Ruth Park: Dependable, Accessible, Soulful The Bogeyman

Dan O’Neill

Well, Valentine’s Day is behind us, St. Patrick’s Day is coming fast and Easter arrives soon after. No question about it, the ball will be in the air soon.

If you need further proof, just check your link to the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association website and there it is - staring you right in the face. The 2023 Championship Schedule has been announced. And if you’re a competitor, you quickly start checking off the must-play events and making out your own schedule.

That exercise always begins with the Metropolitan’s Amateur Championship, i.e. the premier amateur event in town, i.e. the Holy Grail of St. Louis golf. On Aug. 4-6 the championship will be conducted at Persimmon Woods, which has a history of making memorable headlines.

The last time the 54-hole championship was held at Persimmon, Kyle Weldon prevailed by two strokes over Phil Caravia to become the second player to win the title in back-to-back years. David Estes accomplished the feat in 1997-98. They remain a twosome in that category, unless Andrew Pranger - already the only three-time winner of the championship - can repeat his 2022 victory last summer at Old Warson.

Equally memorable was the 2003 event at Persimmon, when Scott Edwards made a marvelous chip to overcome Shawn Jasper on the third playoff hole. Jasper would have to wait 14 years before he put his name on the Jim Tom Blair Trophy, winning at Norwood Hills in 2017.

Of course, additional highlights dot the menu, including the Old Warson Cup, the Shogren Cup at Bellerive Country Club and the MAGA Open at Country Club of St. Albans. At the same time, Westborough Country Club promises to provide a wonderful canvas for the 2023 Women’s Amateur, July 10-11.

But gotta be honest, it does the Bogeyman’s heart especially good to see the MAGA’s 9-Hole Championship is set for Saturday, June 24 at Ruth Park. This is the first time the venerable University City municipal course has been on the MAGA schedule. For that matter, it’s a good bet it’s the first time the facility has been on any golf association’s schedule.

But don’t misunderstand, the golf course has chops. After all, it was designed by Robert Foulis, a protege of Old Tom Morris at the “birthplace of golf” - St. Andrews, Scotland. Foulis also did Normandie and the original Forest Park. What’s more, Ruth Park is a veritable Taj Mahal. Not the ivory-white marble mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra, mind you, but the gritty, folksy American blues musician - that Taj Mahal.

Municipal golf is that way, at least, the municipals being built when Ruth Park came along in 1931 were that way. We’re not talking about a “country club for a day,” or its greens fees. We’re talking about something slightly more gritty. We’re talking about a neighborhood joint, dependable, accessible and soulful.

People have grown up around Ruth Park, which was originally called University City Golf Course. They have been introduced to the game there, scratched their itch there, learned their lessons there. It’s not dazzling;, it’s dependable.

Full disclosure: Ol’ Bogey grew up in the neighborhood, graduated from U. City High. Yeah, that’s right - Bing Devine Tennessee Williams, Nelly and the Bogeyman. Hard to believe, right?

Furthermore, Bogey was not the most attentive student in his prep years, securing his high school parchment with a 1.7 - that’s grade-point average, not handicap. But he was smart enough to recognize an opportunity. He and his miscreant entourage often arrived in the early evenings, entered the Ruth Park from grounds from the Swarthmore LN. dead end, and played some fee-free holes, undetected.

Of course, the experience wasn’t entirely unconditional. The first few holes at Ruth Park are a slicer’s worst nightmare. Golf balls that go right at Ruth go to die. Truth be told, Bogey spent more time scouring the vegetation, searching for replacements, than hitting golf shots. Ruth Park is where he learned to handicap his game, not by its relationship to par, but by how many balls he lost.

He also learned that all golf courses serve a purpose, and 9-hole nuggets like Ruth Park, in the heart of a community, serve it well. People and golf make their first connection at such facilities. Perhaps those same people graduate to something more elaborate. But many feel at home there, and many keep coming back.

“I started this championship to highlight and showcase the 9-hole facilities who support us,” said MAGA executive director Curt Rohe. “Ruth Park has done that through the years. It has been there for us, it has been there for golf and it has been there for the community. This is a way to celebrate that.”

The Bogeyman is certainly happy to see Ruth Park on the schedule - gives him a chance to look for a few more balls.