Gateway National Golf Links, Madison, IL

Gateway was once a very pleasant place to play, but the course and the customer service have both gone downhill recently. The practice range does not have grass any more. The tee boxes are either devoid of grass or have weeds growing. There are bare spots in some fairways. The only positive feature is the quality of the greens. They have been in very good condition. The condition of the course would be acceptable if they weren't charging $70.00 to play on weekend mornings.

In addition, they have removed the GPS units from the carts, so it is very difficult to determine distances to the holes because the course is not well marked. While the cart attendants are very nice and helpful, I have experienced very negative attitudes from a staff member inside the clubhouse.
I really enjoy the location and the layout of this golf course, but it really isn't worth the hefty greens fee, given the conditions of the course.

In terms of a challenge, Gateway is right up there. It’s not very forgiving (the rough and native grasses lining the fairways are brutal), but the course is generally in great shape. The grounds crew does a solid job of keeping the course looking good and making it playable despite what had been a particularly wet week or two.

My biggest complaint regarding the golf course was that it is very difficult to determine yardage or any sort of hole layouts. There are no maps on the scorecards or on the hole signs themselves, so you’re always kind of just teeing off blind. Then, other than a 150-yd stake, there isn’t really anything to tell you how far you are to the hole. You might luck out and find a sprinkler head or two here and there, but these heads have 3-4 different yardage markers on them. This is confusing, because although there are certainly different distances from the tees, any distance to the green from a spot on the fairway should be the same. Still, the course was pretty wide-open so you could do pretty well just guessing.

My main complaint isn’t about the course necessarily but about the customer service. I purchased an online coupon, which was offered 1-2 days before I went. Now, in my experience with such deals, most respectable businesses who care about treating their customers well will allow you to show your coupon on your smartphone, include the distinct code, etc. Well, this was not the case at Gateway. I showed up for a late morning teetime on an incredibly rainy, wet, humid day. They didn’t appear to be very busy on this particular day, as later evidenced by the starter going home (before our teetime).

I was told that I needed to have the printed coupon, which is fine. I asked if I could possibly print my coupon there, seeing that the clubhouse obviously had more access to a printer than I did at the time. When I asked the club pro about this, he threw a fit.

He stated “Sure, it’s not like I don’t have anything better to do,” then proceeded to slam down whatever golf magazine he happened to be reading at the time. I thanked him and proceeded to login to my account from his computer and print the certificate. The entire time I was doing this, he made a number of condescending, rude, and flat-out unnecessary comments to whoever happened to be in the clubhouse. I’m not sure what he was trying to do with this, other than to be passive-aggressive toward me.

As I wrapped up the process and continued to listen to his insulting remarks, I made the comment that “Do you just not want me to print this?” He mentioned how “nice it would be if people could just walk into a Target and ask the manager if they could print coupons.” I mentioned that in fact, many businesses will allow you to simply show the code on your phone, honor competitor’s coupons, and engage in a whole host of other practices in an effort to encourage a good customer experience. Apparently he has never been to any of these establishments, because he was not moved.

At the end of the day, it’s not like I was asking for him to give us a free round of golf or bend over backwards for us. Rather, I asked if I could print a coupon that I had paid for, which they presumably wanted people to use. I made this request during a very slow time of the day on a slow, rainy/humid day when there wasn’t anyone else around. The pro did not appear to be doing anything that my 2 minutes with his computer/printer would interfere with.
All-in-all, the golf experience was a good one but I don’t think I’ll ever give Gateway National anymore of my money due to the club pro’s childish behavior.

Has been my favorite in STL for years but 2010 was rough on the course. Like most midwest courses its infested with crab and nut grass. My issue was that it was all over the tee boxes which to me is crucial and a easy fix. Just send someone out to either spray or pull that crap out of the tee boxes. Also has a bad trend with Walters courses in that they have lowered afternoon rates so much that they attract people who dont know anything about golf etiquette and think that 6 hour rounds are the norm. Get a Marshall out there and tell people to hurry up. My last round there took 3h 20m to play front 9. Called clubhouse twice to come tell group of 8 to hurry up and they finally came and said something on 11. We ended up passing them and skipping a hole...which sucks.