St. Louis foundations partner to reopen historic Normandie GC

[ChipNRun]

Two St. Louis area foundations announced Friday that they were creating a joint venture to reopen historic Normandie GC. The oldest public course west of the Mississippi, Normandie had been shuttered in January 2020 after an impasse between the owner and Walters Golf Management over investment in course improvements.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (From www.metga.org)St. Louis, MO – The Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association (MAGA) and its foundation, the Metropolitan Golf Foundation, along with Beyond Housing are excited to announce a joint venture in which the two organizations will re-open the Normandie Golf Course. The course will be leased from the University of Missouri System (UMSL) for the remainder of the 2020 golf season for a nominal lease fee with an option to purchase by the end of the year.

With this joint venture, the MAGA Foundation and Beyond Housing will continue the efforts that began almost four (4) years ago. The efforts of these two leading organizations are to use the Normandie Golf Course as a philanthropic platform for the continued advancement of the 24:1 Initiative where Normandie GC is situated. To maintain consistency, the joint venture has retained Walters Golf Management to continue to manage the facility which it has done for the last 15+ years. (End of Press Release)

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Originally part of a cluster of four upscale clubs just north of St. Louis, Normandie went public in 1985. It has used a succession of management groups since then.

Walters, which has run the course off and on since 2003, agreed to resume management for Metro Golf Foundation and Beyond Housing.

Walters had expressed concerns in January that it could not compete in the area golf market without UMSL making substantial investments in course upgrades. Walters believed it could not charge sufficient greens fees to run a profitable operation given current state of course.

I had played the course several times this decade, and the decline the last two years has been noticeable. Several tee boxes need to be rebuilt, and the bunkers overall need to be refurbished. Industry pricing models suggest these basic upgrades could cost between $300,000 and $700,000.

Further, the No. 11 hole has severe drainage problems (remediation would cost extra). See diagram.

It got its start as Normandie Country Club, and joined Glen Echo, Norwood Hills and Bellerive amid an upscale country club cluster just north of St. Louis in the early 1900s. Normandie and Glen Echo were built in 1901 by James and Robert Foulis, two of the five Foulis brothers that designed and built dozens of golf courses in the Midwest.

After World War II, the area became more crowded and Bellerive moved 14 miles southwest to west St. Louis County. The original Bellerive site would become the University of Missouri – St. Louis, which opened in 1963. In 1971 I was completing my two-year junior college degree and was looking for a four-year school for transfer. When I visited the UMSL campus, the old Bellerive clubhouse served as the campus administration building.

In 1985 Normandie went public, and for the next twenty years struggled under a structure with separate owner and operators. A series of management groups broached improvement plans, with varying degrees of success. Walters has run the course since 2003.

In 2008, area municipalities fended off a bid by Taylor-Morley Homes to turn the 120-acre course into residential housing. Normandie was very popular as a course for everyday people and scrambles, but struggled financially.

More recently, Normandie was bought by a benefactor in 2015 2ho donated it to UMSL. Walters again became the manager. As in 2008, local residents expressed concerns that the site would be subdivided. In January 2020 it shut down, as Walters and UMSL reached an impasse on future plans.

Normandie reopens Sunday!

[Subsonic]

Way to go MAGA!

[mci711]

Everything Walters touchers turn to shi t. Other than Gateway National. Hopefully Normandie gets a little TLC, it is an interesting layout. But it hasn't been worth playing in years. Walters only cares about packing their courses, even if that means charging basically nothing and putting nothing back into it. Stonewolf has turned to trash, Missouri Bluffs, Whitmoore, Links of Dardenne, and Pevely all did well to get out of their management.

[ChipNRun]

@mci711 said: "Walters only cares about packing their courses, even if that means charging basically nothing and putting nothing back into it."
This doesn't reflect reality. Walters runs golf courses but does not own them. The Walters Impasse with UMSL over Normandie involved complaints over lack of owner investment. Walters argued that they could not charge sufficient greens fees to be profitable without capital improvements to the course.
+++++
I can speak of Stonewolf - it's my home course. And, recent renovations have improved the course greatly.
First, Walters does not own Stonewolf. St. Louis Golf Development owns the course. More below the photos.
When Stonewolf was designed, Nicklaus cautioned the Wolfner group developers that it would be a very challenging course, both for players and greens-crew maintainers. But, the original plans went through, and once the course opened the challenges of maintaining the exotic bunkers really strained the budget.
Stonewolf was doing piecemeal replacement of problem bunkers when I started playing there regularly in 2011. In 2017 Walters hired Grant Rosenfelder as head greenskeeper. Scott oversaw a major rework of the bunker system, taking out several and converting the remainder to flat-bottom bunkers, but often steep banks. (St. Louis Country Club was designed this way.) This improves drainage, and redoing the banks lessens the chances of soil pollution of the bunker sand.
Also, the greens crew cut back the brush encroaching on many greens and fairways, eliminating speed-of-play obstacles. Case in point: The crew removed a "lost ball jungle" that had grown up to the right of No. 12 green. They trimmed it back to four trees and restored normal grass to the rough. (See photos).
[img]https://s3.amazonaws.com/golfwrxforums/uploads/143/1DWOSZTUNRB9.png[/img]Who owns Stonewolf?
Stonewolf is now one of eight area courses owned by St. Louis Golf Development (STLGD). Walters, a management service provider, operates the course. Walters has experts in the design, agronomy, greenskeeping, golf operations and clubhouse operations areas. The individual clubs and courses contract with Walters for packages specific to their site.
Walters owns no golf courses. A possible confusion factor is that Walters CEO Jeff Smith is also a principal owner of STLGD. But, WGM owns no golf courses.
Walters runs the operations of the golf courses it manages. Course owners would pay for any physical renovation or capital improvements of the golf courses.Renovation and normal turf/hole maintenance would be separate line items on the annual budget.

[mci711]

I clearly stated courses they managed not that they owned them. I haven't played Stonewolf in the past year, so maybe things have changed, if not it isn't worth $50 on a weekend. (Not sure what they charge, I haven't paid to play golf in St Louis in 10 years).

I'm not really sure why you copied and pasted about what a management group is. Happy to hear ownership at Stonewolf is making some renovations though, maybe it will be playable again some day.

That being said, I'm sure walters will do everything they can to get 250 players on the tee sheet at an extremely discounted rate and the course will be destroyed by June. I worked with walters in the past, parents are members at stlcc(not walters) and have a ton of connections with st Louis golf. It is pretty well known how Walter's is run.

[ChipNRun]

@mci711 said: "I'm not really sure why you copied and pasted about what a management group is."
For you information, I follow the golf industry closely - especially St. Louis area. I distilled the info about Walter's management role from individual research.
That said, I can tell you care about the sport and the health of the industry. Although we don't agree on everything, we do have the caring about golf in common.

[br61]

This brings back old memories as I lived in Weldon Springs from 1999 to 2004. I forgot the Wolfner's first name when he ran Stonewolf and I think they also ran Normandie in 1997 when I played a tournament there. Correct? Old course with some quirky holes.

Yes, Stonewolf played pretty difficult around year 2000, I never paid for any of my rounds at Stonewolf because a friend of mine's was close friend of them. A former bartender(Sarah) at my current club worked at Stonewolf few years ago, not sure if she's still there.

[ChipNRun]

@br61, you've got a good memory.
Area golf pro Steve Spray and wife Stephanie ran Normandie from 1990-1994.Wolfner Golf Management ran Normandie from 1994-1998; also managed Riverside. Wolfners included John and sons Walter, Greg and Tom. Related: in 1995 John Wolfner joined Tom Grozier as a developer of the Stonewolf project, as per StL P-D article.Eagle Golf Services managed Normandie from 1999-2002.Walters took over in 2003, and has managed Normandie for the most part since then.For details on Normandie going public in 1985, see blog by St. Louis golf historian Jim Healey. http://stlgolfhistory.com/st.louisgolf1980.html

[Shanks2424]

I would agree. Stone Wolf is one of my favorite course in the St Louis area but over the last few years the course has lost alot of its appearance and luster. And this make me sad because its a great course and its diffrent then any other course around here. I call it the thinking course because the frist 3 par 4's if you can hit your driver 275 yards it takes driver out of your hands and makes you think around the course. And plus that course has spiceal meaning to me and my 10 year old son. He has shot his lowest 9 holes there a 55 on the back 9 from the red tees.

[br61]

Thanks, it was Greg. I read that article not long ago and it was very interesting article. I had played with lot of those top amateurs in 1990's and 2000's. Hellva players.