Pulling into the Oakville Elks Club I was a bit concerned that I was about to trespass, but right away a member of the Elks waved at me and later one asked me how I like the course, told me I could buy beer from the pass-out window on the patio and told me to bring friends next time. It seems like if we treat this course with respect, the Elks are glad to have us there.

The course itself is a nice mixture of six open-ish park-style shots and three wooded holes. The site has some rolling terrain so there is decent elevation changes in the design. The tees are natural with a white post marking the site; the flow was good and there were directional signs to help you find the next tee. The baskets are Gateway Titans so they catch well. The wooded holes had defined throwing routes and added some extra challenge to the design. All-in-all, it was a solid recreational design that made for a fun round.

The site had a couple of unique features; there is what looks to be an old cemetery plot and the tee for hole 2 is right at the edge of that. There is also what looked to be a mid-80's Ford Escort hatchback gutted and flipped over in the woods between holes 5 and 6, which was just random enough to be kinda cool.

The combination of those odd features, the solid fun-factor of the design and the friendly hosts made it a cool course to visit.

The tee signs have no listed distances, and I have no depth perception. So I really have no idea what the distances were, but they were not all that long. I'm going to guess that maybe Hole 3 was the longest hole and it probably is short of 300'. There were no bomber holes, at any rate.

The course is very new, so improved tees and tee signs are planned improvements. However, right now there are dirt/grass tees and posts with a hole number and no distances.

If you throw RHBH, hole 9 might force you to throw a turnover drive but otherwise you can throw hyzers here all day. Even the wooded holes had the basket to the left with a hyzer route. The course really isn't going to force you to throw anything else.

Hole 8 plays down the lodge road and is pretty tight; the driver play there is to hang your shot out over the road and let it hyzer back in. In a public park setting I wouldn't be a big fan of that, but in this setting is shouldn't be a huge conflict.

Another "not really a con" con is the tee for hole 2. It's debatable, but you could argue that it is literally in a cemetery. I'm not the kind of person that would be bothered by that, but some people probably would be so it's worth mentioning.

The road to the lodge is Robert Koch Hospital Road, but there is no hospital there. The hospital that was there in was torn down in the 1980's; it was a circa 1870's infectious disease hospital that was built (at the time) a long way from the St. Louis population base. It was a tuberculosis hospital until the 1950's when it became a home for indigent elderly patients. It finally became too costly to maintain and was torn down. The site is still undeveloped and is the land just east of the Elks lodge.

I thought it was really cool that an Elks lodge put a course in, and they seemed very friendly and excited to have disc golfers out there. Hopefully it's a good fit and the course will be good for both us and the Elks.

This course is a fun addition to the area and makes a cool place to add-in a round when playing Jefferson Barracks. It's head and shoulders better than the Arnold 9-hole course for another course to play if you don't want to fight the crowds at Jefferson Barracks. Given how popular disc golf has been in South County, it's a quality recreational course that should see some play.