Texas Course Review - a Canadian's persepective

[Rockford35]

Well, here goes. No laughing at my pics (they suck, I know), or I'll show you some of Ez's.

Day 1: Falconhead Golf Club

Rating/Slope: 74.4/127

This was our first round. Needless to say by the scoring, we needed some practice. All that aside, what a wonderful establishment. This is a MUST PLAY if you're in the Austin area. Great facilities, wonderful course. On a scale of 1-10 on the "toughness scale", I'll give this a 7. It's sneaky long, but plays beautifully. Pay little attention to the scores on this one, it was more looking around and taking it all in than paying much attention to the scorecard. It was also SUPER wet the day I arrived, and the dew stepped over to the next morning bigtime.

Plus, DaveE didn't have that wonderful 5h in the bag.

R35 Score 85
DaveE Score 107




Hole #3. Par 5, about 475ish. Nice hole. To get to this point, it's a blind tee shot over a hill with huge OB left and right. Be straight, my friends...



DaveE sizing up #17, the signature hole. It's a cool limestone cutaway, and the green sits right up on the shelf. Very cool hole. It's a 9 iron and two putts, or an 8 iron to the left hill, a miraculous chip and a tap in for par. Either way, a 3 for both of us.



Hole #16. A hard par 4. It plays at least a club uphill, but you don't really feel it.



I'm pretty sure this is #13. We both bogeyed this tough little bastard of a hole.



Hole #14. We joined up with this dude on #10. He was a member, and swung an ok stick. He left us on this hole after, and I quote "Sorry guys, I wanna get some golf shots in, so I'm gonna carry on." I didn't blame him. I parred it after smashing a 3 wood off that tree out there and Dave had an 8 after some bunker play. Ugh...

That's it for what I picked out for Falconhead. In retrospect, I shoulda been taking more pics (I have plenty more, actually), but I wanted to get some golf in too...lol.

R35

[Rockford35]

Day Two: River Crossing Club

Rating/Slope:69.3/129

River Crossing was great. Not as polished as Falconhead I must admit, but very, very nice. This course played very fair. It wasn't overly tight, but it did demand attention to where you hit the ball in the fairway. And well placed bunkers. I would play this again in a heartbeat - if Falconhead was booked.

Again, the day started off wet. The first few holes played long with all the wet. But it turned into a wonderful day. Plus, the scores got better.

R35 score 77
DaveE score 100



Here's a little shack next to the golf course. All yours for $19.95....plus about 700 grand more...



This is hole 18. My apologies for the shitty camerawork. I only posted this because I took an 8 and Dave took a 9. Duck hook....ugh...



Some local flora...



This is someplace on the back nine. I wasn't keeping track on where I was taking pics as the views were spectacular and eye opening...



I think this is 15. I bogeyed it, so I want to forget about it...



I'm pretty sure this is #7. Two Pars!

All in all, a nice course. I think I may have some photos switched between the two courses, as the back nine's played extremely similar, but it's all the same. Great place.

R35

[Rockford35]

Day 3: Star Ranch Golf Club

Slope/Rating: 70.1/117

This course was eerily familiar from alot that you'd find in my neck of the woods. Snakey, cut out right from the bare ground, they didn't do much earth moving for this. Lots of undulations in the greens and good elevation changes. On the 4th hole, I jarred one on a par 3, only to have the ball pop back out of the hole to about 25 feet away. Needless to say, I 3 putted....

This course was nice, but the other 2 towered over it. We played this course based on the opinions of DaveE's butcher.... Nice, but I woulda rather have played Falconhead again (I think Dave would agree!. Great breakfast tho (included with green fee's were breakfast and lunch...insane...).

My worst score of the week. I got hooky with my driver and couldn't putt to save my life.

R35 Score: 90
DaveE Score: 100



Star Clubhouse and putting green.



This is a shot from behind #9 green. To the left is where the new driving range and practice facility is being changed to from it's current position, just left out of camera range.



Hole#1. A sweeping right dogleg par 4. I smoked a drive and made a nice approach, only to two putt like an idiot.



#1 tee, covering the back nine and view...



Star #15, par 3. Short, but you're dead right. We both parred this with nice tee shots.



This is hole #17. A cool little par 4, but very undulating. Hard to get a level lie. I made a long lag to save a par here.



I think this is hole #7. I made a 3 here, but Dave did a little more stick handling. Water left, heavy grass right. Cool little limestone wall along the water's edge there....



I only included this pic because it has a great story behind it. I guess on #17, this cactus patch is an "environmentally sensitive zone", so you get a free drop from it. It's basically left center of the fairway. Mitch, DaveE's butcher, told me that guys just go the cactus area, because the fairway slides left to right and can leave you a second over a huge bunker. Needless to say, a few guys have taken advantage of the cacti area....lol.



Dave and his hybrid. This was definitely his bread and butter the whole week. Man, that guy plays nice hybrid shots....


Star Ranch was nice, but I wasn't close to Falconhead or River Crossing. Not even close. Would I play it again? Sure. But I have two other first choices.

R35

[Rockford35]

Day 5: Shadow Glen Golf Course

Sigh. This was supposed to be the Shot Talk Tournament course with Wirehair. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't cooperate and we got rained out. Total bummer.

I would shot par tho.

R35

PS....according to Dave's butcher, Shadow Glen is ridiculously difficult....lol.

[Rockford35]

Day 5 (Shot Talk Challenge alternate): Blue Lake, Horseshoe Bay

We decided to have a round at Dave's local course where he's played about 65 million times. We had a round the Saturday prior, but the weather was much different for the second time around. This is a nice little course with LOTS of OB. Definitely not as hard as what we had been playing nd much shorter, but challenging enough. You have to have your distances dialed here, or you're dead. If I coulda drew my 4 iron a couple of times, I would shot better. LOL...

Rating/Slope: 63.1/103



This is a small par 3 green, I think it might be #6. Accurate, or you face a slippery chip.



This shows the conditions. Windy and rainy. Not anything like the days we had had in the past. But tolerable.



This is hole #3, but because of some clever teebox cutting when we first played, I think of it as #9. If you need someone to hit a ball 300 yards behind the trees on the left, I'm your man. All day....



I think this is hole #7. Or 9. Or 4....lol....



This is a downhill par 3, #4 I believe. OB left and a tough chipping green with a valley in the middle that checks up chips like crazy. Be pin high or it's a tough shot getting close. If you imagine real hard, you'll see my ball pin high off the right edge of the green on every shot I had on this hole. I just couldn't draw the 4!


Well, after 18 excrutiating holes of complete silence and concentration, the scores were tallied. #18 took two extra strokes for Dave and I came out on top shooting a 69 without handicaps. I squeaked one out.

Thanks Dave, for letting me win.

R35

[Bravo]

Great pix!! That is the most beautiful area of Texas...I lived there for three years and had a great time..

Where are the photos of the magnficent Rock swing??

And the Shiner Bocks....

[king hacker]

Those seem like some really nice courses.Can't wait until I can get down there to play.Looks like good times.

[VtDivot]

Nice pics Rock.

I am a little surprised tho that you didn't score better. They look like fair tracks, I thought you'd eat them up .

I guess it was just your first time around

[DaveE]

Originally Posted by Bravo

Great pix!! That is the most beautiful area of Texas...I lived there for three years and had a great time..

Where are the photos of the magnficent Rock swing??

And the Shiner Bocks....

Like Rock said, we didn't take enough pictures. There isn't a picture of his swing but trust me, the guy can play golf. It's not easy to get use to being out driven by 50 yds. on every hole but you do, sort of.

Rock's decriptions are accurate as far as I remember. Falconhead was by far my favorite.

Other than not getting to play with wirehair again it was a fantastic week. Or was it not playing with wirehair again, made it a fantastic week? It was one of those.

I played like crap most of the time as my scores indicate but I still had a great time. But then how could not when you get to play golf 6 days in a row, drink lots of beer and stuff yourself with bbq, wings and pizza.

After having the chance to play twice with ST members I'm convinced we need to pull off a big outing for the group. It just has to be after I take my wife somewhere first. After this week, I'd never get away with another golf outing before she gets a vacation.

[Andy_79]

Great pics, Rock - nice one !

You guys sure do have kool names for golf courses, I tell ya !!

I must take some pics whilst at Westchester and wherever else I hopefully get to play.

[Andy_79]

play golf 6 days in a row, drink lots of beer and stuff yourself with bbq, wings and pizza.

I tell ya, that just sounds like Heaven to me...!!

[Rockford35]

Bravo,

Just for you....

R35

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by VtDivot

Nice pics Rock.

I am a little surprised tho that you didn't score better. They look like fair tracks, I thought you'd eat them up .

I guess it was just your first time around

VT,

I was REALLY unhappy with my game. I hadn't hit a ball in weeks before going down, so I kinda chalk it up to that. That 90 I posted at Star was my worst round of the year by 6 strokes.

If I could go around them again, I think I'd play them tighter. Plus, by the 3rd day, I finally had those bloody Texas greens figured out. Well, sorta.

R35

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by Andy_79

play golf 6 days in a row, drink lots of beer and stuff yourself with bbq, wings and pizza.

I tell ya, that just sounds like Heaven to me...!!

Dave's just a PM away, Andy....

LOL...

R35

[Bravo]

Hey thanks for the Shiner label pic....that sounds like a ton of fun...

We really DO need to plan something where we can get a large ST group together...it would be a blast...