Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course

Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course is a Public 18 hole golf course located in Alton, Illinois, approximately 30 minutes from downtown St. Louis in the 750 acre Gordon F. Moore Community Park.

Spencer T. opened for play in 1989. The course was designed by Arnold Palmer.

Arnold Palmer designed this course layout at the request of his life long friend of over forty years, Spencer T. Olin, founder of Olin Industries. Mr. Palmer's goal was to design a course challenging enough for the skilled golfer, but yet enjoyable for the average golfer. Proving it high "Palmer" standards, Spencer T. Olin hosted the 1996 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Link Championship and the ESPN televised 1999 U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links Championship.

This deceptively "open" course places a premium on accurate iron play in order to get the ball close to the pin on the boldly contoured Penncross bentgrass greens, featuring both zoysia and blue/rye tees and zoysia fairways. Roughs are a combination of Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, and Jamestown fescue. There is plenty of water to encounter on the course, and in the afternoon, especially....wind.

Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course is the centerpiece of perhaps the finest municipal family recreation and sports center in the Midwest, The Gordon F. Moore Community Park. The park features a lake for fishing, a pro-quality tennis facility, a magnificent rose garden and some of the best soccer and softball/baseball facilities anywhere.

Spencer T. Olin's fantastic practice facility features an immense two tiered grass tee practice range, practice putting green, practice chipping green, and practice sandtrap.

Par for the course is 72. From the back tees the course plays to 6,941 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 5,049 yards. The longest hole on the course is # 1, a par-5 that plays to 565 yards. The shortest hole on the course is # 7, a par-3 that plays to 149 yards from the back tees.

Watch out for # 8, a 406 yard par-4 challenge and the #1 handicap hole on the course. The easiest hole at Spencer T. Olin is # 10, a 377 yard par-4.