Mountain Top Golf Course
09.11.2019 - Bucket Golfer - ~6 Minutes
On our first bucket list trip, we mozied on down to Southern Missouri, where Johnny Morris (the guy behind Bass Pro Shops) is arguably building the next great golf destination in America at Big Cedar Lodge. He has a collection of phenomenal courses in the area including Top of the Rock (Nicklaus), Buffalo Ridge Springs (Fazio - #1 public course in Missouri), Ozarks National (Coore/Crenshaw), soon to be open Payne’s Valley (Woods – his first public course), and this blog post’s focus, Mountain Top (Player). Each course definitely has its own character with a nod back to its creator. The terrain obviously lended a hand in influencing and inspiring the architecture with all of the courses dancing along the mountains and ravines of the Ozarks. That is definitely true about Mountain Top as it literally sits on top of a mountain.
When we first arrived at Mountain Top, we were blown away by a few things: the driveway and the massive Tom Watson designed putting green. The bag drop-off driveway quickly turned into an iron bridge that overlooked Payne’s Valley and surrounding areas. It didn’t quite feel right driving on it as the surface was an iron grate with daylight below you. After parking, we warmed up the short game on the largest putting green I have ever seen. The putting green is an attraction in and of itself, having its own 9 hole putting course and scorecard. Most of the holes on the putting green were in excess of 60 feet and traversed crazy swales and undulations. If you two-putt any of the holes, you feel like you accomplished something.
The clubhouse matches The Big Cedar Lodge’s rustic look feel. Its vibe is upscale log cabin with the amenities of any country club. There’s a solid restaurant (more on that later) and several bars throughout the clubhouse. Throughout the building, you’ll find memorabilia from many of the greats in the game including Stewart, Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, and many others. Within the men’s locker room, you’ll find lockers with the names of many PGA Champions players. It is unknown if they actually use these lockers but you still feel like you’re in the accompaniment of greatness when you’re among them. FYI, I did peek into Johnny Morris’ locker. It had a bunch of incidentals/toiletries within it. It was not clear if these could be taken, so we didn’t try. We’ll chat more about the clubhouse in a little. Let’s talk about the course.
The course is walking only but that’s a good thing. While the course sits on top of a Mountain, the elevation changes between holes is gradual making it very walkable. And in addition, by default, the clubhouse attendant will place your bag on a complimentary pull cart. The pull carts were easy to handle as they were lightweight and massive wheeled. Pure speculation on the author’s part: Gary Player is a health nut and really wanted to make a walking only course. I also think that a cart path would have ruined the aesthetics of the course as there’s nowhere to hide it. In addition, selfishly, I think that having a walking only courses cuts down on the amount of play. This might explain the ridiculous quality of the greens (not a ball mark in site), fairways, and tee boxes.
Mountain Top is a 13 hole, par 3 course. Don’t let that dissuade you. This isn’t your average par 3 course. Each hole somehow outdoes the beauty of the previous hole. Why did Player choose to go to 13 and not 9 or 18? Great question. Somewhere I saw him talk about beginners and families and how 13 holes seemed to be the perfect number to keep everyone’s attention and not get too frustrating. If I find the article or video, I’ll update this post. I personally feel that 13 holes took care of the available real estate. Any more holes would have required Player and Morris to go down the mountain, messing up the walkability and possibly getting in the way of Payne’s Valley. Something else that’s special about this course is its ability to challenge players at all levels. You won’t find any lakes, gullies, or any other trouble between the tee to green. So for players who tend to hit it short but straight, they’ll really enjoy themselves. For more seasoned golfers, the false fronts, backs, and sides of many of the greens will keep them on their toes.
A few items of note about the round. The pace of play was exceptional. We didn’t have to wait on anyone nor was there anyone riding our tail. To me, pace of play practically equals enjoyment regardless of how I play. There was also bottled water in coolers strategically located throughout the course. We double checked and could not find any beer or hard seltzer at the bottom of the coolers.
Once finished, the clubhouse attendants greeted us on the 13th green to clean our clubs, take them up to the bag drop, and provide us ice cold towels. It was a nice service offered as we were both ready for lunch and didn’t want to worry about anything else but food and beverage. The restaurant in the Mountain Top clubhouse was very good. I had the chicken Caesar salad and my golfing buddy had their brisket sandwich. Compared to St. Louis’ top BBQ joints, the brisket didn’t stack up but was ok. While enjoying our food, we both commented about the lack of golfers on the course. We feel like this may be the last season like this because when Payne’s Valley opens up, this place may explode. The lack of golfers definitely contributed to the pace of play and the quality of the greens and tee boxes.
It was truly an amazing course and hope to be back soon.