dreamster

Any course that has hosted a PGA tour event has got to have something going for it. Today’s players are so good that they need a challenge. Dove Mountain doesn’t, nor does Tucson, have a big boy event but it is not because of not having a quality venue. This course has all the elements of tour quality toughness and conditions. The idea that a missed shot will cost strokes is in full force here. Be sure to play the right tees or you will find yourself hitting woods or hybrids to greens with punishing bunkers and treacherous greens. Like most greens in Tucson, the breaks are hard to figure out without going through a learning curve. The facilities are top notch, staff is friendly and practice areas are great. Try to pick a day when winds are light or it approaches impossible. Either way, embrace the challenge.

If you can get a value fee this is a great golf opportunity. The conditions are very good and greens are smooth and fast. The fairways could be cut a little tighter but they are very uniform and consistent. The layout can seem a little tricked up with some blind tee shots but you can certainly say every hole is unique. The practice area is weak with only a tiny putting green and no legitimate practice space. Plus you will pay for a small bucket. All in all, I enjoyed the round and would return with a little more course knowledge in order to score a bit better.

There was a weather event in the area last winter that damaged greens for most of the courses in the area. Breckenridge lets you know this and they say the fees are discounted accordingly. Maybe. It is a great Nicklaus layout and pretty tough. Beautiful scenery and stunning visuals. On this day the pace of play was incredibly slow. Waiting on every shot is no fun. Overall it is great and memorable golf experience.

This is an older course much like a standard municipal. The conditions were very good. Fairways, tee boxes and sand traps(not many) were in great shape and the greens were very smooth and easy to putt on. The terrain is flat and there are a lot of mature trees and shrubs. This is a great course for higher handicappers. It was great to see so many ladies there, many of them walking with pull carts. The layout is very simple and straight away. Locals could probably get a good deal but even with a hot deal on golf now, it seemed a little high for a course without a more challenging and aesthetically pleasing design. Good place for those learning, working to get better or who don’t feel like getting beat up by difficult courses.

This is a country club style course that is also open to the public. The reality in golf is that money usually dictates corse layout and conditions. Plus, membership clubs have to budget and not make the course so hard than the member feel beaten up all the time. That said, this is a fair course with 36 holes. It just cannot compete with the resorts that have corporate pockets and higher fees to pay for architecture and superb conditions. It can be a real challenge but be prepared for some bare spots and a few patchy greens. Nice views of the mountains on many holes. Nice course and would go back for a bargain price.

Found myself in Tucson during the virus disaster and so glad golf was still possible. This is a resort course and rates are normally very high. They were running a special so it ended up as a bargain for a great Arnold Palmer design. Once held the Tucson Open. Conditions were great. This a tough course with lots of semi-blind shots and forced carries over desert terrain. Hit it straight and fairly long or you are in big trouble. Plenty of houses around but you don’t get the sense they are right up next the fairways. All around a great course and golf experience.

What used to be the Carswell AFB course is now a totally refreshed design with a mix of difficulty and fairness. Good scores can be had if careful to avoid the obvious troubles. Greens are fast and true. Good putts are rewarded but speed needs to be right on. Highly recommend for a fun round at a reasonable value. Fine practice facility. Clubhouse looks like something from the 1800’s in Scotland.

There are several great golf opportunities in east Texas and this course is sure to be one of the best. I would have given them 5 stars but the course was so wet from all the rain this year that it has not been possible to keep up. All the tee boxes are long and hairy and the fairways have little to no roll out. When it is that wet it plays longer than the yardage numbers. The bunkers are crushed sand so they hold up a little better but are still wet and firm. The greens however are great. Not a bad spot on any green I could see. The layout and design is really superb. Many of the holes are really challenging and difficult, especially those that hug the shoreline of Lake Fork. It will take a few rounds to fully learn where to play it safe versus aggressive. It is certainly remote and tucked away but once you get there it is quite beautiful. Scattered homes along the course show you how the other half lives. Great course for a buddy trip and if you also fish and have a boat it can be a fantastic double duty getaway.

A new course less than 2 years old usually needs some time to mature but Tempest has in just a short time reached the top of the list of great courses you should play. Just a few miles from Kilgore and just of I-30, the layout is carved out of dense East Texas forest, creeks and valleys. There are few high dollar houses scattered around but for the most part, pure wilderness surrounds. Jeff Brauer has worked hard to become one of best architects who balances three priorities, beauty, challenge and playability. Each hole offers opportunity for all skill levels through multiple tee boxes and landing areas for each. Course conditions are superb, except for the driving range which for some reason is still a work in progress. The clubhouse is wonderful with many dining and refreshment choices. The staff is friendly and the prices are very reasonable compared to the big cities. FYI, the is an RV Park next door so if you have one, park it and play multiple days. Any round is sure to be memorable.

Thorntree has been a true country club in DFW for maybe at least 30 years. For may clubs like this, they find they need to open up to the public to boost the revenue to take the pressure off the members. The layout is really good and some holes are straight forward and mildly challenging. Yet, there are some really great and difficult holes where par is a great score. The stretch of 3,4 and 5 are like the horrible horseshoe at Colonial. All the rain this year is helping to fill in some bare areas. My 3 stars review is for just two key details. One can be fixed and the other probably not. First is mowing. Maybe the rain prevented it but most fairways are too long and hairy. Second is the greens. They are smooth and in great shape but they remain the old traditional Bermuda from long ago. That means “slow”. The newer dwarf-tiff is the faster variety going in all over Texas golf. It’s most likely not in the budget here but if you like smooth greens and don’t mind it slower this would be a great course to play. I guess I am like Goldilocks, not to slow and not to fast, but just fast enough.

Forget anything about the old Chester Ditto course except the man himself and the commitment of the city to public golf for decades. The partnership between the city and the Rangers ball club has created one of the great golf setups in DFW. This comes at a healthy price so be prepared. But, forget about cost on the way to the range and great practice area and soak in everything that says “great golf”. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because there are just a few things to work through being such a new course. The greens are very true and super smooth. Maybe it was all the recent rain or the newness but they are slower than they should be. Putts start out great and then the “sticky” texture grinds things to a halt. Hopefully they can get to where they can cut them short and still maintain the healthy conditions of the grass. Second is some of the pin placements. As with real championship greens there are some serious undulations that create plateaus and slopes. Placing the pin in the middle of a serious slope makes it difficult for all but the very best players. There would seem to be ways to find multiple locations all over each green without finding the “most” difficult spots. Maybe save that for tournaments. Otherwise, the course is off to a great start on what should be a great future.

Tierra Verde is a real jem in DFW. It is located in an area that feels like pure wilderness and is recognized for its low environmental impact as compared to other courses. The design and layout is exceptional. It is just tough enough to be a real challenge but not unfair to any good shot. The greens roll true and smooth. Current conditions are soft with all the rain so there is a low amount of roll out but the greens are soft enough to create a large ball mark and stop quickly. The GPS system in the carts is one of the best I have seen. It measures to the day’s flag position and offers all the information you need. Overall value for quality in much better than some of the Texas “stars” out there. Highly recommended.

There are of course hundreds of choices in the Phoenix area. The Raven is a long established course with a fair layout and relatively easy. If you want a course that is ultra challenging and has lots of intricate features this is not for you. However, if you want a nice conditions and playing from the fairway and giving you a chance at par, this is a good choice. Keep in mind every course in the area overseeds in late August and it is car path only until the new grass matures enough. That slows the pace of play considerably. Plus the greens will be a little slow and choppy until everything fills in late in November.
Overall The Raven is a good course, not in the upper tier but also not in the upper price range.

The Grove Park Inn has been a dramatic and special retreat for 100 years. It is worth just visiting just to see the place. The golf course looks fantastic from a distance as it is carved into the hills below the hotel. The ups and downs are challenging on club selection. The layout is classic and updated to today’s style of play. There was no room to expand so the back tees are capped at 6600 yds. It plays long though, so do not bite off too much on tee choice. Be prepared that there is no driving range so it may be good to have recently practiced and do some stretching beforehand.
I would have given 5 stars except for the greens. It was not that they we that bad but the texture is a little rough and the surfaces so soft that they were extremely slow for a high end course. Uphill putts required a serious rap. Bent grass greens that get a lot of play suffer from pitted ball marks that require daily maintenance. The area had received tons of rain recently so it was very soft with little to no roll. If you have a choice pick a day when they have had a dry spell or you will get lots of mud balls. Great experience though and beautiful.

Riverside is best known as the course that floods when the Trinity overflows its banks but it should be known as a good choice for convenience and value. Be aware that the wind will have much more effect here as it is mostly open. Surprisingly the are quite a few tough holes that can really punish an errant shot. The greens have some poanna as does every Bermuda course this year. It has been tough all over to get smooth surfaces. Riverside could use one of those facelifts by a great architect but in the meantime it is a good choice on a calm day.

Pine Dunes has received a lot of praise and for the most part it is well deserved. The layout is beautiful and the course itself is isolated, peaceful and surrounded by raw wilderness. The greens are firm and fast and roll true. It is not a luxury facility and there are few paved cart paths. That lends to part of the mystique. However, the conditions are spotty in many areas and you can see that the maintenance has been suffering, maybe to a lack of funds. The stay and play facilities are very plain and not really on the same level as the course would indicate. Overall, it is a great place to get away and enjoy pure golf. When you start to rate a course as "one of the best in Texas" the quality of the conditioning will need to be factored in and Pine Dunes does not feature some of the great tour quality conditions of hundreds of Texas tracts.

Played Grey Rock for the first time. When arriving the first area you walk past is the putting green. It looks Ok from a distance but dropping balls down it is clear the greens are ruff. It is early in the growing season so they may come back. On the course they are playable but overall not real good. The course design is done well and a real pleasure to feel like you are out in the country even though you are in Austin proper. I would definitely go back but would need to be assured the greens were in much better shape.

The Bridges Course in Gunter, designed by Fred Couples, is a nice layout although it is wide open with very little trees. So, be prepared that if the wind is blowing it will feel like a British Open. Freddy did a very good job with the bunkering and green configurations. It is fair for the average golfer and has multiple tee options that raise the challenge level. The greens are fast, which is nice, but they are also firm so shots are difficult to hold. The main reason for my rating is due to the extra time the course needs to fill in. It is clear the staff is doing the right thing to get there, but the key element needed is mother nature's time line to get the grass growing and fill in. Also, be prepared that if you do not live in Frisco, Prosper, or McKinney, it will take a while for you to get there.

I have probably played this Grand Prairie course a dozen times and the layout has always been the feature that keeps me coming back. The par 3's are all a little too short but overall it is a great track with not too many houses interfering with the views.
However, the number one problem has always been the greens. They have struggled over time but the grounds crews have worked hard to get them back every time. The real issue is the older variety of Bermuda grass. It leaves greens that are fluffy and way too slow. The biggest trend in Texas courses is to move to the Crenshaw and/or dwarf tiff variety. It requires less upkeep and results in firm and faster greens. Try The Links at Waterchase to see what a great surface this can be. Bridlewood and Texas Star both went to this in lieu of the bent grass they held on to for so long.
We will see if the city can pull the trigger and redo the greens. It costs money but $10 a round more is worth it for top notch greens.

The course has changed ownership and management several times, but this latest change is much for the better. The rains have helped all courses but still, there has been a real dedication to improvement here. The greens could be shaven closer to get them really fast, but they are in good shape. The front nine is tucked into the woods and is really beautiful and quiet. The back nine is among houses but the layout is still great. The last three holes are as challenging as any in the area. Only pros play the tip, but the blues are a real test. This is one of the best values in the area for the quality of design and conditions. Clubhouse is luxury and practice facilities top notch.