Endicott is a technical 18 hole course in St. John, Missouri. It is one of the older courses in the area, built in 1996, just a year after Jefferson Barracks and Sioux Passage. While many other courses have since been added to the St. Louis area, Endicott has continued to be a popular spot for the local scene, and is a nice technical course for anyone wanting to test their skills with hitting lines.
Endicott is located just off of I-170, between I-70 and I-64 and not far from Lambert Airport. While access to this course is great overall, be mindful if playing around rush hour, as there are a few congestion points not far from this course. When turning off the highway going West on St. Charles Rock Rd., you will want to take the first right, which is Ridgeway/Endicott Ave., and then follow that road to the right. There are some restaurants close by if you need a quick bite to eat, and a Quicktrip that is easily accessible as well for any quick snacks or drink you may want.
Endicott Park includes a shelter, baseball field, basketball court, tennis court, and playground. The disc golf course is the main feature of the park, taking up more space than all of the other activities combined. The was historically a second baseball field that hole 14 bordered and arguably overlapped with, but the only evidence of its existence today is a single foul pole and the ground being flattened out.
The parking lot has two parking areas, neither of which are next to the start of the disc golf course. If you park in the lot next to the street, simply follow the path to the shelter, and hole 1 along with the course bulletin board will be on the opposite side. If you park in the lower lot next to the basketball/tennis court combo, there is also a path that will lead you to hole 1, and you will also be parked close to hole 18's pin. The shelter has bathrooms and a water fountain, though the bathrooms are often locked.
The start of the course is on the far side of the shelter, but on the opposite side of the playground from hole 1 is the practice basket. This is easy to miss, but what's nice about this practice basket is that they actually put bricks in the ground in 2 foot increments from the basket, from 10 feet to 40 feet. A lot of the bricks are faded and unreadable, but it's easy to figure it out from the ones that are readable. The practice area is mostly flat, so it's a nice opportunity to warm up before your round.
The bulletin board includes a course map and some information about leagues and the local St. Louis disc golf club. Most of the course is easy to navigate, but a couple of spots in the course may make it worth having a picture of the layout handy. Each hole has 1 concrete tee pad and 3 pin locations. All of the tees are 10 x 4 and are in great shape, and I don't recall having much trouble with grip in my time playing this course over the last decade or so. Some are starting to show some cracks, but are still a ways from needing repair.
The tee signs at Endicott provide pin locations and distances, a graphic showing the hole layout, and the location of the next tee. These signs are a huge step up from a decade ago, and are a welcome improvement to this course as well as others in the area. Attached or next to each of the 18 tee sign posts is a broom to clear tee pads of dirt or leaves.
The baskets are Gateway Titans, and are among the deepest baskets that you will find anywhere. These baskets are great at catching discs and keep them contained in the basket. A lot of the baskets have tape around the edges, I am assuming for glow rounds. Overall, the baskets are in great shape.
In addition to the usual equipment, this course has some great landscaping when it comes to stairs and other features. The upkeep on bridges over a creek, as well as the stairs on holes 7 and to 13, are in great shape and show some great care for this course. Hole 12's tee is especially nice, surrounded by brickwork and a stone sitting area behind the tee.
Endicott's design is among the most technically challenging in the St. Louis area. Each hole on this course provides different degrees of foliage, elevation, and distance. While there's only 1 hole on this course that let's you air a true drive out in the open, there's enough distance on this course to require a mix of midrange and driver shots off different tees.
There's a good amount of variety on this course in terms of how open the holes are, and how forgiving they are to errant throws. Hole 14 is going to be you opportunity to drive in the open, with the old baseball diamond allowing you to play a safe drive that curves around the right side of the fairway. Holes 4, 5 provide open shots with a few trees to avoid. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hole 12 is a tunneled S shot that is as far as 428 feet, and can be very unforgiving of kicks off of trees or branches that run all along the fairway.
In between the extremes of the course are plenty of holes that range between clear fairways lined with brush like holes 6 and 13, to holes like 1 and 2 that don't have brush, but plenty of trees between you and the pin. In addition to foliage, this course has a good amount of elevation variety. You have some holes like 6 and 12 that are flat, but also have plenty of holes that go uphill (like 2, 4, and 9) and downhill (like 3, 5, and 18).
This course has plenty of variety to keep it fresh from hole to hole - forehand dominant and backhand dominant players will both find holes that benefit them at Endicott. As for signature holes, the C placements of 7 and 12 will always be in the running, as these are challenging holes with plenty of obstacles and brush to contend with. Hole 7's C placement ends with a near blind shot up a hill, making a birdie near impossible. These are among the hardest par 3s in the St. Louis region. In addition to these holes, I feel that hole 3 is among the most fun on the course. A large tree stands right in front of the teepad, requiring a hyzer forehand or backhand downhill. Both are good options, but plenty of trees along and in the fairway can make for a challenging line to hit.