Sunset Country Club wanted to have their photos of the course updated and asked me to help in the project. This may take some time, because of weather, light and time of the year. It takes time to get a quality photograph. Here is the story of the heritage of Sunset Country Club.
In 1910 Adolphus Busch decided Saint Louis needed a social and dining club in south St. Louis County. He wanted a hilly, undeveloped, wooded site that would permit privacy and an opportunity to share in nature’s beauty, and one that would serve Anheuser-Busch products exclusively.
Adolphus completed the acquisition of the initial 26 acres, upon which he constructed the Sunset Inn, which opened in November 1910. From 1910 to 1916, the Sunset Inn served its 1,800 members with some of the finest dining available in the area; accompanied by his Anheuser-Busch products.
August A Busch Sr. took the lead on the purchase of additional land, and in May 1911, he formed the Sunset Hill Country Club in a small building adjacent to the Sunset Inn. With the death of Adolphus Busch in 1913, it fell to August Sr. to continue the legacy of Sunset.
Carleton was familiar with the Foulis brothers – Robert, Jim and David – from work they had done at other area courses. He convinced August and Eberhard that the Foulis’ were the right choice to design the new Sunset Hill course.
One of the brothers, Jim Foulis, was the first golf professional in the western United States, serving as professional at the Chicago GC. When he won the second U.S. Open in 1896 at Shinnecock CC, his services as a designer, as well as a player, were in high demand. His brother Robert was considered as one of the finest professional-greenkeepers in the country, and his knowledge of grasses was unsurpassed. The third brother – David – was an excellent clubmaker. Natives of Saint Andrews, Scotland, “birthplace of golf,” the brothers, who learned their golf from Old Tom Morris, became known as the Founding Fathers of Midwest Golf!
In addition to designing Sunset’s original course, the Foulis’ also helped lay out other prestigious courses in our area—the original Bellerive, Glen Echo, Algonquin, and the Bogey Club and Log Cabin Club courses, as well as performing the construction on the courses at Forest Park, Normandie GC, Ruth Park and the original course for Westwood CC (today Westborough CC).
When the course was completed in the spring of 1917, it was hailed as one of the most beautiful and best designs in the country.
However, like most private clubs, Sunset Hill suffered through the years of The Great Depression and temporarily closed its doors in 1937. A few months later, a group of former Sunset Hill members approached Anheuser-Busch to reorganize the club, which they did in 1938, renaming the club Sunset CC. In 1944, Anheuser-Busch was approached by the club with an offer to sell the club to the membership. After consulting with Alice Busch, the widow of August A. Busch Sr., who held deed to 95-acres, the sale was completed in 1945.