The San Antonio Express-News
2006 Golf Course Review
Compiled by The San Antonio Express-News
Compiled by LeAnna Kosub San Antonio Express-News - It's not an easy task.
Most tee shots were hit off rubber mats, laid atop concrete slabs, leaving nasty black smudges on the bottom of clubfaces. The blazing heat was countered by ice-cold lemonade served up by a woman in her back yard near the No. 12 green. Getting to the driving range required hopping on a small train and winding past scenic parkland and the zoo.
Even today, as he looks back through the warm veil of fond memory, Bruce Lietzke recalls Brackenridge Park Golf Course as something special.
"It was one of a kind," Lietzke, 54, said this week from his Dallas home. "I never played on (another) one quite like it."
The Champions Tour player first competed at Brackenridge in 1961, a junior standout from Beaumont battling the likes of Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw for state supremacy. Those names are now part of the rich legacy of a facility that opened in 1916 as the first 18-hole municipal course in Texas.
City officials are preparing a string of celebratory promotions for Brackenridge, which officially turns 90 in September. During its lifetime, the course has hosted many of the top events and golfers in the world, including Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Walter Hagen and Ben Hogan.
It also has entertained more golfers, and weathered more rounds, than any other course in San Antonio history.
"That place was hard to play," said former British Open champion Bill Rogers, now one of the owners of Briggs Ranch. "But there was so much romance to it."
While Brackenridge's history is being commemorated, its future also has become a point of debate today for various groups hoping to return the course to the condition that once made it a destination for professionals and visitors. The City Council is awaiting proposals from the Parks and Recreation Department for improving the state of the municipal courses.
Several months back, Crenshaw came down from his Austin home and visited the course with Rogers.
"We walked around in the cold and mist and rain," Rogers said. "He was like a kid in the candy store. It brought back great memories."
Crenshaw, who won a national junior title at Brackenridge, isn't the only one with such memories. As part of the anniversary, city employee Ken Wolfson has compiled a history of the legendary course, named after the late philanthropist, G.W. Brackenridge, and laid out by renowned golf architect A.W. Tillinghast, the eventual designer of famed tracts such as Baltusrol, Winged Foot and Bethpage Black.
The construction of the facility was not without its entertaining — and painful — moments. Making up some of the labor were convicts, and at one point Tillinghast suffered a broken nose while stopping an escape attempt.
When Brackenridge opened, in September 1916, it almost immediately became a popular attraction in a community that at the time boasted about 200,000 residents. Within a short time, the layout was handling more than 70,000 rounds of play per year.
"It generated a tremendous amount of money early on," Wolfson said, adding that the income helped spur the construction of Willow Springs and Riverside, which turns 75 this year.
Brackenridge eventually became host to the Texas Open, part of the PGA Tour's winter season, even offering the circuit's biggest purse in 1922 and '23.
"We were competing with the East and West coasts, primarily financially," Wolfson said.
On the heels of Hagen and Hogan, Palmer and Nelson, came another generation of young players headed by Lietzke, Kite and others. Lietzke first played in San Antonio as a preteen, and recalls staying with other Beaumont players at the Park Hotel on Broadway for the state junior championships.
"We learned to appreciate the character of that golf course and the great history it had had," Lietzke said. "It was always the highlight of the summer. If you could have a major championship as a kid, that was our major championship."
Until 1969, after the layout of Brackenridge was changed because of the route of newly constructed Highway 281, the course always left a reminder for the young players, as well. Hitting off the mats on every tee box except the par-3 holes left competitors with cleanup duty afterward.
"It was like somebody did a burnout on the bottom of your clubs," Rogers said, laughing.
However, Lietzke added, "I just remember hitting some of the best tee shots of my life off those rubber mats. You couldn't hit the ball fat, because the sole of the club would bounce off the rubber mat and hit the ball."
On the course in the scorching heat of summer, players also remember not stopping at the turn for refreshments, instead waiting until between the No. 12 green and 13th tee box to grab sandwiches, tacos and drinks being sold from one resident's back yard.
"She had the greatest lemonade," Lietzke said. "It was the month of August, and that lemonade was the best and the sandwiches were delicious."
Today, the rubber mats, back-yard lemonade and junior state championships are gone, but Brackenridge remains, holding on at age 90 as something unique.
"It's like the home of golf in Texas," Rogers said.
During his playing days on the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour), Jim Barker remembers striking up a conversation with Gary Player. They had stumbled upon the subject of course design.
"Gary had said that there were too many golf courses being designed that were just too hard to play," said Barker, now director of instruction at The Quarry. "So I told him that if I was a skier and all I had to ski down the mountain were double black diamond slopes, I wouldn't ski."
It looks like playability is the theme this year in the rankings of the Express-News Golf Guide. The Republic Golf Course has been voted the top overall course in the San Antonio area.
Located on the South Side, the scorecard at The Republic shows that it measures 7,007 yards from the back tees. But there are forward tees sitting back from the ladies' tees that measure the course at 5,540 yards.
Accommodations in distance aren't the only factor in easing a golfer's workload at The Republic.
"I think it's a fun golf course to play. It's user friendly," Barker said. "More courses need to be like that. It's not a difficult test, yet it's pretty and interesting. You don't have these severely designed greens, so you can bounce the ball up to the putting surface."
Oak Hills Country Club, former longtime site of the Texas Open and currently host of the Champions Tour stop, accumulated enough votes from the panel to finish second. La Cantera's Resort Course, where the Texas Open now calls home, was listed third, though it attracted the second-most first-place votes.
Others listed include Canyon Springs, former PGA Championship site Pecan Valley, The Bandit, Comanche Trace in Kerrville, SilverHorn, La Cantera's Palmer Course and Briggs Ranch, which was designed by Tom Fazio.
The Republic had 12 first-place votes. It was listed No. 8 in this category last year.
David Hoover, an avid golfer and owner of an RV complex and campground near The Republic, said he voted for the course for more than just its design or course condition.
"I first played there probably on the second day it was open when they had the clubhouse operating out of a construction trailer," Hoover said. "And (head pro) Quint Alexander shook our hands, welcomed us.
"The course was immaculate from Day 1, and they don't have a big turnover with their staff."
Located on Military Drive southeast of Interstate 37, The Republic is less than a 20-minute drive from downtown.
Less than 10 years old, it gained some notice last summer when, along with Pecan Valley, it was chosen to host the Greater San Antonio Men's Amateur Championship.
It was the first time the event has been played off a municipally owned facility. The tournament goes back there this year.
- Tim Price
If The Republic were a political candidate rather than a golf course, every election would be a winner. The course seems to have picked up the women's vote.
"I started playing in August along with my husband, who's a 3-handicap and a really proficient player," said Chris Pura, a property negotiator for a nationwide chain of banks. "He plays from the tips out at Republic and it is a challenge for him. I play from the ladies' tees and it serves as a good challenge and a lot of fun for myself."
The perception that players of varying abilities can find their proper test at The Republic has boosted the course to the top spot in the category of daily-fee facilities in the San Antonio area. Its 14 first-place votes allowed it to outdistance the rest of the top 10, in order: Pecan Valley, Canyon Springs (10 first-place votes), SilverHorn, The Bandit, The Quarry, The Buckhorn, Golf Club of Texas, Woodlake and Alsatian.
The Republic and Pecan Valley share the same area of the city southeast of downtown. Both cut through a cluster of trees, but Pecan Valley might scare off the golfer of more average talents because the trees aren't the only thing growing thick.
"You can lose the ball out there in the rough," said amateur golfer and commercial real estate broker Bryan Sethney. "That's the part that can hurt you out there. It's by far the most challenging course in the city. It's an old-school, classic course."
Sethney voted for The Republic as his favorite. He said it provides a good getaway from the office, and not just because it's less demanding than some layouts.
"It seems like you're secluded on every single hole," he said. "With the trees and the fairways separated from other holes in most spots, it really feels like you can get away."
La Cantera's Resort Course held down the top spot in this category last year. The Republic was No. 5. But the door opened for a new No. 1 when a category was created that fit La Cantera — resort golf course.
The category makes it possible for courses with less-expensive greens fees to gain some notice. A greens fee at The Republic is about half of that at La Cantera.
Affordable prices is not what Pura had in mind before she was exposed to golf.
"Not at all," she said. "But with my personality, it wouldn't have mattered how much it cost. I was going to do it."
The location of The Republic and Pecan Valley on the South Side is bringing more golfers to that part of town. Both courses served as sites for the Greater San Antonio Men's Amateur Championship last year. The Republic will do it again this year.
- Tim Price
Holes
Single best hole La Cantera — Resort No. 12
Toughest par-3 Oak Hills No. 13
Toughest par-4 Oak Hills No. 7, Pecan Valley No. 2
Toughest par-5 The Republic No. 6
Most picturesque par-3 La Cantera — Palmer No. 4
Most picturesque par-4 La Cantera — Resort No. 7
Most picturesque par-5 The Bandit No. 18
Courses
Most challenging La Cantera — Palmer
Easiest Brackenridge
Most picturesque La Cantera — Palmer
Best par-3 collection Oak Hills
Best par-5 collection The Republic
Most underrated The Buckhorn
Most worth the money The Republic
Best conditioning The Republic
Best-conditioned greens The Republic
Fastest greens Oak Hills
Most challenging greens La Cantera — Palmer
Toughest driving Pecan Valley
Must-play for visitors The Republic
Love to walk Brackenridge
Rather not walk La Cantera — Resort
Best for beginners The Buckhorn
Best for women The Republic
Getting it right
Best practice facility Academy at La Cantera
Best instructors Jim Barker, Bryan Gathright, Michael Lamanna
Best clubfitter/clubmaker/repair Doug Quirie
On the fringes
Best clubhouse The Dominion
Best food The Republic
Best marshals The Republic
Best staff The Republic
Best on-course pro shop La Cantera — Resort
Best off-course pro shop Edwin Watts
Top area private courses: Oak Hills
The name looms ominously. Oak Hills Country Club is the top vote getter in the category of San Antonio private golf club, but Briggs Ranch clearly has entered the consciousness of some San Antonio golfers.
Oak Hills gathered more overall votes from the Express-News panel. But Briggs Ranch attracted 11 first-place votes to Oak Hills' 10.
Perhaps, one day, it will be considered the top course.
"Except nobody plays it," said Jim Barker, director of instruction at The Quarry.
Indeed, Briggs Ranch, located in western Bexar County, opened less than two years ago to an exclusive membership. The average golfer has almost no shot at getting on.
Oak Hills is far more visible. The club offered more flexible membership packages a number of years ago. It has had an almost constant presence on the San Antonio golf scene for more than two decades that continues today through professional tour stops.
After the Texas Open left for La Cantera, it didn't take long before the Champions Tour moved in. It's still there today.
The events have opened the doors at Oak Hills for everyone who wanted to see it for a week out of the year.
And they have found something that most golf communities can't offer — a course originally designed by A.W. Tillinghast, one of the top early course architects.
"It gives you a traditional, tree-lined feel," said La Cantera director of instruction Michael Lamanna.
Briggs Ranch brought in Tom Fazio to design its course. "He is the hottest golf course architect right now," Lamanna said. "Anything he touches is fabulous."
Barker said there's a definite footprint to Fazio's design.
"He leaves plenty of room to drive the ball," Barker said. "Then the game becomes more challenging as you move toward the green."
Barker said he was highly impressed by the condition of Briggs Ranch, which includes bent grass greens.
"Out in the fairway, the ball sets right up," he said. "It's almost like it's sitting on a wire brush."
The seclusion of Briggs Ranch is showing a creak in the door. There is serious talk by the LPGA Tour that it seeks to bring the best women's golfers to the course for an annual tour stop.
"If the LPGA Tour event can get a sponsor here and it happens out at Briggs Ranch, it would be great for golf in San Antonio," Lamanna said.
- Tim Price
When he lived in Austin, Cary Reeves gathered a group of his golfing buddies together and took a road trip to San Antonio.
"We used to drive down here to play Cedar Creek," said Reeves, now sponsor relations manager at Golf San Antonio. "It had a great terrain. And condition-wise, it wasn't a country club, but it was nice."
The Hill Country setting that gives Cedar Creek its charm also provides its chink. Cedar Creek continues to battle feral hogs that occasionally walk out of the wooded hills and take out their hunger on tee boxes and green fringes.
Despite the struggle, Cedar Creek has been voted as the top municipal in the San Antonio area for the sixth-straight time the rankings have been available for that category in the Express-News. It was a clear-cut winner in first-place votes over Brackenridge, Willow Springs, Universal City's Olympia Hills and Mission del Lago.
All the municipal layouts — Cedar Creek included — might not be in the condition that can be found at privately owned, daily-fee courses. But the greens fees are different as well, about half of what is charged at The Republic and even less than those at The Quarry or La Cantera.
"I used to love to play Cedar Creek," said local amateur player Dick Zucker. "It's a gorgeous layout. It's just not maintained."
Reeves understands why the munis don't get the high-end play.
"People do with what they are given," he said. "That's the case with the municipal courses. They have a budget they're given and they do what they can with it."
Tim Price
If a resort course simply is a golf course with hotel rooms overlooking the property, local amateur golfer John Williams figures there are three in the San Antonio area: La Cantera, Hyatt Hill Country and Tapatio Springs.
"I like them all," said Williams, president of the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce who lists Fort Sam Houston's Salado and La Loma as his home courses. "But I love La Cantera."
The La Cantera facility dominated the rankings in the category of resort courses and facilities in the San Antonio area. La Cantera's Resort Course attracted 28 first-place votes and the Palmer Course took six, sandwiching Hyatt Hill Country's eight.
Williams credits the Resort Course's relative maturity and maintenance and the Palmer Course's design values for his liking of La Cantera.
But for the golfer traveling from out of town and staying at a hotel looking for a resort course, there are other factors in attracting those people. Namely, the fact that La Cantera is the site of the Texas Open makes the course easily identifiable with many golfers.
"The key thing is where the pros play," Williams said. "People want to know where the big boys play, and if people watch a pro tournament on TV they can say 'I played there.'"
Williams also notices La Cantera's frequent advertising and special rates.
"The Westin Properties and Troon Golf (operators of La Cantera) are real aggressive," Williams said. "That really shows.
"Plus, there are a lot of golf tournaments conducted at La Cantera. A lot of people that normally wouldn't play there would play in the tournament and find out they really like it out there."
- Tim Price
Military: La Loma
Despite the continuing rounds of base realignments and closures, San Antonio has plenty of military influence and plenty of military golf courses.
It's so strong that during the final round of the Greater San Antonio Men's Senior Amateur last year, each player in the final grouping at one time played competitive golf for an Air Force base.
Fort Sam Houston's La Loma Course, once the site of the Texas Open, tops the ratings for military courses according to the Express-News panel. It was listed as No. 5 last year after having the top rating in 2002. Gateway Hills at Lackland AFB dropped from last year's No. 1 spot.
"Both Lackland's course (Gateway Hills) and La Loma at Fort Sam are wonderful layouts and are fun to play," said Jim Barker, director of instruction at The Quarry.
Randolph Oaks at Randolph AFB on the Northeast Side was well respected for its renovation effort. The course received only two fewer first-place votes than La Loma.
Nine-hole: Windcrest
Windcrest Golf Club was named the best nine-hole course in the area.
The course, where LPGA standout Wendy Ward played as a junior, earned 15 first-place votes.
Par-3: San Pedro
The longtime fixture now known as San Pedro Par-3 and Driving Range north of downtown was recognized as the area's best short course.
"It's got all the things — long shots, short shots, sand, all of that," said Brent Feldt, teaching pro at Gateway Hills. "It's absolutely a good place for someone to get started playing golf."
The course and adjacent driving range are owned by the City of San Antonio. It is less than a mile from Olmos Basin Golf Course. In addition to the full driving range practice facility, there are practice putting greens and a chipping area and bunker to afford the ability to work on the short game.
- Tim Price
If there is any doubt where to start the list of the best golf courses in Texas, a walk to the No. 1 tee at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth serves as a compelling opening argument.
A long, imposing wall runs alongside the tee box. On it is etched a list of champions, winners of Colonial's PGA Tour stop, the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open that have been played there.
Ben Hogan's name appears five times. Many of the game's notables are accounted for as well: Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino (twice), Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson.
So in the first year of the category of best overall course in Texas, Colonial is the Express-News editors' pick as No. 1. Among the other courses nominated include The Republic, La Cantera's Resort Course, The Bandit, Oak Hills, Briggs Ranch, Comanche Trace and Dallas National.
"Colonial is a golf course that's tremendously manicured," said Bob Putt, who has served as a pro or manager of Texas courses like Las Colinas, Horseshoe Bay, The Club at Sonterra and ColoVista since 1969. "It has a number of tremendous holes. It's a historical golf course."
Colonial was established in 1936, the oldest golf course that continues to serve as host site for a PGA Tour event.
Its shot values are highlighted by the Horrible Horseshoe, a tough stretch of holes from No. 3 through No. 5. It measures more than 7,000 yards, but that distance is amplified by the fact that it's a par 70.
Despite Colonial's reputation, The Republic actually garnered a lot of support from the voters.
The Republic is easily accessible and open to the public. It gained more notice last year when, along with Pecan Valley Golf Club, it became the first non-municipal course to serve as host for the Greater San Antonio Men's Amateur Championship.
"Trying to play, or just practice, even after that tournament was over, I noticed a lot more people out on the course and the range," said Ernest Pena, an amateur golfer who works in the golf shop at The Republic.
"Foresight (parent company of The Republic) is doing a great job with their program, but Republic is practically brand new," Putt said. "I just think you have to earn your merits over the years."
Colonial is a private golf course, although its gallery is open to the public during the PGA Tour stop. The tournament has been televised nationally for decades.
"It would be hard to rate a course as the best golf course if you've never played it or will never have an opportunity to play it," said Michael Lamanna, director of instruction at La Cantera. "Plus, what do you mean when you say 'the best?' It's a rather nebulous term."
Tim Price
Progress for some can be viewed as a step backward for others. And when two developments affecting daily-fee courses across the state took place within the past two years, The Bandit was influenced.
The course, located on FM 725 near New Braunfels, was ranked as the No. 5 "Best Public Course" in the state by Golf Week magazine.
But when Crown Colony in Lufkin dropped its private-course status and opened for public play and the Texas Tech University Rawls Course in Lubbock opened, Bandit dropped a couple of spots in the rankings.
The consolation? The Bandit is the editors' pick as the top public course in the state by the Express-News.
The Bandit was nominated by a panel of voters along with The Republic, Canyon Springs, Pecan Valley, The Quarry, Buckhorn, La Cantera's Resort Course, SilverHorn, Hyatt Hill Country and Cypresswood Tradition Course near Houston.
It's understandable that The Bandit dropped in other rankings: It's crowded at the top.
Crown Colony is a Pete Dye-designed facility that for years was listed among the top courses as a private club. The Rawls Course was designed by Tom Doak, architect of splashy courses like Pacific Dunes in Oregon and Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand.
The Bandit has faced other challenges. Flooding incidents have caused maintenance crews to alter the creeks that run through the course.
"We've done some changes and it really looks good out here — worth a look," Bandit head pro Tim Spurlock said. "At No. 7 and 15, the greens are close to one another, and it's flooded in front of 15 green so we covered the creek there."
No. 7 is a 550-yard par 5, and 15 is the monster hole — 624 yards.
"That is a tough, tough hole," said local amateur golf and business owner David Hoover.
Hoover also was a member of this year's panel, and he voted The Republic as his top course.
Spurlock also said there was work done on Nos. 8 and 16. No. 8 is 401 yards with a creek in front and 16 is 424 yards with the creek in front.
The Bandit measures 6,928 yards from the back tees, but the par 71 can play as short as 5,253 from the most-forward tees.
- Tim Price
By some people's definition, hidden gems are located more than an hour's drive from a major city — in places named New Ulm and Frankston.
For others, such courses can be tucked away no more than a 20-minute drive from the central business district of a city with a population of more than 1 million.
The Falls Golf Resort and Club in New Ulm, Pine Dunes in Frankston and The Republic on San Antonio's Southeast Side were the most-nominated golf courses for the 2006 top hidden gem in Texas.
The Falls earned the nod last year. The Express-News editors' pick this year is Pine Dunes.
"It's out in the middle of nowhere, but it's a great golf course," The Bandit head pro Tim Spurlock said.
"I went out there with my brother, who goes out there two or three times a year and makes a weekend out of it. I think me and my buddies will be going out there and doing the same thing.
"It's a traditional golf course."
Pine Dunes, designed by Jay Morrish, is located about 90 miles southeast of Dallas in a triangle cornered by Corsicana, Tyler and Palestine. A converted nine-hole course, it now stretches to beyond 7,000 yards.
The Falls is less than 11/2 hours from Houston and almost 170 miles from San Antonio between Columbus and Brenham. The course checks in at a more manageable 6,765 yards.
The Falls and Pine Dunes offer stay-and-play-packages in a number of condominium units and villas that have views of the courses.
- Tim Price
Technology, particularly in the form of titanium drivers and lively golf balls, continues to threaten to render classic courses into layouts with windmills and a gaping clown's mouth guarding the cup. But as long as the baby boom generation hangs around, a short track like Brackenridge Park will have a place in the heart of many a golfer.
"I love Brackenridge," Sonterra director of golf operations Terry Olivarri said. "Here in San Antonio, anybody who is my age or older probably cut their teeth on that course.
"It's a fun golf course. It's a course you can take deep. It's a course that a lot of golfers can break 80 on, but it's not always easy for a good golfer to break 70 on it."
In other words, the place still has some relevance for a 52-year-old like Olivarri. Brackenridge, celebrating its 90th year, still stirs enough hearts that it was picked as the state's 2006 top municipal course.
Olivarri remembers the place when it hosted the Texas State Junior Championship, won twice by Ben Crenshaw, before its renovation in 1968 meant the rubber mats were pulled up in favor of newfangled grass tee boxes.
It's not even 6,500 yards, far shorter than the municipal courses like Cedar Creek in northern Bexar County and Memorial Park in Houston that both have tee markers stretching the courses to more than 7,000 yards.
The Jimmy Clay/Roy Kizer municipal course complex in south Austin and Willow Springs, across from the Spurs' home court at the AT&T Center on San Antonio's East Side, completes the top five according to the voters.
But Memorial Park was the only one to match the four first-place votes that Brackenridge attracted.
"That place is awesome," Olivarri said of Memorial. "There are country clubs in town that can't match that place."
As privately financed courses started dotting the map around Houston, Memorial almost had become forgotten in its location about 10 minutes from downtown. But it was redesigned more than a decade ago and emerged as one of the most-played courses in the Houston metro area.
It's not the only city to dig up an emerald from the muck pile.
Years after making the Jimmy Clay course a success, the city of Austin looked to an adjacent piece of land where a water-treatment plant once operated. Bereft of trees, designers still came up with a popular layout for Roy Kizer. With its bumpy terrain and water hazards, it resembles a slice of Great Britain.
Tim Price
—Quint Alexander, PGA member, Republic head pro, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Jesse Anguiano, Kingsborough Middle School golf coach, home course Cedar Creek, 37-48 rds/yr.
—Jim Barker, PGA member, former PGA Tour and PGA Senior Tour player, Quarry director of golf and instruction, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Mark J. Caldwell, PGA member, Riverhill head pro, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Andy Colunga, Canyon Springs head pro, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Ryan Cummings, River Crossing head pro, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Donald DeMasters, La Cantera head pro, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Edwin Dickens, PGA instructor, Buckhorn head pro, 49+ rds/yr.
—Andy Everett, La Cantera Golf Show host, home course La Cantera — Resort, 49+ rds/yr.
—Brent Feldt, Gateway Hills teaching pro, 49+ rds/yr.
—Frank G. Felicella, Golf San Antonio former CEO, home courses Sonterra and Horseshoe Bay, 49+ rds/yr.
—Gaston F. Gamboa, Buckhorn first assistant pro, 49+ rds/yr.
—Troy Gann, Class A PGA member, home course Randolph Oaks, 7-12 rds/yr.
—Teresa Goetz, Foresight Golf director of sales and marketing, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Tim Harford, Garden Ridge Golf Center owner and Alamo Cup Winter Tour director, 49+ rds/yr.
—Tim Hobby, Sonterra director of golf instruction, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Ken Holubec, PGA member, Foresight Golf director of golf operations, 7-12 rds/yr.
—David Hoover, self-described avid golfer, home course The Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Chris Jimenez, self-described weekend chop, home course The Republic, 25-36 rds/yr.
—John Junker, Class A PGA member, general manager Flying L, 7-12 rds/yr.
—Clayton Kauha, 20-year golfer, home course Randolph Oaks, 37-48 rds/yr.
—Michael Lamanna, PGA instructor, Academy at La Cantera director instruction, 25-36 rds/yr.
—George Logan, City of San Antonio golf operations manager, 49+ rds/yr.
—Todd McCabe, Class A PGA member, Oak Hills director of golf, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Brian McMyler, PGA instructor, Canyon Springs director of instruction, 49+ rds/yr.
—Terry Olivarri, Class A PGA member, Sonterra director of golf operations, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Jay Patterson, played on high school team, plays for fun, home course River Crossing, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Ernest Pena, 10-year player, works at Republic, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Frank Perez Jr., golf pro, home course Brackenridge, 49+ rds/yr.
—Charles Prokop, 40-year player, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Chip Puhl, 2005 S.A. men's senior match-play champion, home course Pecan Valley, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Roger Pura, 30-year player, home course Republic, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Chris Pura, self-described as new to sport, possibly addicted, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Bob Putt, PGA master pro, home course ColoVista, 25-36 rds/yr.
—Cary Reeves, Golf San Antonio sponsor relations manager, home facility Polo Field, 37-48 rds/yr.
—Robert Rodriguez, AVIDGOLFER Magazine managing editor, 49+ rds/yr.
—Hank Salinas, Brackenridge head pro/manager, 37-48 rds/yr.
—Anthony Schultz, 15-year player, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Bryan Sethney, self-described app. 5 handicapper, home course Republic, 37-48 rds/yr.
—Steve Shields, PGA member, La Cantera director of golf, 49+ rds/yr.
—Tim Spurlock, PGA member, Bandit head pro, 49+ rds/yr.
—Pam Strait, Class A golf pro, home course La Cantera — Resort, 13-24 rds/yr.
—Steve Tankersley, Texas Golf Bible associate, 49+ rds/yr.
—Holly Tothe, LPGA Class A member, UTSA women's golf coach, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Jeff Vexler, self-described scratch player, home course Republic, 49+ rds/yr.
—Chuck Westergard, San Antonio Country Club director of golf, 49+ rds/yr.
—John Williams, playing since age 14, home courses Fort Sam — Salado and La Loma, 49+ rds/yr.
—PJ Wright, member of Women's Texas Golf Association, San Antonio Women's Golf Association and city of San Antonio golf subcommittee board, home course River Crossing, 49+ rds/yr.
—Dick Zucker, has played regularly for decades, home course La Cantera, 49+ rds/yr.
The San Antonio Express-News
2005 Golf Course Review
Compiled by The San Antonio Express-News
Compiled by LeAnna Kosub San Antonio Express-News
Five reasons why San Antonio is entering an exciting golf era
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
PGA Tour: The TPC at San Antonio will be here by the end of this decade, bringing the kind of marketing punch that will lift the community's profile.
Coat-tail effect: With that raised profile comes lifted expectations. Courses are being forced to ratchet up their game to compete with not only each other, but what is coming.
Star power: Arnold Palmer's name is on one of La Cantera's courses, and now his money is behind two other significant properties. Jack Nicklaus is designing the new Cordillera Ranch layout, and Pete Dye is putting his brand on the TPC facility. Heavyweight names mean heavyweight attention.
A place to stay: In addition to the Hyatt Hill Country, La Cantera and Tapatio Springs resorts, local organizations are teaming with hotel properties to promote the city's getaway opportunities.
Banging the drum: San Antonio plans to increase its marketing profile for golf, and advocates are working to organize a collaboration among courses to better advertise.
Richard Oliver: Heart beats with potential
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
As any of us who have gripped a golf club can attest, the sport often treats confidence like a stray dog prowling a crowded city street.
When it's not being fed rich scraps on one end, it's getting kicked around on the other.
And, on occasion, it simply gets run over.
Former PGA Tour regular Phil Blackmar always jokes that if you allow yourself to get too high on the course, the golf gods will intervene with malicious intent. Raise the trophy too high, and you can go from winner to lightning rod in a heartbeat.
Thus, it is with some degree of caution that we ponder the state of golf in the San Antonio area today.
With all the positive things unfolding around us, it's tempting to taunt the fates and tumble into dangerous territory.
To be optimistic.
To the north, Jack Nicklaus is overseeing the layout of the new course at Cordillera Ranch. Near the northern and southern borders of San Antonio, Arnold Palmer's management company has taken over The Club at Sonterra and Pecan Valley Golf Club.
Facilities are being overhauled, resurrected and rerouted with the area golfer in mind.
It's a buyer's market, and courses are slashing prices like Target after the holidays.
The region's three resort facilities — Hyatt Hill Country, Tapatio Springs and La Cantera — will be joined later this decade by the PGA Tour's new TPC at San Antonio course. With it will come enough marketing punch to knock the community another step forward in a natural evolution toward being a golf destination.
For some, the progression already is long overdue.
The infrastructure is here. The attention is not.
Several South Texas golf officials and pros have been critical of the city's perceived sluggishness in raising its own flag as a hot spot for the sport, and still others lament the lack of teamwork between local courses in soliciting business.
"One of these days, the Greater San Antonio golfing chamber of commerce is going to wake up and say, 'We're leaving eight figures of golf revenue on the table,'" said PGA Tour pro David Ogrin, now director of golf at The Bandit in New Braunfels. "We could be like Tucson (Ariz.), the Gold Coast, Biloxi (Miss.) — we're leaving money on the table.
"I have the time and the platform to let people know that San Antonio is chock full of golf activities."
Ogrin is an advocate, and he has an ally in the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau. Bobby Salluce, the organization's acting vice president of marketing and communications, notes that recent statistics show that visitors to the city rank golf as one of the top four reasons to come.
The group's overnight leisure visitor survey rates the sport higher as a lure than any other city in the state except Austin.
"Much higher than Dallas and Houston," Salluce said, "and much, much higher than New Orleans."
The city's tourism marketing, which in 2002 included print ads in 63 publications with a total circulation of more than 25 million, includes a generic photo of the Resort Course at La Cantera, but Salluce is hoping that several courses around town will band in a cooperative push to help produce a more golf-specific message.
"It's definitely one of the ways in which San Antonio has a competitive edge," he said. "We want to promote us as a golf destination."
In the meantime, that message is being marketed a bit closer to home, and it's being passed along these days by the likes of Jack and Arnie. It's heavyweight stuff, and area golfers can't help but enjoy the development.
They're being asked to feast, at last.
With confidence.
2005 Golf Guide Overview
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Narrowing it
down
Sometimes it all comes down to the bottom line — not the final score, but the
final buck.
According to the Express-News 2005 Golf Guide panel, there are four courses in the San Antonio area that are worth the price of admission — The Buckhorn in Comfort and Cedar Creek, SilverHorn and The Republic in San Antonio.
"The Buckhorn is the hidden gem of Texas golf," said the course's head pro Edwin Dickens. "You can't find a course, big or small town, that is in as consistently excellent shape as The Buckhorn.
"Big fairways and big greens keep you on your game. Every hole gives you a real sense of Hill Country golf and Hill Country beauty."
Cedar Creek on the northern edge of town takes advantage of some of that same type of terrain. For more about that course, check out the analysis of the top five municipal courses in the San Antonio area on Page 16N.
At SilverHorn, the fairways are proof that the fees you pay are going right back into the course.
"SilverHorn is the best-conditioned public golf course I have ever been a part of," said Ignacio Vela, the facility's general manager. "The layout is not very long but it challenges every level player. The best players will struggle to make pars on this golf course. Par is a good score on this course."
As for The Republic, the newest course in Bexar County, word is just starting to leak that this tract on the Southeast Side is the real deal. The E-N panel voted The Republic and SilverHorn as not only worth the money, but underrated as well.
Location may be the culprit. The Republic sits far enough off Interstate 37 and Loop 410 that it can't be seen by passersby and SilverHorn is tucked among several neighborhoods along Bitters Road.
Another course sometimes overlooked is Pecan Valley.
This venerable course, site of the 1968 PGA Championship, sits along Salado Creek on the Southeast Side and has been flood-ravaged on several occasions. However, the challenge of the course hasn't changed — it's still considered the toughest-driving course in the area, according to the panel of voters.
A course that's not hard to find is the one the panel recommends for out-of-town visitors — The Quarry.
Designed by course architect Keith Foster, The Quarry is built in and around an abandoned rock quarry just north of downtown along U.S. Highway 281.
"The layout speaks for itself," said Courtney Connell, director of golf at Fair Oaks Ranch. "The Quarry will always be one of my favorite golf courses."
The course many dream about playing, though, seems to be Briggs Ranch.
With a limited membership and high initiation fees, this exclusive facility is off limits to most golfers in the area. But those who get the chance to play there offer rave reviews of its conditioning and par-5 collection.
"Any time someone gets an invitation to play Briggs Ranch, they should jump on it — work, family, kids be damned," said Robert Rodriguez, editor of Hill Country AvidGolfer magazine. "(Tom) Fazio has done some outstanding private layouts in Texas recently, and this one is right at the top of the list."
Said PGA Tour pro David Ogrin: "For the record, it would not take much for Briggs Ranch to host the U.S. Open."
LeAnna Kosub
Five reasons why San Antonio is entering an exciting golf era
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
PGA Tour: The TPC at San Antonio will be here by the end of this decade, bringing the kind of marketing punch that will lift the community's profile.
Coat-tail effect: With that raised profile comes lifted expectations. Courses are being forced to ratchet up their game to compete with not only each other, but what is coming.
Star power: Arnold Palmer's name is on one of La Cantera's courses, and now his money is behind two other significant properties. Jack Nicklaus is designing the new Cordillera Ranch layout, and Pete Dye is putting his brand on the TPC facility. Heavyweight names mean heavyweight attention.
A place to stay: In addition to the Hyatt Hill Country, La Cantera and Tapatio Springs resorts, local organizations are teaming with hotel properties to promote the city's getaway opportunities.
Banging the drum: San Antonio plans to increase its marketing profile for golf, and advocates are working to organize a collaboration among courses to better advertise.
It's time to pick the right club
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
As always, the opening weekend of March brings with it the promise of the spring to come.
It's golf season, and that means the prospect of majestic drives, accurate irons and infallible putting.
For San Antonio-area golfers, however, it also means something else.
Love is in the air.
Local players are being courted as never before by courses struggling with increased competition, a mercurial economy, inclement weather and a decline in overall participation in the sport.
As facilities gear up for the next month, considered a vital stretch in establishing loyalties that may last for weeks to come, they do so by offering aggressive bargains and specials.
"It's a great time for golf in San Antonio," said Frank Felicella, a longtime area golfer who retired in 2003 as president of Golf San Antonio. "The price is right. The courses are great. There's little or no wait time. It's a fast round of golf.
"There isn't enough you can say good about golf in the city right now."
Added golfing enthusiast John Williams, president of the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce, "I think we're in for some very exciting times."
Indeed, it's a buyer's market, and facilities from private to public are sprucing up their layouts like merchants opening their doors for the back-to-school rush. All are eyeing the other to see who is offering what deals, and where a better idea can be formulated.
"The golfer is going to be making some decisions," said Charles Greub, general manager of Pecan Valley Golf Club.
That facility, along with The Club at Sonterra, was sold two weeks ago to Arnold Palmer Golf Management, a bottom-line-conscious company that demands its properties work for aggressive round totals each day.
"Over the next 30 days, (players) are going to be making some decisions, such as who's in the best shape, how has Mother Nature affected things," said Greub, who has toiled to get Pecan Valley back in shape after damaging October flooding.
"Sometimes we think we're casting the net out there to see what we lure in. It's always a struggle."
With roughly 50 courses in and around Bexar County, and another six nine-hole courses, golfers have plenty of choices, and operators of those facilities know it.
Felicella and several of his usual playing partners are veteran members at Sonterra, "but we don't play there very often," he said, laughing. "Now is the perfect time to play at other places around town. The prices are too good to pass up right now."
Pecan Valley has slashed its weekday greens fees to $39.95, down almost 25 percent from this time last year, and to $49.95 on weekends.
"The San Antonio market is very talkative," Greub said. "It doesn't take long for golfers at Pecan Valley to get the word out, and it gets out there. It's important that everything we do is right from the moment the golfer arrives.
"We must think outside the box and be a little creative."
A recent promotion by the Resort Course at La Cantera Golf Club offered a two-for-one package for visitors, while the Hyatt Hill Country has showcased a wintertime fee rate based on whatever the temperature is when a golfer signs in.
In case money isn't the determining factor for the consumer, courses often rely on ballyhooing a particular attribute, sometimes basing the boast on ratings on Web sites — or in the Express-News.
"We've kind of hit this flat spot, with as many people entering the game as are leaving it," said Michael Lamanna, director of instruction of The Academy at La Cantera for the past three years. "But there are more facilities, and they're competing for the same pieces of pie. Like any other industry, they talk about differentiating the product.
"It's competition on a lot of different levels — playing conditions, price, courses distinguishing themselves as the places for tournaments. They'll talk about who has the best greens out there, and advertise it."
Lamanna chuckled. "Like we have the best hot dogs," he said.
At The Golf Club of Texas, recently purchased by Hollyhills Development Inc., changes include a pending name switch, an aggressive course makeover and a revamping of everything from fees to pro shop costs to the restaurant menu.
"It's an injection of enthusiasm," said David Levey, director of real estate for Hollyhills.
If that doesn't work, "We have the best greens in San Antonio," said Trent Palmer, head pro at TGC of Texas.
Boerne-based Foresight Golf, in a strong bid to entice golfers to try out its touted courses — The Bandit, The Buckhorn and The Republic — has revamped its teaching staff and upped the hype for its product.
For its own infusion of enthusiasm, Foresight has unleashed colorful PGA Tour pro David Ogrin, recently hired as a director of golf for the organization.
"I want to go up to the top of the mountain and scream, 'San Antonio is a great place to play, and there are three courses that you want to play,'" Ogrin said. "When people come in and say, 'It's too much,' I just want to shoot them dead. They're getting way more than they pay for."
It's a philosophy that several area facilities are adopting in the wake of a recent report by the National Golf Foundation that showed that while the total number of rounds was up slightly nationwide last year, they tumbled 4.5 percent in Region 5. That includes most of the southern swath of the country bordering the Gulf of Mexico, including the San Antonio area.
Jim Kass, a spokesman for the organization, noted the region includes the northern slice of hurricane-plagued Florida.
Private rounds, the report indicated, were flat for the year nationwide. Public courses showed a slight increase.
"It's a stable market, and people are trying to grab a share from each other," said Tony Piazzi, current president and CEO of Golf San Antonio. "Certainly, the opportunity for the local player to benefit from that is out there. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing at all."
San Antonio Area Top 5 Private Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Oak Hills
Jesse
Anguiano Jr. admits to having stars in his eyes.
Now an assistant pro at Cedar Creek, Anguiano remembers, when he was a teen, watching the big names of golf who at least made a pit stop at Oak Hills Country Club for the PGA Tour events played there.
Ben Crenshaw. Tom Watson. Greg Norman. Nick Price.
He even got Watson's autograph by the clubhouse the year Watson won the Nabisco Championship at Oak Hills.
"Oak Hills is where I saw them play, and I fell in love with the course," Anguiano said.
So much so that when it came time to vote as a member of the Express-News panel that chose the top courses in the San Antonio area, Anguiano not only chose Oak Hills as the top country club layout in town. He also put Oak Hills above The Resort Course at La Cantera as the top overall course in the city, a distinction La Cantera was bestowed for the second-straight year.
"There's a lot of hoopla surrounding (La Cantera)," Anguiano said. "But it just doesn't have that same aura for me. Eventually, it will."
But for now, Anguiano and many others favor the traditional layout at Oak Hills. And so do almost half the voters on the panel. Oak Hills attracted 15 first-place votes of the 31 cast for best country club course in San Antonio. The Dominion was second with two first-place votes.
"Oak Hills is just a classic golf course that requires shotmaking and not just a 'grip-it-and-rip-it' mentality," said John Clay, general manager at Woodlake.
The course's style is what attracts John Williams, president of the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce.
"Oak Hills and San Antonio Country Club are your classic old-style courses," Williams said. "No wonder the old pros on the Champions Tour like Oak Hills."
Tim Price
Top 10 Area Public Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Canyon
Springs
Tim Hobby either played on or heard about many solid courses when he was golf
coach at Baylor for seven years.
But when he arrived as director of instruction at the Club at Sonterra a year and a half ago, he had never heard of nearby Canyon Springs.
"The school my little girl went to was right across the street," Hobby said, explaining his discovery of Canyon Springs deep inside the Stone Oak master-planned community.
"We rented some apartments on the course. I love the place. It's always in great shape. It's fun. It's scenic. It's challenging."
The Resort Course at La Cantera brought in the most votes from the Express-News panel for best public course in San Antonio. There's no drama in that since the course also was voted best overall. To read about the Resort Course, go to Page 6N.
But Canyon Springs received three first-place votes and was rated the second-best public course in San Antonio by the Express-News panel.
"Canyon Springs is definitely a must-play in the San Antonio golf scene," said Robert Rodriguez, editor of Hill Country AVIDGOLFER Magazine. "There isn't much breathing room between the Resort Course at La Cantera and Canyon Springs."
Rob Akers, Canyon Springs' general manager, said being one of the top courses in the area is all about treating people right.
"Aside from being one of the best layouts in town, I think people understand what they're going to get when they show up here. They know that the course is going to be in great shape and the staff is going to make sure they have a great experience."
Considered one of the most picturesque courses in the area, Canyon Springs can play to 7,077 yards in a Hill Country setting of rocky areas and creeks, which is not as difficult as it seems.
Hobby, who gave his first-place public course vote to Canyon Springs, said playing the course is not a beating.
"I like a course where the average guy still can bounce the ball into the greens — not a lot of forced carries," Hobby said. "I think in golf you should be able to play on the ground as well as in the air."
It has some design features not often found at other courses. The fairway at No. 2 is split with a water well in the divide.
Akers points to No. 18 as the course's signature hole.
"It is very picturesque with a waterfall behind the green," he said.
"And it's a good combination of fair but difficult. Exactly what a finishing hole should be."
Tim Price
Top 5 Area Municipal Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Cedar Creek
If a
scorecard could talk once it's pulled away from the counter in the pro shop, the
one at Cedar Creek would speak volumes over a place like Brackenridge.
There's almost 1,000 more yards of golf holes for a player to cover from most tee configurations at Cedar Creek. And that doesn't include the elevation changes starting from the first hole that can make Cedar Creek play long in spots.
"It's a heck of a golf course," said The Quarry director of golf Jim Barker, one of 13 voters on an Express-News panel who voted Cedar Creek as the top municipal course in San Antonio. "It's a treat to play. It's a wonderful collection of holes."
But the scorecard and Hill Country setting apparently can't capture everyone's heart. Brackenridge picked up 10 first-place votes from golfers who excused the shorter yardage and flatter setting and embraced the course's tradition and park-land design. It's the oldest public course in Texas (established 1916) and home to the first Texas Open in 1922.
"I guess I'm old-fashioned," said Courtney Connell, director of golf at Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club. "I like the golf course at Brack, and I love the tradition. I like the trees. Obviously, everything in golf has changed and will continue to change because of improvements in technology. But I guess I have a sentimental attachment to that course, and when I see there's the city senior championship out there, the course is supported by a lot of people that I know are country club members. That speaks well for the course, I believe."
The most expressed concern with the municipal courses continues to be turf conditions. The past year has been especially tough for superintendents because of extended cooler temperatures during the transition from spring to summer.
"It's been a mess this year with almost all the courses in this area, not just the municipals," Barker said. "Still, I'd love to see the City of San Antonio improve the conditions of its golf courses."
At Cedar Creek, where the green complexes and tee boxes in some portions of the course have damaged grass, the culprit has been wild hogs. Richard Hocott, head pro at Cedar Creek, said it has been six months since the animals have dined on the course to the extent that they've damaged the turf.
"If that continues, we should be able to continue to improve the conditions out here through the upcoming season," Hocott said.
Tim Price
Top 3 Area Military Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Gateway Hills
When a
golf course gets almost half the first-place votes available in its category,
there must be something past the first tee.
With Lackland AFB's Gateway Hills, it sounds like there is.
"I was in the military for four years and I've played military courses in Hawaii, Subic Bay (Philippines), Guam, almost all over the world, and Lackland is one of the best military courses I've played," said Brian Byers, first assistant at The Dominion. "It does have a goofy hole, but if you can get 17 really good holes at most military courses, you're doing really good."
The "goofy" hole at Gateway Hills, Byers said, is No. 9. It's an uphill hole that, if the approach is not put in the right place, the ball can roll back down the hill.
But the course finishes with a bold statement. Byers said the 18th has a "stadium feel to it," where the tee shot and approach require a long run back uphill.
Tim Price
Texas Top 10 Public Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
La Cantera
For many
golfers, it's all about where the pros are.
And where they are, at least one weekend each year, is La Cantera.
So, when the Express-News asked people familiar with golf in the area and across the state to name the best public-access golf course in Texas, the majority followed the pros right to La Cantera's Resort Course, where the Texas Open is played.
Then they stuck around awhile to give the Palmer Course a whirl.
"First of all, La Cantera (the Resort Course) is a really outstanding golf course," said John Williams, president of the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce and an avid golfer.
"Second of all, it's a course that the pros play on the PGA Tour and it's always a thrilling thing for a golfer to play the courses that the pros play. You can watch it on TV and see what they do, where you hit the ball compared to where the pros hit the ball and so forth."
The Resort Course and the Palmer Course at La Cantera are part of the Westin La Cantera Resort. Troon Golf manages both courses, each with its own golf pros, clubhouse and staff.
Built on the Northwest Side of San Antonio on the edge of the Hill Country, the Resort Course opened in 1995. When the course debuted, its location on one of the highest points in the city made it a popular destination for those who enjoy a round of golf with a view.
"The dramatic elevation changes and the overall playability of the course is why the Resort Course at La Cantera is tops on my public list," said Robert Rodriguez, editor of Hill Country AvidGolfer magazine.
Then along came Arnold Palmer, who found a way to top the Resort Course — build a course even higher, with even more spectacular views.
"We have two golf courses with two different characters," said Pam Strait, sales manager for both courses. "Many of the holes at the Palmer Course lay up on top of the terrain of the hills, while the Resort Course holes are cut more into the valleys."
The view from the top is a significant feature, said Michael Rodriguez, head pro at Palmer.
"The Palmer Course at La Cantera can't be beat in terms of elevation change and jaw-dropping beauty," he said. "The facility has everything to offer guests — great views, service and superb conditions."
Service is the key, according to Strait.
"Our goals are always to provide the guest with the most supreme customer service and product, day in and day out," she said. "If we do that, we will be successful and our guests will be happy."
LeAnna Kosub
Top 5 Texas Municipal Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Memorial
(Houston)
It
appears to be in vogue for at least some cities to look back at their old golf
courses and decide to breath life back into them.
Dallas was one of the first to try it with what was known as Tenison West, unleashing a design team headed by pro golfer D.A. Weibring to transform the Depression-era layout into an almost new creation now known as Tenison Highlands.
Things went so well that during the past year Dallas reopened Cedar Crest as another Weibring redesign, this one an A.W. Tillinghast original (he also designed Brackenridge and Oak Hills Country Club) where Walter Hagen won the PGA Championship in 1927.
Houston started the movement when it took dilapidated Memorial Park (established 1923) and shut it down for about a year for a redesign in 1994.
The result is a public course that annually is ranked among Houston's best. It placed third in a poll of Express-News voters for best municipal in Texas behind Cedar Creek and Brackenridge.
"When I was with the City of San Antonio golf courses, I would call my counterpart in Houston and ask him how he got the City of Houston to help out and make that place what it is. It's just perfect," said John Clay, former golf operations director in San Antonio and now general manager at Woodlake Golf Club. "That course, with the history it has behind it, is always ranked highly by the publications in Houston, which it should be."
Memorial, in a massive park near downtown Houston, opened as a nine-hole course with sand greens.
Tim Price
Top 5 Austin Area Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Falconhead
A significant part of the future of golf in San Antonio might be found by taking
a peek at the hills outside Austin.
Now that San Antonio has approved a PGA Tour-affiliated TPC course for a site outside north Loop 1604, anyone curious about how the layout might look can play Falconhead near Lake Travis.
Falconhead, which opened in April 2003 near the intersection of Route 620 and Highway 71 almost around the corner from the Hills of Lakeway, is a PGA Tour Signature Series course. But it doesn't have the feel of a newer course.
"There are houses out there, but it's not like a lot of courses where you're looking at out-of-bounds real close on both sides of the fairway," said Brian McMyler, The Buckhorn director of instruction. "There is some brush in the rough areas that they might clear out eventually. But the greens have a good feel to them. They're not hard like a lot of newer courses."
It has some inventive design. No. 17, a par 3 that can play as long as 184 yards with a carry over a creek, has a green that is built over a ledge.
"It seems like a quarter of the green hangs out over the water," McMyler said. "It's a good hole."
Tim Price
Top 5 Dallas/Fort Worth Area Public Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Cowboys Golf
Club
When the
students line up at The Academy at La Cantera, Michael Lamanna admits he doesn't
get out much.
If Lamanna, director of instruction at La Cantera, wants to golf vicariously through his students, all he has to do is ask.
And if he's interested in playing golf in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, his more gifted students give him a quick answer.
"I get a lot of good, young junior golfers to coach, and I can go strictly on their recommendation when seven or eight of them keep saying that Cowboys is the place to play up there," Lamanna said.
Voted as the top course in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by the Express-News panel with seven first-place votes of 21 cast, Cowboys Golf Club opened in June 2001 in Grapevine.
As the name implies, its ownership group includes Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones and his family. Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited, an ownership partner, manages the Jeff Brauer-designed course.
Anyone still yearning for football once they get there can check out the display case in the clubhouse. The Cowboys' five Super Bowl trophies are there.
Tim Price
Top 5 Houston Area Public Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
TPC-Woodlands
and The Tradition
There's nothing like retiring with the title.
That's what TPC at The Woodlands has done in the category of best public course in the Houston area.
The course north of Houston, until recently a longtime site for the area's PGA Tour stop, easily garnered enough votes from the Express-News panel to receive top billing.
The problem is, you can't play it unless you fork over big bucks and become a member or know a member.
The course, one of a handful at The Woodlands, has pulled over the curtain of private/member status and is now known as the East Course at The Woodlands.
What's the next best thing?
It's not The Oaks Course or the Panther Trail Course at The Woodlands, which do offer public play.
It's The Tradition at Cypresswood, also in the pine trees along the north of Houston. It came in No. 2 behind The Woodlands' eight first-place votes with four votes of its own among the 23 cast.
"(It's) one of (architect) Keith Foster's best designs," wrote Robert Rodriguez, editor of Hill Country AvidGolfer magazine and one of the E-N voters.
That would include The Quarry in San Antonio and Texas Star in the Dallas-Fort Worth midcities community of Euless.
"Trees encompass the surroundings ... which gives off a Pinehurst feel to the course," Rodriguez said.
Tim Price
Top 5 Small-Town Courses/Hidden Gems
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
The Falls and
Comanche Trace
Pack up
the bags. Drive out to the country. Stay a while. There are some hidden gems
less than a three-hour drive from San Antonio that want people to make a day —
and night — of it.
The Falls near New Ulm scored as the No. 1 "hidden gem" with the Express-News voters last year and repeats this year.
Though 65 percent of its business comes from Houston, assistant pro Ryan Bell sees golfers willing to make the 169-mile drive from San Antonio on a regular basis for stay-and-play overnight packages. It's a drive east on Interstate 10 to Highway 109 between Columbus and Brenham.
It's the same 6,765-yard layout as last year, with one exception.
"We added another green on No. 5," Bell said. "The owner got the idea that it would make the hole more challenging."
The Falls earned three first-place votes of the 26 cast, as did Comanche Trace in Kerrville.
The bent-grass greens that were removed in favor of Bermuda at The Falls are employed at Comanche Trace, a course designed in part by Tom Kite. The elevation in the Kerrville area offers a favorable, cooler climate.
"They're top notch," Comanche Trace assistant pro Heath Martin said. "We don't even have to install the fans that are needed to cool them off."
Comanche Trace, which opened in 2000, has private membership.
The tract has the respect of Edwin Dickens, head pro at The Buckhorn in Comfort.
"(It is) an absolute gem of a design and a great course to play," Dickens said.
Tim Price
San Antonio Area Top 10 Courses
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
La
Cantera-Resort
A year before the Texas Open moved to the Resort Course at La Cantera, Tom
Weiskopf fit in a visit to his new design around competitive rounds nearby in
the Senior PGA Tour event at The Dominion. Or maybe it was the other way around,
figuring that Weiskopf probably has made a few more bucks designing courses than
playing them.
During an interview session under one of the domes at The Dominion clubhouse, it sounded like Weiskopf anticipated the La Cantera layout, (one of 26 designs he shared with Jay Morrish) would get a rough reception from tour players.
Since La Cantera was destined to be a public course, there might have been fear that the tumult would reach such a level as to scare off the weekend hacker. After all, the hackers are the guys so impressionable they tend to pull out the equipment used by the player who just won on tour. Wouldn't they be just as influenced by a negative course review by those same players?
"The guys on the tour now are going to complain about leaving a traditional old design like Oak Hills for another new place," Weiskopf said. "But they've got to get it in their heads that on the tour now, it's not just about them. It's also about the corporate sponsors. It's about having the kind of overall facility that accommodates everyone."
Apparently, there are enough people who are catching on to the idea. For the second consecutive year, the Resort Course at La Cantera has been voted as the top overall course in the San Antonio area by a panel of voters enlisted by the Express-News. Oak Hills Country Club is No. 2. Five of the 31 voters put the original La Cantera track at the top of their lists. Three chose Oak Hills as tops.
But their reasons for picking La Cantera don't necessarily match Weiskopf's thoughts about it.
"It's the golf course — that's the only reason," said Frank Felicella, president and CEO of Golf San Antonio from 1996-2002 and among those who gave the nod to La Cantera.
Golf San Antonio operates the Texas Open, and Felicella was a board member when it moved to La Cantera. Beyond appeasing tour players and corporate sponsors, La Cantera scores in a basic way for everyone else, he said.
"It's just a fun course to play," Felicella said. "The views are great. You can get through a round in four hours or less. The conditions are always excellent."
As they should be. Green fees range from $130-$65.
"We have a lot of extras," said Carl Bielstein, director of golf/facility manager at La Cantera. "There's valet parking. We try to have a person greeting players at every key location around the facility. But people would rather carry their own clubs from the parking lot up to the golf cart than go out and putt on bad greens."
Tim Price
Best of San Antonio
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
|
Single best hole |
La Cantera-Resort No. 12 |
|
Toughest par-3 |
The Quarry No. 16 |
|
Toughest par-4 |
La Cantera-Resort No. 12 and Pecan Valley No. 2 |
|
Toughest par-5 |
Willow Springs No. 2 |
|
Most picturesque par-3 |
La Cantera-Palmer No. 4 |
|
Most picturesque par-4 |
La Cantera-Resort No. 7 |
|
Most picturesque par-5 |
La Cantera-Resort No. 1 |
|
Most challenging |
La Cantera-Palmer |
|
Easiest |
Brackenridge |
|
Most picturesque |
La Cantera-Palmer |
|
Best par-3 collection |
Oak Hills |
|
Best par-5 collection |
La Cantera-Resort |
|
Most underrated |
The Republic and SilverHorn |
|
Most worth the money |
Buckhorn, Cedar Creek, The Republic and SilverHorn |
|
Best overall conditioning |
La Cantera-Resort |
|
Best-conditioned greens |
Oak Hills |
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Fastest greens |
Oak Hills |
|
Most challenging greens |
La Cantera-Palmer |
|
Toughest driving |
Pecan Valley |
|
Must-play for visitors |
La Cantera-Resort and The Quarry |
|
Love to walk |
Brackenridge |
|
Rather not walk |
La Cantera-Palmer |
|
Best for beginners |
Brackenridge |
|
Best for women |
La Cantera-Resort |
Getting It Right
|
Best practice facility |
Academy at La Cantera |
|
Best instructors |
Michael Lamanna, Bryan Gathright and Jim Barker |
|
Best clubfitter/clubmaker/repair |
Doug Quirie/Golf Stix |
|
Best clubhouse |
The Dominion and La Cantera-Palmer |
|
Best marshals |
La Cantera-Resort |
|
Best on-course pro shop |
La Cantera-Resort Best off-course pro shop Edwin Watts |
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
Express-News 2005 Panel
Web Posted: 03/06/2005 12:00 AM CST
James Alverson, assistant pro, Canyon Springs
Jesse L. Anguiano Jr., assistant pro, Cedar Creek
Jim Barker, director of golf and instruction, Quarry
Carl Bielstein, director of golf, La Cantera
Brian Byers, first assistant pro, Dominion
John Clay, general manager, Woodlake
Courtney Connell, director of golf, Fair Oaks
Donald DeMasters, head pro, La Cantera-Resort
Edwin Dickens, head pro, Buckhorn
Magnus Dohlvik, teaching pro, Academy at La Cantera
Frank G. Felicella, former CEO, Golf San Antonio
Cob Garner, assistant pro/tournament coordinator, La Cantera-Palmer
Charles Greub, general manager, Pecan Valley
Tim Hobby, head pro, Sonterra
Richard Hocott, head pro, Cedar Creek
Ken Holubec, director of golf operations, Foresight Golf
Brent Kelley, national golf editor, About.com
Michael Lamanna, director of instruction, Academy at La Cantera
George Logan, golf operations manager, city of San Antonio
Todd McCabe, head pro, Oak Hills
Brian McMyler, director of instruction, Buckhorn
David Ogrin, PGA Tour pro; developer, Foresight Golf University
Larry Ramos, head pro, San Pedro
Michael Rodriguez, head pro, La Cantera-Palmer
Robert Rodriguez, editor, AVIDGOLFER Magazine (Dallas, Houston and Austin/San Antonio)
Henry "Hank" Salinas, head pro, Brackenridge
Pam Strait, golf sales manager, La Cantera
Ignacio Vela, general manager and director of golf, SilverHorn
John Williams, amateur golfer for 50 years
Mac Wylie, head pro, Alamo
Vic Yanuzzi, director of instruction, Hyatt Hill Country
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