A look around the highly regarded Apache Links Course at Squaw Valley in Texas
Perhaps one of the best kept secrets statewide is the affordable Squaw Valley Golf Course, a 36-hole municipal facility in Glen Rose, Texas, about 60 miles southwest of Dallas and about the same distance northwest of Waco.
The original course there, Apache Links, opened in 1992 and is ranked no. 36 on Golf Advisor's national best golf courses list in 2016. Back when tax money was flowing in from the nearby Comanche Peak Nuclear power plant, the city hired Jeff Brauer to design this wonderful layout, which (like the newer Comanche Lakes Course), meanders over and around Squaw Creek to set up several picturesque holes. The course would later be renovated by John Colligan of Arlington, Texas-based Colligan Design, who was on the original project with Brauer and also designed Comanche Lakes (also highly ranked on Golf Advisor).
Built on an old ranch property, Brauer and Colligan moved a lot of dirt on what was once a flat piece of property, to create mounding and some elevated tees. The 14th, a short par 3 that crosses Squaw Creek, is a good example of all of the design elements.