TexasGolfer2

The staff is very friendly and accommodating. We showed up early to hit balls and were offered the chance to tee off ahead of our tee time. We did.
The course is in good condition. But if you miss the fairway you could be playing from dirt and gravel in the desert. The greens have some slope and undulation. The are not just flat. But they are much slower than we are used to playing. We left a lot of putts dead in the hole, short.
Several holes have some interesting features if you have never played the course. For instance; number 2 requires a longish drive over a dry arroyo. But you can't see the arroyo from the tee. I was lucky to hit a good drive and carried the arroyo. We realized something was up when a couple of our guys hit poor tee shots that disappeared in what we thought was fairway. We discovered the arroyo when we drove to our tee shots. Number 11 is a par 5 that also has a dry small arroyo that can be reached with your second shot even if you aren't trying to get to the green. Again, the arroyo is not visible from the area of your second shot. Number 5 is short par 4 that requires a precise tee shot short of a pond that is also not visible from the tee. But you are aware that something is there because you see the fairway climb to an elevated section. Be aware that number 18 requires a tee shot to the left side of the fairway. Any shot middle to right is almost completely blocked by a massive tree that is hard to go over. Going under could force you to hit a low shot that goes in screaming to the green. Hit the tree and you might end up in another arroyo. Not all the arroyos are playable. They have huge rocks and boulders that could prevent you from playing out of them even if they are dry.
Overall, we enjoyed the course. It's a fun course that is not overly long and offers several different tees for players of varying skill. Lunch and range balls were included in our green fee.
I recommend the course and intend to return again in the near future.

I was very surprised. This is a small country course that is very well maintained. You play the front side from the white tees and the back side from the blue tees. The fairways are a little clumpy when the grass thins out primarily on the edges. The greens roll very nicely and smooth. They are a little slow but that's probably because of the grass. The grass is a large bladed grass but they are very smooth. They don't seem to break much.
There are a few very cool holes. Number 2 is a short 90 degree dogleg par 4 from the white tees and a little longer from the blue tees. You drive your ball to the corner. Your second shot will be from 100 to 130 yards or so depending on where you place your drive. Number 6 is a nice par 3 that has trouble front and left. Hit it fat off the tee and you're in a pond. Yank it left and you're in another water hazard. Number 7 is a par 5 that has water and trees on the right hand side. Relatively easy par 5 expect when you move back to the blue tees. From the back tees you have to hit a longer drive and keep it left to avoid the trees on the right which will force you to play a fade around the trees. Cut it too much and you could be in the water. Number 18 is a bear of a hole. From the white tees it's about 400 yards but when you move back it becomes a 450 yard monster that seems to play into the prevailing wind. It was a little windy the day I played and it was all I could handle. I failed to get up and downpour par from about 40 yards. Brute of a hole for us shorter hitters.
A great course considering it's in a small town and only nine holes. But the do a great job maintaining the course. I plan to play this course more often even though it's a 200 mile drive for me to ge there.

The course is in excellent condition. The greens are very good. They look like carpeting although they are slower than they appear. They are also soft so they tend to accept a well hit ball. Fairways are also in very nice condition. The rough is brutal in most areas. Difficult to control the ball out of the rough. This is the best I have seen Sonoma in some time although I don't play here regularly because it is not a walking course. I had a very nice day and will return again very soon.

A beautiful course but very difficult if you miss fairways. The rough was brutal. At times it was all I could do to get back in play and control the ball. The greens are immaculate although relatively soft. Do yourself a favor, move up a set of tees; you'll enjoy the golf more but it still won't be a pushover. Greens have some undulation and some are quite large. There can be a significant difference in distance depending on where the pin is positioned. The are a couple of spots on the course that have "LONG" vegetation near where you are hitting a shot. Hit it in there and you are either re-hitting or taking a penalty drop. Enjoy...

Golf course is in great condition considering it's January. The greens were firm and fairly quick. Fairways were decent, lots of grass though a little sparse in spots. The firmness of the fairways was very good. Some holes are challenging if you've never been here. A few blind shots. Be aware that number 2 has a water hazard to the right of the fairway as you get close to the green. You also have to carry a small creek-like portion in front of the green. While the blue tees are not very long, it is a par 70 which makes a difference. There are several 430+ yard par 4's if you play the blue tees. The wind was blowing about 12 to 14 mph which made the tee shots into the wind very challenging. Overall, a very nice course which I plan on playing again even having to drive about 70 miles to get there.

Southwyck is in immaculate condition. The fairways are beautiful, the greens are perfect and they are a perfect speed as well as very true. I play all over Houston and I find very few public courses this well conditioned. The cost to play makes this course the best value I have found in Houston. The check-in guy was friendly and the starter was also very friendly and social. No employee acted like they were doing you a favor tending to you. They were very cordial, friendly and make you feel that you are appreciated as a customer.

Southwyck is a good challenge for mid to low handicap players. The course is open to the wind on several holes and when it blows it is a tough layout. There is a nice mixture of very difficult holes and moderately challenging holes. The different tees allow for higher handicappers to find a set of tees that offers them a challenge and also opportunities to play well.

I don't play here often simply because it is a very long drive for me (50+ miles). If I lived closer, I would play here at least one a week. And I wouldn't get tired of the layout. Try Southwyck, you'll love it.

I played the week after a massive rain here in Houston but the course was in good condition. The greens were excellent. They were faster than I am used to and 3-putted twice because of their speed. The bunkers were in poor condition. It appeared that the sand had washed out and the bunkers had not yet been attended to. Fortunately, I was not in any bunkers so the condition of the bunkers was not an issue for me. The tee boxes were also not mowed since they were somewhat wet. But the course was still in very good condition. A challenging golf course and I recommend it.

The claims I read prior to going to Northcliffe are optimistic at best. SOMEDAY this is going to be a beautiful golf course. Unfortunately, the fairways are very very rough. The fairways are so rough that you had to drive the cart at slower than a walking pace on some holes. It bounced the heck out of my kidneys. The only course I have ever seen like this is Country Place in Houston. There are also some very large cracks in the ground that can swallow a golf ball and some of them are so deep that you won’t retrieve the ball. The greens are very bumpy. I almost instituted the 2-putt rule for my round. The 2-putt rule states that your second putt is always good. Go ahead and take a shot at the first putt, you might get lucky. If not, the second putt is good regardless of where it ends up. When the greens are so bad that putting is ridiculous I institute the 2-putt rule. The greens weren’t quite bad enough for the 2-putt rule. But they were close.

The bunkers need some serious work. There was virtually no sand in them. What little there was was as hard as concrete. It was almost impossible to hit a bunker shot that didn’t come screaming out of the bunker and fly the entire green. I’m a decent bunker player and I struggled to get the ball out and on the green anywhere. They need to invest in sand and ensure that the bunkers have SOME sand so that we can hit actual bunker shots. Right now it’s essentially like trying to pop a ball in the air to a close pin off of a sidewalk. That is no exaggeration.

Having said that, I actually like the course. I love the layout. There are some challenging holes. This course is not a pushover. Good mix of length and some holes have some elevation change to them. Some holes are really cool holes to play. Number 12 offers a shortcut by cutting the corner if you have the length. Fifteen is a very nice par-5 that requires a very long shot over a small lake if you are going to get home in two. If you layup, your third shot requires a delicate shot when the pin is back left. Sixteen is an odd hole. It almost forces you to just hit your tee shot into the trees and gamble that you don’t get snookered behind a tree. Going around via the fairway looks like the hole would much longer than the scorecard. It looks like you would have to layup with a short iron and have a very long second to an elevated green, something on the order of 200+ yards. Like I said, an odd hole. The front side also has some very nice holes. Some holes do require accuracy. If your tee shot strays, you usually are penalized.

Overall, I like this course. I will likely come back and play it again now that I have played it once and know more or less where to hit the ball. I recommend Nortcliffe Golf Course.

My wife and I traveled from Houston to play this course. We had read about the recent renovations. The course was in great condition. The fairways were good and the greens are excellent. They are very fast and firm. The course is not long, about 6200 yeards from the back tees although some tees were not available and we played a shorter set of tees. It has a nice layout. They have worked wonders with mimimal acreage. Unfortunately, they do not have a driving range. There is no room for one. They have enclosed hitting areas and the golf balls are very inexpensive, $2.00 for a small bucket. The course is immediatley adjacent to Schlitterbahn Water Park and the Comal River. I was not bothered by the nearby park and the patrons yelling. I never heard them until my wife pointed them out to me. I loved playing the course and will likely return. The green fee was very reasonable considering that it was a weekend. I didn't have my best round today but I absolutely enjoyed myself on this course. I heartily recommend the course.

I love the layout at Newport Country Club and I enjoy playing this course. Unfortunately, the course is apparently in severe financial troubles. The bunkers were in miserable condition. They had not been raked by the staff in probably weeks nor by players all day. The bunkers have had so little maintenance that there were weeds growing in them. Not just quick growing weeds but the type of weeds that require some time to grow and spread. I was in a total of 6 bunkers today and not one bunker had been raked by folks that had played out of them the same day I did. The course was still in decent shape. The greens were fairly smooth and still quick for the amount of water they have had recently.

The course was so waterlogged and soggy that, in my opinion, it should have been closed and allowed to drain; if it drains at all. There was standing water in lots of places and very soggy spots everywhere. I appreciated that I could play but I think it is more important that they "save" the course than generate the green fees they did today. If the course drains poorly, they need to do something to dry the course up before they allow players to drive carts everywhere and destroy the course. They did ask us not to drive on the very wet areas but not everyone is concerned about the course. There will always be people that will care little for the state of the course as long as they get to do what they believe they are entitled to do after having paid a green fee.

A same that they felt the need to allow play when the course is so waterlogged and susceptible to damage.

A beautiful day to play. The golf course is in excellent condition. This grass goes dormant so it's yellow but it is a terrific turf to play on. As long as you hit the fairway, you had a perfect lie. The greens are very smooth, fast and undulating. These are not easy greens because of their speed. The course is located immediately next to a lake and the wind was blowing a consistent 30 mph with gusts to 35 mph. The green for hole number 10 is the green that looks like it's on a peninsula to the left. The green that you see dead ahead is actually the green for number 13. I had a great time. The wind wasn't blowing on my front nine, I was one under. The wind kicked up severely on the back and I shot three over. I had a chance tobreak par for the first time until I bogeyed three of the last four holes for a 74. A great day.

This is the second time I played this course and it has been well maintained and difficult for me both times. You need to be a decent driver of the ball. Slicers will not do well here. Not because the holes are straight or turn right to left but because if you miss the fairways you will be in for a long day. The slopes in the fairways and elsewhere make the course very challenging. The rough is also brutal. If I missed the green, the rough was deep and made it very tough to get the ball up and down. Still, for the quality of the course, the green fee was very fair. The driving range and the practice green were immaculate. Unfortunately, the course greens had been aerated recently and, the starters assurances notwithstanding, the greens were very bumpy.

The course was in very nice condition except that the greens were very much slower than I am used to. I had a difficult time getting the ball to the hole. A very busy course and though the pace was pretty slow we managed to play in 4 1/2 hours even with two guys that shot around 120 or 130. Two of the worst golfers I have seen playing the BLUE tees. Hint: if you can't hit a worm-burner drive farther than 80 yards move up to the White tees. My wife consistently hit the fairway and outdrove them both and she had a "fair" day shooting 104. She picks up when she reaches her maximum. She is a relatively new player, takes lessons and is a 24 handicap.

We have had lots of rain around here recently so I was quite surprised at the condition of the course. While the fairways were fairly soft, the greens were in decent condition. They rolled fairly true and were quite uniform. They did have two holes that were cart path only (7 and 18) but that is because those two holes' fairways are in low spots. This is one of my favorite courses in Houston but I wish they could invite someone to bring a cooker and offer food at the course. They likely won't ever have a snack bar probably because off the course location.

Brock park is in superb condition. Particularly after playing Evergreen Point last week where the greens were miserable. The greens at Brock, in contrast, are wonderful. They looked great, rolled very nicely but were not pushovers. They do have some slope to them and several are convex. That means they are tough to hold if you don't hit a good shot. Number 10 is a very tough hole if you miss the fairway left. The layup is one of the toughest I have ever seen. Hit your layup a tad too hard and you'll be dropping and playing 4 to the green.

It's not a long course but they seem to put the length exactly where it makes the course tougher. The par 3's are very long and nine and eighteen are challenging; especially number nine. A tough layup on number nine makes your third into a prevailing wind across a deep bayou. We had a stiff breeze on Saturday so the shot was definitely tough.

Brock Park is truly a very nice course to play. The driving range is very short so they only allow irons. But since all you need to do is loosen up it's not a big issue. At least is isn't for me.

Go Play (with a Scottish brogue.)

We had a wonderful time at this course. We were met by a very friendly guy that brought us a couple of golf carts.The staff was friendly and very helpful in describing the course to us. The course is a little tough to play the first time since they do have some hidden water hazards. But the staff did point the hazards out to us when we started. Still, we played a few shots that were a surprise when we walked up on our golf balls. The course itself is very playable and fun. Some of the greens are elevated so they can be challenging to pitch to and they do have some undulation to them. The greens are also super smooth and very fast. These were some of the best greens I have ever played on. And we have been playing some pricey courses in the last few days. The driving range is not much to look at but all we were interested in was hitting a few balls to loosen up. We are from Houston but we'll play this course again whenever we return to Orlando.

This is a very well maintained course. The course was in great condition, very lush and green. The greens were in very good condition. They also have an extensive practice area. It looks like it is a place that conducts many golf schools. On eod the few negatives is the fact that it is a nine hole course. It is also very short. It does have a couple of challenging holes, like number three. Number three is a sharp dogleg left par four that requires a good solid drive to reach the fairway. You drive over the junk area and hopefully don't go completely through the fairway. It's also a pretty pricey course for nine holes, about $60 or so. Add $17 for the second nine to play 18 holes. I still recommend the course because of its condition.

I was so surprised at the quality of the course based on what I paid in my green fee. The course is super well maintained, the fairways are almost all perfect. Number 10 had a few bare spots visible from the tee but didn't really affect the play of he hole. The course has some elevation changes and a nice variety of holes. Number 5 is a very pretty hole whose green sits next to a very nice waterfall.

The course is not excessively long; 6,653 from the back tees and 6,236 from the Blue tees I played. The greens are challenging without being impossible but you do have to make good putts. Some of the approach shots are to elevated greens which makes the shot a little more difficult. I did not encounter a single shot that I thought was unfair or too difficult for average golfers.

I was amazed that there were as few golfers on the course as there were. I suspect that when the temperatures get a little cooler, this course will be inundated with play. Unfortunately, I also think that as they build more of the gigantic homes I saw on the course, the course will be privatized and we mortals will be denied access. Better take advantage of the current access and play now while you can.

While it did take 5 hours to play, it was mostly a result of the three high handicappers I played with. One of them was struggling to break 100 and giving his two friends lessons all around the course. Funny. I shot a very nice legitimate 78.

I am from Houston and was visiting my in-laws in Granbury but I plan on playing again the next time I return which will be either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Absolutely a beautiful, fun, reasonably priced course to play.

While everyone that attended to us at the course were very nice and helpful, the condition of the fairways was disappointing. The course itself was very nice and I really like the layout. The holes are not super long but they can be challenging. Unfortunately, the fairways are so bumpy that it is almost impossible to drive a cart on them. While they do have the cart paths to drive on, they were not much better than the fairways. At one point, I dropped my wife off at her golf ball to hit her shot and went to mine. After hitting my shot, I got in the cart and was driving down the fairway to pick her up as she walked up the fairway to her next shot. Because of the bumpiness of the fairways, I could not catch up to her and had to yell at her to slow down so that I could pick her up. We did get a chuckle out of that. Anyway, I think I will wait until they smooth our the fairways before I drive clear across Houston again to play Goose Creek.

I like Heron Lakes most of the time. Unfortunately, for some reason they have removed all 18 greens and currently using temporary greens. They do not appear to be re-sodding or re-planting the greens. Not sure why the scraped them all off. The temporary greens are okay for very high handicappers that don't know the difference between decent greens and what they currently have. Still a few holes that require a very tight drive. If you are in a hurry, want to save money and are just looking to loosen up your swing, Heron Lakes is okay. The green fee is very attractive.