert was considered as one of the finest professional-greenkeepers in the country, and his knowledge of grasses was unsurpassed. The third brother - David - was an excellent clubmaker. Natives of Saint Andrews, Scotland, "birthplace of golf," the brothers, who learned their golf from Old Tom Morris, became known as the Founding Fathers of Midwest Golf!

The course was completed in the spring of 1917

Like most private clubs, Sunset Hill suffered through the years of The Great Depression and temporarily closed its doors in 1937. A few months later, a group of former Sunset Hill members approached Anheuser-Busch to reorganize the club, which they did in 1938, renaming the club Sunset CC. In 1944, Anheuser-Busch was approached by the club with an offer to sell the club to the membership. After consulting with Alice Busch, the widow of August A. Busch Sr., who held deed to 95-acres, the sale was completed in 1945.

Sunset's Clubhouse sits on one of the highest elevations in South County providing a spectacular western view of the golf course and the Meramec River Valley and Ozark foothills beyond.

For nearly 100 years, Sunset Country Club has been regarded as having one of the finest championship courses in the St. Louis area. The par 72 layout boasts 6,636 yards of tight tree-lined fairways, rolling hills, strategically placed bunkers, natural flowing creeks, challenging but true greens, and breathtaking views of the Meramec Valley.

Early on, Sunset hosted three important golf championships: the 1930 St. Louis Open, the 1946 Western Open, and the 1956 Carling Open -- won by Tommy Armour, the Legendary Ben Hogan, and Dow Finsterwald Sr., respectively. All three players are enshrined in the PGA Hall of Fame, with Sunset Country Club forever etched in their biographies. Since then, Sunset has hosted many qualifying and championships events for the USGA, Missouri Golf Association, St. Louis Men's District, St. Louis Women's District and Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association; including the 2001 Missouri State Amateur Championship and a 2003 and 2011 USGA Senior Open qualifying event.

Larry Packard redesigned this course in 1962. In 1989, Dr. Michael Hurdzan was retained to rejuvenate and update the layout of Sunset, bringing it up to modern day golf course design standards. Dr. Hurdzan and his staff continue to work closely with our Superintendent to ensure the ongoing excellence of the course.

This course has beautiful scenery as far as flowers and rock formations are concerned. The fairways are a combination of some hilly and flat holes.

Gold tees: par-72, 6,636 yards, 72.1/133

Blue tees: par-72, 6,208yards, 70.0/131

Red tees: par-72, 5,783 yards, 68.2/123

Yellow tees: par-72, 5,542 yards, 72.8/124

White tees: par-72, 4,868 yards, 69.8/121