St George Golf Club

St. George Golf Club is the city's championship municipal course, and at a par of 73 it is the
longest scorecard in the county. David Bingham designed it and it opened in 1976, making it the third
course built in the area and the one that established that a city of this size could support serious
golf.

The design

Bingham routed the course through and around the Fort Pearce Wash on the east bench. It is a
traditional, generous design rather than a modern target layout: fairways are wide, the greens are
large and comparatively untricked, and there is very little forced carry. That forgiveness is
deliberate and it is why the course still gets heavy local play half a century on. From the Gold tees
it rates 73.9 with a slope of 129 - a slope well below the county's resort courses, which is the
statistical way of saying the course is long but fair.

Holes worth knowing

The par threes are the teeth. Several play over water and they are the holes that decide most rounds
here. The property's best feature is a peninsula that hosts two finishing holes: the 9th, a par five,
and the 18th, a par four, both working around the same body of water. Closing each nine on the same
piece of ground is an unusual routing decision and it gives the course a natural amphitheatre for
club events.

Who it suits

This is the round for a golfer who wants to hit driver. Par 73 means an extra par five, the corridors
accept a wayward tee ball, and the greens reward putting rather than punishing approach play. It is
also the course to send a high-handicap visitor to when the group wants a full-length round without
the slope rating of Copper Rock or Coral Canyon.

The setting

The Fort Pearce Wash drains the Warner Valley country southeast of town. The actual
Fort Pearce ruin - a small stone outpost from the early 1860s - sits
further up the same drainage, and the wash is the reason this corridor stayed undeveloped long enough
to become a golf course.

Living here

The course anchors the established, east-side Bloomington Hills
area, where a number of homes back directly onto the fairways. If you are timing a visit, our guide to
when to golf in St. George explains why the shoulder seasons matter
more here than almost anywhere else in the American golf calendar.