MICHATFIELD10107

I had a freed-up day and spotted a Hot Deal for East River 9, which I had visited while being built and looking forward to play someday.
10:30 on an August morning was pretty darn hot, but doable.
I enjoyed the greens, looking forward to playing from each of the tee boxes as they provide different angles and distances to greens with many pin locations.
I'm tempted to come back with one club (#6 hybrid) and 2-3 balls to keep it really simple and fun.

The greens were excellent and the fairways were good. Must be able to recycle the sewage water from the Moody Gardens Hotel as it is very green.

I love links golf. After struggling on the shag carpets of Sharp Park and Fleming 9 (both well worth a play) it was nice to be on some rather firm and fast ground for a change. The greens were great, the green complexes presented some challenges and offered some routes that a land player could use to work the ball to the hole. It's on my list for a replay, now off to Corica Park.

Brackettville is a hike and worth the road trip. The course’s greens are fantastic for a small, tight muni. There are a few holes where the driver is the right choice and many where shape and location best reward. Set near the old fort, this location has potential. Will visit again in the winter months to walk a fun track.

I really enjoyed playing five holes at Moody Gardens, the greens are in excellent condition and of course their fairways are supreme.

Only five because a train of thunderstorms on the outmost southwest edge of Tropical Storm Cristobal lined up just north of the course, spinning to the east, with the whole system sagging south. The course blew the horn and I headed inside to try to wait it out, but decided it was only going to get worse.

Now I understand the course will not give me a rain check on a round I purchased on GolfNow. AND...once the round has started, neither the app or web will let you cancel the round.

"Hot Deal Tee times cannot be refunded unless the golf course is closed due to weather on the day of play."

Here's the communication failure...there seems to be no way to cancel the reservation once its started. GN does not want to talk with us nor let us email them, so other than complain in this review, I find myself stymied.

GN - you know how to contact me, your turn.

Walked today, a bit warm AND a bit of a hike, but all good. I enjoy this course, the more I play it, the more I appreciate the architecture, routing and scale. Greens are growing in well and fairways allow for a full swing though one side, or other, is preferred.

The front nine is hilly with some blind shots that could be better played with experience. On #4 aim right as very steep slopes, out of sight, will take the ball to the left. On #7 from the fairway aim for the church steeple to find the green. Course was in good condition for time of year.

Really enjoyed walking and playing the former Austin Country Club, now known as Riverside, thinking of Penick, Crenshaw, Kite. A very interesting layout on some nice hills, offering a good walk and lots of fun.

It had rained heavily in the past few days, so there was quite a bit of standing water, no problem with a normal condition. But I do believe they could walk around with a shovel, look for the places where water is standing ABOVE a nice elevation drop and dig a few trenches, clear a few pipes and allow water to flow off the course with minimal effort.

This is an excellent course, nice mixture of wide open fairways and some tight, short holes with good topography and interesting, sloped and mounded greens and green complexes. The fairways were in great shape, the tee boxes were good, my only problem was the greens. They have really good potential, interesting shapes and sizes and slopes, but...they're almost neglected. I understand winter weeds (poa annua) are going to invade, but I think it means you keep the greens cut short and consistently to provide a more even surface. The greens could also use punching, sanding and rolling and love and care. Will check back later.

The course is in great shape. I enjoy the linksy style and the short grass that enables a ground game. The superintendent needs to rethink the patterns they use for cutting the greens. On several there are well defined rows, if not ruts, where the wheels of the cutter. Need to constantly rotate direction and stop/start points.

While rain threatened, the course played firm and fast. It's quite hilly, especially the front nine, and doubly so the fairway of seven which resembles a ski slope.
I like the course, but would love to see a bit less of the fivesome and sixsomes playing on a Saturday morning. Slowed pace of play.

I had a 1:50pm tee time but didn't start off until 2:15pm because they were allowing a huge LSU tournament wrap up first. Bad enough for me, I suspect some members were upset were the tournament shotgun started on the course around them! The management did not seem to have a good handle on the size or complexity.

I like the renovations by Jeffrey Blume! New bunkers that add more complexity to your decisions by framing the green visually but are actually 30-50 yards short of the green complex. Greens are now larger with fantastic interior slopes and are surrounding by huge areas of first cut rough.
The course has always been tight as it winds through the neighborhood, there are many holes which require strategy over brute distance. I'm looking forward to many more rounds on this course.

I would have liked to have been informed that the greens had been aerated and sanded and that one had a temporary; however that work was the one positive sign. The rest of the course seems to be neglected, bunkers not raked and will weeds, fairway and rough needing work. I like this course and hope the subdivision brings it back from the brink.

While I could still see the aeration holes, it was the weeds on many of the greens that was disconcerting. There is water available on the course, fountains at the rest rooms and the cart lady was very diligent about coming around.

I'd like to see the management of this course increase the number of water coolers. As a subdivision course, it is quite spread out with no option to return to a club house. When the heat is nearing 100, they need to offer more options to cool down.

While most of the course is in good condition, it's situations like the months long bog in the short game area (leaking irrigation pipe?) that cause me to wonder if the course management team truly love their course.