Hill Country Golf Club - Lakes/Creeks

It's been five (5) years since I last played this course. As you may know, this course is made up of three (3) 9-hole courses: The Oaks, The Creeks, and The Lakes. For this particular outing, our group was instructed to play Lakes & Creeks. The playing difficulty of a course is a slope rating range from 55 to 155 with the standard being 113. Well, the Lakes/Creeks combination that we played has a slope of 130 from the blue tees. So it's a little on the difficult side (in every way possible) for the average golfer. You should expect to shoot higher than your normal average ... and that's okay. My score on this day said it was MUCH harder though. :) And if you're not able to play a course on a regular basis, then it just becomes that much harder to play it well. Scrambling on this course is a little more difficult than the average course. You really do want to be in the short grass to do well here. You'll also notice that the majority of the holes were designed specifically to reward accurately placed shots. Narrowing fairways, trees, bunkers, water, bends ... all are used quite precisely at common landing areas off the tee.

I really appreciate a bit of nature and natural surroundings when I'm on a course. Given the land on which this course was cut, there's an abundance of trees and natural landscape. It doesn't feel planted nor fake as some courses can be. And while you'll see just a few houses on just a couple of holes, the majority of this course is simply wandering through a large area of land.

Before you begin your round, you have a nice driving range (balls provided as applicable), practice bunker, and two (2) putting greens. Our cart was provided with two (2) bottles of water iced down and ready to go. On the course, I noticed several water jugs and separate cans for trash and recycling. The divot sand provided is green! I love it when courses use the green sand instead of the normal beach sand. Maybe it's just the dyed sand ... or maybe (hopefully) it has some fertilizer etc mixed in. And being the newer +/- style of carts, you're provided with four (4) bigger cup holders, big cubby holes, two (2) USB ports, and hard plastic basket-like shelves under the roof. But more importantly, there's a touchscreen GPS monitor. This is a huge advantage when you need to know the distance to the pin, the front/back of the green, and/or a particular hazard.

The tee boxes were in average condition for the most part but I did notice a lot of activity on the par-3s because so many golfers take a divot. It happens. But the staff need to accommodate for that and they so rarely do. I'd like to see larger tee boxes on par-3's so we could be moved around to better grass more often. It's just a thought.

Before you pull out driver on the par 4s, you really should take a good look at the distances and graphical layout of each hole on the GPS touchscreen that's in your cart. Water, bunkers, and doglegs often await you. And those can and will greatly affect your score if you choose to challenge them. The bunkers on this particular day were definitely on the firm side -- recent rain, sprinklers, or are they always like that!? It makes a big difference at times so I'd much prefer the standard fluffy sand. Past that, the sand was very clean and free of rocks and debris. Also, I noticed several bunkers only had one (1) rake. And these weren't small bunkers. There was definitely a shortage of rakes this day.

The greens were decently receptive ... not too hard, but certainly not too soft. They had a nice speed to them and were in excellent shape ... some of the cleanest, well cut greens I've seen in quite awhile. Now, a significant number of the greens are elevated and/or protected in front. You'll be limited with any bump-n-run shots onto the green.

Clubhouse staff and the starter were very friendly and accommodating. I don't recall seeing a Marshal but the course didn't need one on this slower day. The beverage cart found us twice (once on each nine). That's just about what you'd expect and/or need.

Great course layout. I would diffidently play it again.

This is a really fun course that was in excellent condition. It was busy but the pace of play was great.

course was in great condition...fairways and greens were perfect.

Had a great time playing with my friends! The staff on course and in the pro shop are very helpful. The beverage cart girls look like they’re from Twin Peaks. All in all great for a day of drinking and golf!

The woman at the pro shop was rude. We left a message regarding our tee time and no one called us back and the woman said “we’ve been busy”

My family and I found a good price on golf now and took advantage of it. Course was in great condition considering the heat. Looks like a beautiful place to stay as well. Unfortunately we got behind a threesome that was there to play as slow as possible and did not care about anyone behind them. Luckily they were finished after the first nine and we had a great back nine on the lakes course!

Great day! Staff was awesome from the proshop to the outside staff including the maintenance crew we met while on the course!
Would love to visit again.

Lots of fun playing with my daughter. I won but she is telling everyone she won.