Lake Of The Ozarks MO Golf Trail
(3 hours W/SW of St. Louis, 2-1/2 hours N of Branson)
TravelGolf.com, 3/11
T&L Golf, Mar/Apr '09
Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri: As many golf holes as fishin' holes
By Kiel Christianson, Senior Writer, TravelGolf.com
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – It's the time of year when golfers who live in wintery climes begin jonesing for the fairways and greens. Temperatures rise outside, and the fever of a new season sets in. According to health professionals, the most effective treatment for this yearly malady is planning an early season golf trip -- tossing the clubs in the trunk and driving just far enough south to find the first clear fairways.
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., is famous among anglers and boaters as an almost year-round mecca of aquatic fun. But golfers, especially in the Midwest, should consider it as an almost year-round golf destination, too. With some 15 courses dotting the countryside surrounding the massive, amoeba-like lake, there are as many golf holes to explore as there are fishing holes. And if non-golfing family members tag along, they'll have just as many off-course attractions to explore.
Lake of the Ozarks golf
Lake of the Ozarks formed between 1929 and 1931 with the construction of the Bagnell Dam on the Osage River. Not long after the lake -- the largest man-made lake in the Midwest -- came into being, a booming tourism industry emerged along its shores.
The rolling, wooded, watery mix of land and lake make for outstanding and challenging golf courses. The Lake of the Ozarks Golf Trail comprises 15 courses and more than three dozen resort and vacation properties collaborating on play-and-stay packages that rival anywhere in the nation.
Osage Beach is one of the several centers of fun and relaxation around the lake, and it's ideal for first-time visitors to the area, as most of the best golf courses and most famous attractions are within easy reach. In Osage Beach, Emerald Bay Resort (www.pmglake.com) boasts dramatic views of the lake and serves as a luxurious "home base" for exploring the area.
With respect to the golf courses themselves, it's difficult to single out "must play" tracks, because each is inherently unique, thanks to the varied and dramatic landforms in the area. Nevertheless, there are a few that any golfer coming to the lake should keep in mind.
The Oaks at Tan-Tar-A Resort is a 6,432-yard, par-71 layout on the grounds of the most historic resort on the lake. With greens fees topping out at $55 during peak season, and plenty of challenges off the tee, it's worth a couple of plays.
Bear Creek Valley Golf Club is another excellent value, with peak rates at or below $60. Measuring 6,792 yards from the tips, and just more than 6,100 yards from the regular tees, this superbly conditioned layout won't overwhelm players with length, but it will test every bit of their imaginations.
The Club at Old Kinderhook may have the area's highest greens fees, but these are still just $85 at peak times. The 6,833-yard Tom Weiskopf design features narrow, snaking fairways lined with dense trees and brush and demands accuracy and control from the elevated tees to the undulating greens.
Lake of the Ozarks off-course
With 1,150 miles of shoreline and approximately 617 billion gallons of blue water, the biggest off-course attraction in the area is the lake itself. Bring your own boat, water skis and fishing gear or rent it all once you get there (www.iguanawatersports.com). The lake is full of enormous bass and other sport fish, and most of the area's resorts and eateries can be accessed just as easily by boat as by road (sometimes more easily).
A great way to get the lay of the land, or rather lay of the lake, is by booking a 90-minute cruise with Tropic Island Cruises ($16, www.tropicislandcruises.com), leaving daily at 4 p.m. from the grounds of the Tan-Tar-A Resort. Rather get an eagle-eye view of the area? Then book a helicopter tour instead (www.lakeozarkhelicopters.com).
You say you get seasick and are afraid of heights? Then you should head underground to either Bridal Cave (www.bridalcave.com) or Jacob's Cave (www.jacobscave.com). Some 2,100 couples from around the world have taken their vows among the scenic rock formations in the bridal chapel located deep inside Bridal Cave.
Besides these caves, there is also a state-owned cave -- Ozark Caverns -- and two state parks -- Lake of the Ozark State Park and Ha Ha Tonka State Park. The former offers camping sites along 85 miles of shoreline and its own airstrip, while the latter contains the ruins of an early 1900s castle and estate.
The famous Bagnell Dam Strip is the location of several blocks of mom-and-pop storefronts, along with a haunted house, old-time photo parlor, and a home base for a new zip-line adventure. If you're hankering for some big-time shopping, though, head out to the Osage Beach Premium Outlets, where 61 acres of retail paradise await.
And finally, if you just can't get enough golf, even after dark, there are plenty of lighted mini-golf courses around the lake, including my personal favorite, Sugar Creek, with its two 18-hole courses winding down into and back out of a lush, wooded glen.
Food and beverage
Cuisine on the lake ranges from fast food to fine dining. But perhaps the area's "signature" eateries are casual establishments situated right on the water. Some of the most well-known are The "Original" Gators Bar and Grill, Franky and Louie's, Dog Days Bar and Grill, Bulldog's Beach House, Pickled Pete's Sports Bar and Grill, and Shorty Pants Marina and Lounge.
Many of these places have a Cajun flair and feature seafood fare. And somehow, as you're sitting on a deck overlooking the lake, tossing bread crumbs to schooling sunfish and carp, eating seafood gumbo, and sipping a cold beer, you sort of forget that you're nowhere near the oceans from which the ingredients have been flown in.
You're just happy to be relaxing at the Midwest's own inland sea.
For more information, visit www.funlake.com.
March 1, 2011
Fat Guy Research, Best Bar Nearby: There are a few country Gentlemen's clubs in the area. Try GQ Gentlemen's Quarters in Lake Ozark, Flirt in Osage Beach, or Eclypse in Sunset Beach.
Missouri Territory: Four Perfect Days
At the Lake of the Ozarks, golf worth discovering
From T&L Golf, March - April 2009
by Kevin Robbins
In the dire days of the Great Depression, a utility company dammed the Osage River in central Missouri and filled more than ninety-three square miles of hills and hollows with water. The water attracted campers and fishermen, who later built cabins on its 1,150 miles of shoreline. The cabins multiplied. So did the number of visitors eager for a quiet, hickory-scented getaway. When the bass and catfish sank to the depths for their long summer nap, the tourists required another pastime, and Robert Trent Jones Sr. was commissioned to bring golf to the area.
The Lake of the Ozarks now beckons as many golfers as anglers to the three counties that border its graveled banks. The quaint cabins of yesteryear have been rebuilt as million-dollar mansions with picture windows facing wake-controlled coves and docks with sedan-bridge yachts in the slips. Far enough from both Kansas City and St. Louis to seem like the wilderness, the region heaves through the middle of the state like folded cake batter. The landscape is abrupt and rugged, creating dramatic landforms that are perfect for tournament-tested golf. Zoysia fairways bend through patches of brilliant-red royal catchfly and thick forests of high-canopy hardwoods and shortleaf pines. Bent-grass greens thrive in Missouri’s balanced climate, which stretches the golf calendar to nine months or longer. Now that modern course designers like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer have planted flagsticks in the path of the pioneering Jones, the once-sleepy center of the Show Me State rivals anything in the lower Midwest for a golf experience worth sampling at least once. Or more. Missouri just might show you enough that you’ll find yourself going back time and again.
Day One
The Lake of the Ozarks bustles during the summer, especially around Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. Even then, there’s enough room around the enormous lake to accommodate weekenders and zealous golf trippers alike. The airports in Kansas City and St. Louis are about three hours away, but by flying into the regional airport in Springfield you can shave ninety minutes off your travel time.
Settle in your room, one of over three hundred at the Lodge of Four Seasons. Pause on your balcony at the forty-four-year-old, family-owned resort, a Shawnee Bend hallmark that maintains splendid Japanese gardens and the fifteen-thousand-square-foot, world-class Spa Shiki. After savoring the view, it’s just a five-minute shuttle to The Cove, the first of the resort’s two eighteens.
The Cove, designed by Robert Trent Jones, will reopen in May after being outfitted with redone greens and greenside bunkers and a new clubhouse. The course’s short but arresting doglegs once beguiled contestants in the national club-pro championship. Glimpses of the lake arrive early in the round, but you really know where you are at number thirteen, a 227-yard par three that plays over an inlet on the wide main channel. Stop and stare for a while—especially if a forty-foot Sea Ray is churning through the chop.
Finish your day with some batter-fried lobster tail at the historic Blue Heron, which has the lake’s most refined wine cellar and a sweeping view of the water. The Heron has a rustic air, but the restaurant has been serving the area’s most interesting dishes for decades, and there’s good reason it attracts a loyal band of foodies.
Day Two
Start your morning with breakfast in the lodge’s atrium at Breezes or Soleil, two of the resort’s three restaurants. Depart at dawn on a guided fishing trip, booked through the Lodge, or sleep an extra few hours and visit Bridal Cave, an onyx-laden cavern where escorted tours last an easy hour and the temperature hovers at about sixty degrees.
If you’d prefer to spend the entire day with a club in your hands, arrange an early-morning tee time at The Ridge, the second course built at the Four Seasons. Ken Kavanaugh carved a generous, sporting layout of 6,447 yards with tree lines so close that drives echo like jackhammers. With 180 feet of elevation change, shots seem to ride the jet stream.
Stop for lunch at JB Hook’s, order the grouper sandwich and take in a panoramic view of the water. Then head to the Club at Old Kinderhook in Camdenton, the largest town on the west side of the lake and a thirty-minute drive over the Community Bridge from the resort. Inviting fairways lead to some of the smoothest putting surfaces in the state. A striped tee shot on the 516-yard par-five final hole gives you a chance to punctuate—or redeem—your round, provided you can summon the mettle to carry the water in front of the green.
For dinner, don’t even start your car. Just order some whiskey steak bites with wild mushrooms at the Trophy Room, which sits next to the golf shop. Anything from a golf shirt to a coat and tie is appropriate attire.
Day Three
With advance booking through the Lodge, you can play the Club at Porto Cima, perhaps the finest private golf course built in Missouri since Robert Trent Jones completed his work at Bellerive and Old Warson in St. Louis.
Jack Nicklaus applied a magnificent string of heart-fluttering holes to previously undisturbed shoreline. Fifteen through eighteen hug the water, with the 393-yard par-four seventeenth taking you over the lake twice. The bedeviling length of the par-four closer (461 up-the-slope yards) is almost a relief after so much hydro-drama.
Play early so you have time for lunch in the grand clubhouse, which overlooks the marina. Then cross the Community Bridge for a peaceful, rejuvenating stroll along trails through ancient oaks and hickories at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, a sanctuary of nature that harks back to the undeveloped decades before cigarette boats, parasailing and beachfront condominiums came to the middle of Missouri. If you want to sample the state’s burgeoning wine output instead, drive forty-five minutes to the capital, Jefferson City. Sip the chambourcin at Native Stone Winery, a stop on the Missouri River Wine Trail. That night, dine a short walk from your room on seafood flown in daily at HK’s, named after the Lodge of Four Season’s founder, Harold Koplar.
Day Four
With no more than three hours to the airport, you have time for one more round. A short drive from the Lodge is the twenty-seven-hole Osage National Golf Resort, which opened in 1992 in the low country under Bagnell Dam. By all means play the original sides: River and Mountain, in that order. Arnold Palmer laid out the meandering River Course along the Osage River and the exhilarating Mountain Course on, over and through the Ozark hills. The latter’s par-five fifth tumbles sharply from a plateau to a remote green you can’t see until you’re safely on a level lie in two. Then, just for fun, see if you can hit the green in regulation on the par-four eighth hole—all 484 yards of it.
None of these courses is so busy that it takes more than four hours to play, so you can budget time to stop at Bagnell Dam for a moment of introspection high above the Osage River. Just think: The half-mile-long relic of Depression-era imagination, engineering and resolve restrains more than six hundred billion gallons of water and electrifies forty-two thousand households.
Who knew, all those years ago, that it would also give rise to golf that’s just as remarkable?
Playing
The Club at Porto Cima Architect: Jack Nicklaus, 2000. Yardage: 7,036. Par: 72. Slope: 141. Green Fees: $100–$230. Contact: 573-964-3100, www.portocima.com.
The Club at Old Kinderhook Architect: Tom Weiskopf, 1999. Yardage: 6,855. Par: 71. Slope: 137. Green Fees: $45–$95. Contact: 573-346-4444, www.oldkinderhook.com.
Osage National Golf Resort Architect: Arnold Palmer, 1992. Yardage: 7,150. Par: 72. Slope: 145. Green Fees: $50–$89. Contact: 866-365-1950, www.osagenational.com.
The Cove Golf Course Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1971. Yardage: 6,557. Par: 71. Slope: 133. Green Fees: $55–$90. Contact: 800-843-5253, www.4seasonsresort.com.
The Ridge Golf Course Architect: Ken Kavanaugh, 1991. Yardage: 6,447. Par: 72. Slope: 130. Green Fees: $50–$80. Contact: 573-365- 8544, www.4seasonsresort.com.
Staying
The Lodge of Four Seasons Rooms: from $125. Suites: from $375. Contact: 888-265-5500, www.4seasonsresort.com.
Dining
Blue Heron, 573-365-4646. $$$$
HK’s, 573-365-8509. $$$
The Trophy Room, 573-317-3560. $$
Also of Interest
Lake of the Ozarks State Park 573-348-2694, www.mostateparks.com/lakeozark.htm