"There is no other club like this in America. With all due respect to other courses,
St. Clair is the home of modern American golf in the US!" Rob Strano

The year was 1909.  The date was August 25th and on this date established St. Clair Country Club as a legal corporation under the laws of the State of Illinois. The initial 63 acres of ground were purchased at a cost of $12,000.00 and nine-hole golf course was constructed on what basically in now the back nine with the present No. 10 being the first hole. In 1921 and 1922 most of the ground was purchased for the present front nine and the remaining tracts were bought in 1927, resulting in approximately 169 acres currently owned by the Club. Membership in St. Clair Country Club increased and records indicate that there were 200 Members by January 1911.  In July of that year the Membership increased to 300, and in 1982 the Membership was further increased to its present number of 325 voting members.
 
As was the case with most of the clubs built in those years, golf was the primary and exclusive interest of the Membership.  Through the years, fine amateur golfers have been Members of St. Clair Country Club.  The brothers Bill and Harvey Mertz held many club championships and brought honor to St. Clair early in the history of our club association with the St.  Louis District.  This tradition of quality golfers continued with Bob Goalby winning the St. Louis District championship in 1955 before turning to professional golf as a career.  Mr. Goalby went on to be the Masters Champion in 1968 and is one of the founding members of the PGA Champions Tour.  Bob’s introduction to golf started in 1938, when he became a caddy at St. Clair Country Club. Mr. Goalby then introduced his nephews to the game at St. Clair. The Haas boys Jay and Jerry both grew up learning the game at the club and have gone on to great careers in the game. Jay Haas, winner of the St. Louis District in 1972, 1973, and 1975 and currently holds the course record of 61, which was set in 1973. Jay is a long time veteran of the PGA and Champions Tour and is a recipient of the prestigious Bobby Jones Award. Jerry Haas has demonstrated his golfing skills by winning the District in 1983, 1984, and 1985 and went on to play the PGA and Web.com Tours and is the first player ever to win three times in the same year on the Web.com tour.  Frank Conner, after having an outstanding record as an amateur tennis player, turned to professional golf and had a great career on the PGA Tour. To our knowledge, St. Clair Country Club is the only golf club to have three professionals in the same Masters Tournament when Bob Goalby, Jay Haas and Frank Conner were players in 1983. Inspired by these players Rob Strano followed their examples and in 1981 was the top junior golfer in the St. Louis District winning the Points and Low Stroke Average titles. He played professionally for 15 years before turning to golf instruction and has appeared on Golf Channel numerous times including on such shows as Morning Drive and School of Golf with Martin Hall. 

Another outstanding sports figure is the tennis legend Jimmy Connors, who grew up in the St. Clair Country Club atmosphere and visits frequently when not busy with the Senior Tennis Tour. During his competitive years as the top ranked player in the world Jimmy could be found working on his game on the clay courts at St. Clair.
 
When it comes to professionals St. Clair has had some of the best with long standing pros: Clark Morse, 1947-75; Clarence Voigt, 1975-85; Paul Hooser, 1986-91; Jeff Hunter, 1991-2000; Wayne Ockovic, 2000-10; and the present golf professional, Tom Sipula took over in 2011. Clark Morse was also quite an accomplished player who competed in the 1930 US Open that was won by Bobby Jones.

Through the years the William Langford design has stood the test of time. Most recently St. Clair hosted the US Senior Open qualifying with the best players in the world over 50 trying to qualify for the national championship. The low score for the day were a pair of 70's by Brian Henninger and Jay Don Blake. In the 60's and 70's St. Clair was the host to its own professional golf event, the St. Clair Open. The winner of the last two events was Jay Haas, narrowly beating PGA Tour legend Sam Snead in the final playing of the open in 1978.





Welcome to your host course for The Coaches Golf Camp with Jerry Haas and Rob Strano.