Over The Green

Part four of Irish golf course series

2012-02-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

The fourth story about my trip to Ireland last July to play a handful of the Emerald Isle's top golf courses has been posted to the Cybergolf main page. This one is about the wild and wonderful experience at Old Head, one of the world's most spectacular sites for golf.

Here are a few paragraphs and a few pics from the feature:

Golf courses are usually dictated by one underlying tenet - they are what they are because of their locations. Would Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines or Bandon Dunes be so well regarded without their Pacific Coast settings; would Kiawah Island be the same were it removed from its lowland locale alongside the Atlantic; or would Liberty National Golf Club be as stunning removed from its expansive views of downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty?

The same notion applies to Old Head, a great golf course made more spectacular by its stunning and singular place - a rocky, 220-acre promontory jutting more than two miles into the Celtic Sea and connected to the mainland by a narrow, tunnel-filled land bridge.

The course is exposed to the elements and, with dramatic 300-foot-high cliffs on all sides, provides ocean views from virtually every hole.

Playing a round of golf at Old Head makes you feel as though you're on the edge of the world. There are seagulls flying below you, and waves reverberate in the many caves hollowed out of the headland's base, making a tremendous booming noise.

Getting a chance to play Old Head was the impetus behind the trip across the pond. It provided a round I will never forget. See the entire feature at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/old_head_golf_links_more_than_a_fabulous_location.

Palmer and Seay's Tralee gives links golf a newer flair

2012-01-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

I just posted a feature about my July trip to Ireland and my round of sumptuous golf at Tralee Golf Club, one of the Emerald Isle's newer links layouts. Tralee is a course that may be overlooked by some golfers more interested in playing just the tracks build before the turn of the 20th century, but it's a must play if you are ever across the pond and looking for a golf course that will take a little of the starch out of your britches.

Here are a few paragraphs from the story, which can be found it its entirety at www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/tralee_golf_club_goes_out_like_a_lamb_roars_in_like_a_lion:

The par-72 Tralee Golf Club stretches 6,991 yards from its back set of four tees. The strip of land on Barrow Point upon which the course was arrayed is a mixed geographical bag. Cobbled together out of numerous smaller pieces of farmland, the site not only provides all the ingredients of links golf - hard, fescue greens, undulating fairways and punishing rough - but also some of the perks of its volcanic geography.

It has some very high dunes, wide white-sand beaches, inlets and some of the most eye-popping backdrops of mountains and ocean you will see in all of Ireland. Scenes from the Oscar-winning film "Ryan's Daughter" were shot on the beach alongside the second hole.

The links features several rollercoaster holes, bunches of treacherous traps, and greens that are undulating but not severely so. There are numerous blind shots; a half-dozen sightlines off the tees that appear to be different than they are and more than one putting surface that breaks uphill or away from the ocean counter everything the eye and logic dictate.

Walking past and above the 16th green and looking down on the grass waving on the dunes below really hit me "right there." The course looks like a painting that -- thanks to the combination of wind and surf and sand -- is being created as you play it.

I had a whale of a time on my trip to Ireland and can't wait to get back.

Desert golf without a cactus in sight

2012-01-23T14:39:00.000-08:00

Last spring I went west to the Valley of the Sun and Scottsdale for the second consecutive year to visit a handful of the region's many spectacular golf courses. One of the most noted facilities of last year's trip was the Westin Kierland Resort, which I profiled recently in Cybergolf (www.cybergolf.com).

Scottsdale is one of my favorite destinations for may reasons, two of which are: 1. there are so many golf courses you can play two different ones a day and never run out of options; and 2. you can actually play 36 holes a day for four straight days and never get bored or too worn out (unless you can't take the sun, that is).

Here are a few paragraphs of my Cybergolf story on Kierland that ran last week and a pair of photos that might want you to head straight to your computer and book a trip to the over-the-top-but-within-most-budgets resort:

There are myriad options for great golf in Scottsdale. But if a visitor is looking for the Valley of the Sun's ultimate destination for fun on and off the course, the Westin Kierland Resort has to be atop anyone's list.

Featuring three Scott Miller-designed nine-hole sides, Kierland Golf Club is the centerpiece of the 730-acre master-planned Kierland community. The development, located inside Loop 101 in north Scottsdale, also features plush residences, retail centers and the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa.

Some consider Kierland Golf Club's three nines - Acacia, Mesquite and Ironwood - Miller's best work. That's saying a lot since the Scottsdale-based architect has done many fine courses, including the ballyhooed We-Ko-Pa Cholla course in nearby Fountain Hills, the sublime Sandia Golf Club in Albuquerque, Coeur d'Alene Resort's course, among about 100 others.

Kierland Golf Club is routed across land that was once flat and lifeless, devoid of even the obligatory Arizona cactus. Miller moved 1.3 million cubic yards of dirt in shaping these 27 that now have elevation changes of up to 75 feet, along with mounds and berms that run up and down hills and through valleys, over desert washes and past huge lakes. The property is surrounded by Pinnacle Peak, Camelback Mountain, Mummy Mountain and the McDowells, all seemingly so close that on a clear day it feels like these promontories can be reached with a well-struck 7-iron.

Here's the link to the feature if you would like to continue to read: http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/kierland_golf_club_desert_golf_without_a_cactus_in_sight.

Ballybunion is the real deal

2012-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

My first story about my trip to Ireland last summer and about my round of golf at world-famous Ballybunion Golf Club's Old Course has been posted on Cybergolf and ready for perusal.

A few paragraphs and a couple of photos to whet the appetite:

Every knowledgeable golfer has heard tales of Ireland's Old Course at Ballybunion Golf Club, either from a friend who's been lucky enough to venture across the Atlantic and play it or from the reviews by famous personages such as Hall of Fame golfer Tom Watson and former president Bill Clinton.

Perhaps golfers have gone online to see what all the fuss is about and perused Ballybunion's expansive website (www.ballybuniongolfclub.ie), conjuring up thoughts of teeing it up on the windswept bluff at the southern juncture of the Atlantic and the Shannon River in County Kerry, on the Emerald Isle's southwestern coast.

Last summer, during a glorious stretch of warm, relatively calm days, I was able to cross a round at Ballybunion's Old Course off of my bucket list. I can verify that the experience was all it's cracked up to be - and more. I have played more than 600 golf courses in the past five years - and likely more than a thousand since my golf infatuation began in 1986 - and the round at Ballybunion was my all-time favorite.

Here's the link: http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/old_course_at_ballybunion_everything_its_cracked_up_to_be_and_more. Enjoy...

Best courses of 2011

2011-12-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

The writers for Cybergolf, the popular website to which I contribute, were asked to name the top five golf courses they played in 2011.

Here was my submission; read the rest of our writers' choices at: www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/cybergolf_writers_top5_courses_of_the_year.

Having teed it up on 151 golf courses this year through Dec. 17, it is difficult to determine which ones were my top 5 or even how to set the criteria for judging those that were best. I like golf, and I like playing golf so spending day after day on the links is my definition of nirvana.

So I decided to list here a quintet of courses on which I had the most fun, separated into categories rather than just listed as a whole. These five courses meant the most to me in 2011 or they were a surprise (aren’t those always the most treasured?). But when reading this please remember that, for me, just about any day on the course is a cherished memory.

Best Short Course – Monarch Dunes’ Challenge Course, Nipomo, CA
Designed by Damian Pascuzzo and Steve Pate, this 12-hole, par-3 course (below) on the central California coast is a treat, filled with holes measuring from 82 to 242 yards with loads of undulation, water, dunes and fescue. I played the course with the architects and five other golf journalists as an eight-some in an hour and 40 minutes. This is a great concept and an even better example of the concept done correctly.

Best Surprise Course – Kokopelli Golf Club, Apple Valley, UT
This Bruce Summerhays-design (below) sits about 30 miles east of St. George and wows with spectacular views of Zion, Gooseberry Mesa and some of southern Utah's most incredible sandstone formations. The course, opened in 2010, has five holes routed up, down and across a mountain and others that play across lava fields and gorges. It knocked my socks off.

Best Municipal Course – Conquistador Golf Course, Cortez, CO
Something needs to be said about city-owned golf courses that have the right formula and put it into practice day in and day out. That’s what the golfer gets at this Press Maxwell-designed jewel. You can view La Plata Peak, Mesa Verde and Sleeping Ute Mountain from virtually everywhere on the course as long as you’re not in the Ponderosa pine and piñon trees that line the fairways. The track was in flawless condition and a blast to play.

Best Overall Course (Domestic Category) – TimberStone at Pine Mountain, Iron Mountain, MI
This Jerry Matthews-designed track is in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a little bit of everything, including the rare 5-star rating from Golf Digest. Isolated, serene and tough (but not severely so), TimberStone is sprawled out across 105 playable acres of Pine Mountain, with elevated tees and greens and a routing that brings golf and nature together. Tall pines line most of the holes, and a stunning finish (the 215-yard downhill par-3 No. 17 and the 625-yard tumbling par-5 18th) will send you straight back to the clubhouse to immediately book your next round. Just freaking amazing.

Best Overall Course (Foreign Category) – Ballybunion’s Old Course, County Kerry, Ireland
I took my inaugural trip to Ireland this summer, and the first course I played was the incomparable Old Course at Ballybunion (below), which dates to 1893. The first six holes are nothing to write home about, but the final 12 may be the finest and most challenging golf I have ever played. These are the holes that are on the bluff overlooking the Irish Sea, and the routing is through huge dunes covered with native grasses that sway constantly in the wind. Walking down the fairway at the 509-yard par-5 16th through a canyon created by the dunes – which were created over the eons from the wind off the sea – I felt like I was as close to the maker as I could be – and that’s a good thing.

Turning Stone is lush and green...and a real treat

2011-08-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

The first week in June was a great time to visit the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in upstate New York (about a 30 minute limo ride from Syracuse), especially after the spring and summer we have endured here in Central Texas.

Just before my visit, the Verona area had recorded 26 consecutive days with some measurable precipitation, and the area and the resort's courses we lush and green beyond belief. We were told that the greenskeepers for the resort's three courses were putting chemicals on the turf to keep it from growing -- that would never happen in Central Texas.

We were able to tee it up on all three of Turning Stone's excellent courses -- the Rick Smith-designed Shenendoah (above), Atunyote (fashioned by Tom Fazio and the site of the PGA Tour's Turning Stone Resort Championship until 2010 -- pictured below)and RTJ Jr.'s Kaluhyat. Hard to say which course is better because all we so good, but we had the best conditions (temps in low 60s and no winds)for the final morning at Kaluhyat.

The whole setup at Turning Stone is top drawer, from the Lodge that we stayed in (really a low-rise plush building of suites usually reserved for the casino's high rollers) to the wonderful bar and membership-only dining room atop the 19-floor tower, the tallest building between Albany and Syracuse.

If you are looking for a rockin' golf trip away from the norm, you need to put Turning Stone on your short list.

All is well at Possum Kingdom Lake and The Cliffs Resort

2011-05-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a quick overnight stay and 27 holes of golf at The Cliffs Resort at Possum Kingdom Lake, a good hour and 20 minutes west of downtown Fort Worth on land that is hilly and rocky and a lot like the ground of the Texas Hill Country.

Back in April, wildfires ravaged the area around the lake and consumed about 148,000 acres in Stephens, Young and Palo Pinto counties. The fire destroyed 166 homes and two churches. Possum Kingdom State Park was closed as 90 percent of the park was involved in the fire. More than 450 firefighters, three helitankers and three helicopters fought the fire along a 270-mile fire line.

After reading about all the carnage, I set sail for the area and The Cliffs Resort, which -- by the grace of God -- was not damaged by the fire.

After a night at the comfortable Inn and a good dinner, I teed it up on the devilish von Hagge-Devlin-designed 6,796-yard golf course. There are plenty of forced carries, starting with the 196-yard par-3 third and ending with the over-a-canyon and uphill, then hard-left-turn 555-yard 16th. Then there are two holes (No. 8 -- a 555-yard par-5 (below) -- and 9 -- a 195-yard par-3 on a ledge) placed on the ridge with views of the lake far below. The capper might be the stunning 162-yard par-3 15th, which drops 100 feet from tee to postage-stamp green, with a ledge on the left and a pond on the right. Wow!

I had heard a bunch about the difficulty of The Cliffs course, but I have to say that the course -- if played conservatively and with some modicum of management -- is more fun than punitive. It's not for the faint of heart or those not comfortable with shots over canyons, but it's a blast and very much worth the trip west.

Phil is Phantastic in SHO win

2011-04-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to follow around Phil Mickelson and Scott Verplank April 3 in the final round of the Shell Houston Open, and the show the two put on for the massive crowd was one to remember.

Lefty's sterling weekend turned to gold with victory in the run-up to Masters -- and after Mickelson's middling showing in defense of his 2010 win at Augusta National the following week -- perhaps he peaked a little early.

The story below was written for publication in Texas Golfer magazine, but space limitations may keep the feature from being in print. So here it is -- enjoy:

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The organizers of the Shell Houston Open have during the past several years marketed their spot on the PGA Tour schedule and the course setup at the Redstone Golf Club as a perfect place to prepare for the prestigious Masters Tournament the following week.

In a reversal of sort, former Masters champion Phil Mickelson used an early-week, practice-round trip to the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia to spur his game to greater heights, so much so that he roared to a four-round total of 20-under-par 268 to post a three-shot victory in Humble March 31-April 3.

Mickelson shot a final round 7-under-par 65 at Redstone Golf Club’s 7,457-yard Tournament Course in earning his first win since the 2010 Masters Tournament.

“It reenergizes me every time I go (back to Augusta),” Mickelson said. “I get excited with the game and fall in love with the game again and again. It reminds me how much I dreamt as a kid of playing there, of competing and winning majors and winning golf tournaments.”

That carried over to Mickelson’s play at the 2011 SHO, especially on the weekend. He was 16 under par over his final 36 holes after tying the course record with a 63 in the third round, matching the score established by Adam Scott and Johnson Wagner in 2008. That 18-hole showing was Mickelson’s lowest round in two years. He won for the fifth straight time when he's shot 64 or better in at least one of the rounds.

“All year I’ve been playing well, but I wasn’t getting the scores out of it,” Mickelson said. “This was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time as far as seeing the shot and being able to hit it.”

Mickelson led the field with 27 birdies for the week and was a whopping 14-under-par on the par-5s over the four rounds.

The SHO came down to essentially a match-play final pairing between Mickelson and the tenacious Scott Verplank, players that are a lot more alike than it seems at first glance.

Both players have no quit in them and possess talent that can look almost push button at times. With Mickelson, possessor of three Masters titles and now 39 PGA Tour events, playing golf is the easiest and most fun part of his life.

Mickelson spent more time in Houston than he would have liked during the past few years as his wife and mother battled breast cancer and underwent treatment at the city’s renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. With this victory, Mickelson now has better memories of Space City.

Dr. Tom Buchholz, a radiation oncologist at the M.D. Anderson who has been treating Mickelson's wife, Amy, and mother, Mary, and many members of his staff were in the gallery during the SHO. Mickelson gave Buchholz the flag from the 18th hole after his round. Mickelson said Amy and his mother "are doing so much better. We're in a much better place."

The SHO was only Verplank’s fourth start of 2011 as he is suffering with a left wrist that is weakened by a degenerative bone condition. He soldiered on and put up a good fight even as the injury affected his grip during the final round. "It's nice that I hadn't forgotten how to play," he said. "If you're hurt, you don't have a ton of confidence in your body. It's hard to have confidence in anything."

PGA Tour rookie and second-round leader Chris Kirk (with a final round 67) tied Verplank (68) at 17 under.

In the final round Mickelson chipped in from behind the green for birdie on No. 1 and sent the huge gallery into an early frenzy. Errant drives on Nos. 2 and 3 resulted in bogeys, and then he birdied the par-3 seventh to start his charge. He had five straight birdies on holes 9-13 and Verplank – and the rest of the field – could not keep pace.

The tournament was a rousing success. Steve Timms, SHO Tournament Director and president/CEO of the Houston Golf Association, announced a gallery estimate of 125,000 for the week, the largest attendance at the tournament since it moved in 2006 to the Tournament Course at the Redstone Golf Club. The attendance for the April 3 final round was estimated at 40,000.

Three other records were established during tournament week. The 1,786 birdie count for the week was the highest ever since 2006. Fan favorite Fred Couples, the 2003 winner, extended his streak of consecutive cuts in the Shell Houston Open to 18 (Couples and Jimmy Demaret shared the record of 17 going into the event). Jeff Maggert of The Woodlands made his 22nd consecutive start in the Shell Houston Open, supplanting the record Maggert shared with Jack Burke and John Mahaffey.

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Golf is alive and well in the suburbs of the Bayou City. Kudos to Mickelson for his win.

Golf in Hot Springs is Cold...and then Hot, but good

2011-04-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

I ventured to Hot Springs, Arkansas last week for a handful of rounds at venues ranging from a good semi-private track (Belvedere Golf Club, below), to private and venerable (the Hot Springs Country Club) to four invite-only courses at Hot Springs Village.

The first part of the week sported weather that was cold (in the low 40s, drippy and windy) and made three of the tracks all but unfun (is that a word?) to play. There was alot to like about Belvedere (holes 1-7 were great, holes 8-15 are head-scratchingly difficult and the closing stretch gives you a chance to recover) and even more to enjoy about HSCC's Arlington course (below) -- which has welcomed golfers to its hilly and challenging layout since 1898.

The round at the Cortez Golf Course at Hot Springs Village could have been so great - the routing by Tom Clark is both interesting and demanding -- if I could just have felt my hands and the golf ball (which was often knocked down by the frigid wind and got no roll on the saturated fairways) could have traveled a little better. That's how cold it was folks.

The final two days of the trip sported great weather and tours around HSV at the excellent Diamante Golf Club (the village's true private track, below), all 27 holes at the Isabella Golf Club (I played 45 holes that day, readers) and a final round at the stellar Granada Golf Club. These were the trip's halcyon rounds and based on the final two days, I would run back to Hot Springs for a chance to tee it up again.

If you've never been -- or even if you have -- you have to go and enjoy.

La Torretta rocks the Lake Conroe shoreline

2011-03-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to play three and a half rounds of golf on the Jeff Blume-designed course at La Torretta Lake Resort and Spa last weekend and enjoyed every minute of my time there.

La Torretta used to be known as Del Lago and rests on the south side of an isthmus into Lake Conroe about 20 miles from Conroe and The Woodlands north of Houston. Blume's course is tree-lined and tight, playing about 7,000 yards from the back tees and often buffeted by winds off the lake.

There are plenty of good holes on the track, but the ones I will note are the ones I had the most difficulty with, namely the 448-yard dogleg-right par-4 10th and the elevated and bunker-guarded 175-yard par-3 14th. I played those holes three times and have yet to make par.

La Torretta has been updated to the tune of $130 million and is now run by Noble House Hotels & Resorts, one of the top boutique hotel firms in the country. If you haven't been over there in a while or ever, you owe it to yourself to pack up the family and make a visit. The resort has a little bit of something for everyone, including its own sandy beach, and activities such as beach volleyball, putt-putt golf, Jet Ski and houseboat rentals, three gleaming onsite pools and a lazy river for the kids to float in.

Check out the La Torretta website at: http://www.latorrettalakeresort.com.

First of four rounds at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia

2011-03-16T15:53:00.001-07:00

Just got off the Great Waters Golf Course at Reynolds Plantation, a fantabulous, sprawling community about 75 miles east of Atlanta toward Augusta.

The community and its seven courses are nestled up against Lake Oconee, which is one big body of water. The courses here are designed by the very best -- two by Bob Cupp, one each by Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, Jim Engh and Rees Jones and one in planning by Pete Dye -- and the conditions and the weather today were both fabulous.

Here's a sniplet of the info on Great Waters:

When the Nicklaus-designed Great Waters Course opened at Reynolds Plantation in 1992, it stirred a rush of excitement within the golf community that was extraordinary, even by Nicklaus' standards.

A 7,073-yard, par-72 layout, this gorgeous course (voted No. 5 "Top 10 Nicklaus Courses You Can Play" by Golf Magazine and among "America's Best Residential Golf Courses" by GolfWeek Magazine) offers players some of the most dramatic golf scenery in the Southeast, with nine holes coming into play along the shores of Lake Oconee. Great Waters, along with The Landing at Reynolds Plantation, played host to the 41st PGA Professional National Championship, the showcase event for PGA Professionals, on June 19-22, 2008.

The prestigious Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf was played at Great Waters from 1995 to 1997. The tournament is now known as the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship.

The greens and bunkering were restored in 2009 and are back to the shapes and sizes of Nicklaus’ original specifications. Modifications have enhanced shot value and preserved the integrity of the original design. The major alteration is the complete turf changeover on all 18 greens, from the original Penncross Bentgrass to Miniverde Bermudagrass.

Here's a picture of the Great Waters Course:

Great days in San Antonio's LaCantera and TPC San Antonio

2011-03-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

I spent about 36 hours in the Alamo City Tuesday and Wednesday playing 54 holes at -- in order -- LaCantera's Resort Course, LaCantera's Palmer Course and the AT&T Oaks Course at the TPC San Antonio. I had a great time at all three and took away a handful of observations from the trip and the rounds.

1. The Resort Course is a blast and has subtle challenges that make you think and keep your game in focus. Perhaps the course was too easy for the PGA Tour pros that annually blistered the track while it hosted the Texas Open, but I have always liked playing there because it gives me a chance to score but can also be penal.

The downhill par-5 fifth hole (played as a par-4 for the Tour event) is a great hole but you have to golf your ball and be precise in the approach. The short par-4 seventh -- the famed rollercoaster hole (photo at right) -- can jump up and bite you because of its demanding green and the green surrounds.

On the back-nine, the par-4 12th is one most demanding shots on the course off the tee and then hits you in the face with its shallow green played over a water-filled canyon. A great course and a great time is almost always par for the course at the Resort Course.

2. The Palmer Course is picturesque and ultra demanding, especially in the ever-present wind. The wind was stout Wednesday morning when we played, making the long par-4 ninth play more like a par-5 and the out-of-this world approach over the deep canyon on the short, but uphill par-4 10th knee-shaking to say the least.

You feel like you are on top of the world at The Palmer Course, as it's routed on the tops of hills and among the highest elevations in the San Antonio area. The closing hole (below), playing at 482 yards
and downhill toward the massive clubhouse and a putting surface protected by a pond on the right, is one of the great holes in Texas -- it played downwind Wednesday, so I hit the green with an eight iron.

I play golf all over the nation, and LaCantera -- with its two excellent courses and varied tests -- remains one of my favorite stops. As a place to stay and play, I would go there anytime.

3. The AT&T Oaks Course at the TPC San Antonio (bottom photo) remains one of the toughest courses I have ever played, and -- with the rough high and deep in preparation for the upcoming Valero Texas Open (to be played the week after the Masters this year) -- the track was punitive nearly beyond playable. Any shots that strayed from the fairway were virtually unfindable and extremely difficult to advance.

From the third set of tees -- playing about 6,700 yards but even more because of the wind -- the AT&T Oaks course carries a 142 slope. Conditions on the course are absolutely perfect and a round at the course is a pleasure even with its difficulty.

Great Honda Classic win for Sabbatini...but I didn't see it

2011-03-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

Heard and read that Rory Sabbatini won the Honda Classic today in Florida...great for Sabo, who may be the most expeditious player on the PGA Tour and like one of the most polarizing.

It would have been nice to be able to watch the tournament -- I wasn't able to because DISH Network has dropped the LIN Broadcasting Co. channels as part of the fees squabble that kept the local NBC affiliate off my television.(see http://www.dishnetwork.com/campaigns/fair_satellite/locals/Lin-Austin/).

One of the great stories I can recall about Sabbatini occurred two years ago at the HP Byron Nelson Classic, which Sabo won by a stroke. Up by two coming into the demanding 198-yard par-3 17th, Sabo found the group ahead of his still on the green when he got to the teebox. Sabo moved the gallery to the left of the teebox out of the way to identify a yardage marker that was covered up by the crowd and pulled a 7-iron and stuck his tee in the ground.

As soon as the flagstick was replaced on the green, Sabo was over his ball and it was in the air a second hence. It landed on the green about 15 feet from the pin -- which was front-right near the water -- as the twosome in front of him was still on the back fringe, producing a hard look over the shoulder from a pair that knew who was behind it. The gallery roared and the assembled media chuckled -- it was SBS (Sabo being Sabo).

About the DISH/LIN squabble, how much are consumers supposed to endure before enough is enough? We went through the same thing a year or so ago when our home used TimeWarner for our cable services, but -- hell -- we didn't miss a golf tournament before.

Golf business news in the Central Texas area

2011-03-02T21:04:00.001-08:00

There has been plenty of things going on on the business side of golf in the Central Texas area the past few days.

Here's a few of the happenings:

1. The owner of the 1,618-acre Skywater Over Horseshoe Bay golf course and residential project filed for bankruptcy protection after its lender had moved to foreclose. The bankruptcy attorney for Skywater's owner said the filing would not alter plans for the development, including the completion of the almost-ready-to play Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. There's Jack on the right.

2. Williamson County developer Robert Wunsch has put more of his holdings into bankruptcy, including the Golf Club at Avery Ranch (below). The 18-hole public golf course, designed by former Nicklaus designer Andy Raugust, remains open. Wunsch's projects include the Avery Ranch residential community in Northwest Austin, Berry Creek in Georgetown and the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Round Rock.

3. Plum Creek Development Partners announced Wednesday the purchase of the Plum Creek Golf Course, which is located in the mixed-use, master-planned community of Plum Creek in Kyle.
The course was purchased from OneWest Bank in a foreclosure-related auction. The original owner of the course was Middleton Properties, Inc., a Missouri-based company. The 18-hole, approximately 200-acre Hill Country course has the distinction of having a layout where no two fairways touch. A new clubhouse, including a pro shop, locker rooms, a grill room and a banquet room accommodating up to 360 people, opened at the Plum Creek course in 2009. Golf course operations will continue under the management of General Manager David Curwen.

That's a lot of news for just a few days, but the good thing is that all three courses should survive.

Been a while...harsh weather in El Paso

2011-02-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

It's been a long while since I have posted here on this blog, and I was reminded of that today by someone who pays attention to such things. So I will be more diligent beginning now, so keep an eye on this space for golf news and whatnot.

The first bit of news to share with you is that I played nine holes today in the harshest weather conditions ever...and that's saying alot.

Teed it up at the fabulous Butterfield Trail GC in El Paso, but was chased from the course halfway through by 40-mph winds that started blasting dirt in my face. See photo above to see what things looked like about the time I was blown off the course.

From what I saw of the course, the Fazio design is something special and deserves a return trip. See the pic below of the course when its at its best.

Gold or not, Breckenridge Golf Course is a real treasure

2010-02-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Last summer, I was able to take my annual trip to the mountains of Colorado, and was able to play golf for three days -- first in Breckenridge and then in Keystone.

Great trip and great people up there to make it even better, and the golfing was mighty fine as well.

The Town of Breckenridge can boast that it is the only municipality in the world to own a Nicklaus-designed, 27-hole golf course. National and regional honors have been bestowed on Breckenridge Golf Club, including being named Best Mountain Course and Toughest Mountain Course by Colorado Golfer, a 4½ star rating from Golf Digest as one of the magazine’s top "Upscale Places To Play" in the nation.

The course opened for play in 1985. During the summer 2001 golf season, the Town opened another nine holes also designed by Nicklaus and every bit as challenging as the original 18-holes. The new Elk nine as it is named, offers more elevation change than the Bear and Beaver nines.

Situated in a beautiful mountain valley, the clubhouse at the Breckenridge Golf Club sits at an elevation of 9,324 feet. Breckenridge GC has three championship nine-hole layouts – named the Bear, the Beaver (above) and the Elk (below) – with each nine offering a mountain golf experience, a slew of panoramic views of the snowcapped Colorado Rockies and dense wooded areas that give way to open native grassland and wetlands. It is not uncommon to spot wildlife during a round here, as beaver, deer and elk, an occasional moose and bear, abundant red fox and red tail hawk roam the grounds as they have before the progress of man into the region.

After playing the course, I was a bit frustrated with my score, as I played better than the total showed. That’s when I looked a little harder at the scorecard and discovered that from the Nicklaus (back) tees on the Elk/Beaver rotation, the course plays at 7,145 yards and has a course rating of 73.5 with a slope of 151, making this set of tees the second hardest course rating in Colorado. The other combinations are no joke either, with the Beaver/Bear combo coming it at 73.9 and 147 and the Bear/Elk drawing a 74.0 and a 145 – all are a great challenge for even the best golfer. Each nine plays to a par of 36.

The experience at Breckenridge Golf Club is about more than just golf – but the golf here is plenty and more than a little challenging to even the savvy, low-handicap player.

See the story I wrote about my trip to Breckenridge for Cybergolf at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/gold_or_not_breckenridge_golf_club_is_a_real_treasure.

Habel Communications Consulting press release on Kite's return to the Champions Tour

2010-02-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

We worked up and distributed a press release this week about Tom Kite's return to the Champions Tour this week in Naples, about 14 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon in his left shoulder.

Despite the pain from the injury, Kite managed to play all 25 tournaments throughout the 2009 Champions Tour season and was still able to amass $848,871 in earnings on the strength of seven top-10 and 17 top-25 finishes.

The procedure in Kite's shoulder was performed November 4 in Birmingham, Ala., by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who is widely considered one of the foremost surgeons in the United States for knee, elbow and shoulder injuries.

Soon after the surgery, Kite began physical therapy sessions that included stretching for flexibility and weight-resistance work for strength and well as intense massage to break down the scar tissue built up from the injury.

"The shoulder rehab has been long and intense but it has responded well," Kite said. "My shoulder's flexibility and strength are about 80-85 percent of normal, and while I would prefer to head out to start the season at 100 percent, I feel confident that I will be able to play my way back to being competitive in a short time. The first few weeks may be a bit rugged, but I need to test the water to see how my shoulder responds to playing and the hours of practice."

Kite was given the clearance by Andrews in mid-January to resume full-swing practice sessions. Over the past month, Kite - who turned 60 in December - has been working with golf teacher Chuck Cook in controlled stints at the practice range - "as much as Dr Andrews allowed," Kite said. "He wanted me to go slow and be cautious, so I am trying to do that as much as my lack of patience will tolerate."

See the entire release here (http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/kite_healthy_again_ready_to_return) as it ran on the Cybergolf website.

Talking Rock bucks the trend...and the golf is great

2010-01-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

During the past year or so, there have been plenty of stories about the so-called end to the wave of successful golf course-based residential development, with naysayers opining that there are too many golf communities sitting unfinished or with goals unrealized thanks to overbuilding, underperformance and an unstable economy.

But there are such communities that are bucking that trend, and that’s a huge positive move on the road to the recovery of the golf course construction industry.

Comanche Trace in Kerrville, Texas had such a demand for property and new homes (both primary and secondary) that it built an additional nine holes of golf – designed by Jay and Carter Morrish – to augment its well-received, 18-hole original track fashioned by Tom Kite in conjunction with Roy Bechtol and Randy Russell. In Duncan, Oklahoma, a select handful of homes are under construction in Prospectors Ridge, the residential arm of development at The Territory Golf & Country Club, a club that has seen its membership boom where other clubs are scrambling.

And then there is Talking Rock. Located in the mountains about 15 minutes from vibrant Prescott, Arizona, Talking Rock is a private and tranquil high-country master-planned community wrapped around a splendid Morrish-designed golf course. With the Prescott National Forest in its backyard, little has changed at Talking Rock from the days native tribes lived on the land or when stagecoaches rumbled across its scenic trails.

See the story I wrote about my trip to Talking Rock at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/talking_rock_bucks_trends_with_great_course_community_vibes.

A big part of the draw to Talking Rock is Morrish’s golf course, a 7,350-yard championship track which winds through more than 1,000 acres of preserved open space. With its rolling terrain and beautiful vistas, the course winds through meadows and majestic stands of trees, following the natural contours of the land.

Wide, generous landing areas, strategically placed bunkers and greens that are clearly visible from virtually every fairway shot define the course at Talking Rock. Five sets of tees offer golfers of every skill level a chance to enjoy a relaxing, yet challenging game. The 18-acre practice area has six acres of tees and dual putting and short-game practice areas at each end of the range.

Last spring Talking Rock began a stay-and-play offering inclusive of all the amenities enjoyed at a high-end resort yet within a more exclusive setting. The package includes a one-night stay for two in a fully furnished, 2,000-square-foot ranch cottage with golf and countryside views. A welcome basket with fine wine, gourmet snacks and vouchers for Coops - the community's coffee shop and café - help ensure a comfortable visit.

During their overnight stays, guests can choose between a round of golf and a massage at the community's private fitness center. Guests will also be treated to dinner at Morgan's Bar and Grill at The Ranch House, a recent recipient of Wine Spectator's Award of Unique Distinction. The package costs $450 for two.

The package also allows guests access to the other amenities at Talking Rock, including miles of hiking/biking/jogging trails, a fitness center, regulation lap pool, and various dining options.

'I've Golfed Everywhere' - Well Almost: A Recap of 2009

2009-12-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

I just posted a recap of my golfing and travel year on the Cybergolf website: http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/ive_golfed_everywhere_well_almost_a_recap_of_2009. Take a look if you want to get a few laughs, and crank up the soundtrack with Johnny Cash singing "I've been everywhere" to get the real effect.

My 2009 featured 190 rounds of golf on 105 different golf courses in far-flung locations such as Wyoming, Cape Cod, Jersey City, Memphis, Colorado and Missouri. I spend about 84 nights in hotels, motels, condos and stay-and-play homes this year, and was on the road for 121 days -- hey that's a lot of time away from home.

It looks like 2010 will be another year of travel, beginning with a trip to SoCal next week to cover the BCS Championship football game and to get in four rounds of golf. To chronicle all my travels from the past few years and keep you updated on the places I am going in 2010, I have started a new blog -- checkinginandplayingthrough.blogspot.com -- that will get its first real posting on Jan. 1 and continue on strongly from there.

A lot of my travel in the coming year will be in conjunction with the golf courses affiliated with my media coordination clients -- Tom Kite, Jeffrey D. Brauer, Randy Heckenkemper (who I am hoping to add to the fold in January), the city of Arlington, Texas' golf division and television personality Ellisa Walker Campbell.

Keep an eye on this spot for news from my bunch and the occasional snapshot of the courses I am playing and writing about.

Have a happy new year...

Habel Communications Consulting press release on Kite's shoulder surgery and 2010 comeback

2009-12-24T15:28:00.001-08:00

Another of my clients is Tom Kite, the World Golf Hall of Famer and current Champions Tour player -- if you know anything about golf, you know something about the career and long-time success of Mr. Kite.

I joined Kite's team in July as he prepared to show off the golf course he designed -- Liberty National -- to the world at The Barclays, the first of the four PGA Tour's FedExCup championship playoffs.

In the months since, I have been privileged enough to work with Kite on several other projects as his media coordinator, the latest of which was a press release on his ongoing recovery from surgery to repair a tendon in his left shoulder.

The procedure in Kite's shoulder was performed Nov. 4 in Birmingham, Alabama by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who is widely considered one of the foremost surgeons in the United States for knee, elbow and shoulder injuries. By the time Andrews operated on Kite, the tendon was hanging on by a thread.

Kite (shown above engaging a young fan at the 2005 BoozAllen Classic) was back home in Austin within a few days of the surgery and is currently under an intense rehabilitation schedule that could have him swinging a club by the end of January and back on the Champions Tour in February when the Tour heads to Florida for the ACE Group Classic in Naples and the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton.

"I am hoping 2010 will be a year that I can play injury-free and healthy for the first time in a couple of years and allow me to really attack the golf courses," Kite said. "Obviously I will get a delayed start and the first few events I do play might show some rust but I am really excited about the year and moving forward."

See the entire press release at http://www.pgatour.com/2009/r/12/17/kite.shoulder/index.html.

As Kite works on his recovery, we are looking for more opportunities for him to design new golf courses and to renovate others. Keep an eye out here for news on how we are doing on that front.

Habel Communications Consulting press release on Brauer's municipal golf course work

2009-12-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

Part of what I do for a living is media coordination work for noted golf course architect Jeffrey D. Brauer and his Arlington, Texas-based firm GolfScapes, Inc. I really like working for Jeff because he is knowledgeable, he shoots straight and -- heck -- he builds great golf courses that are challenging and fun to play.

Some of you may have played a few of his courses in the Dallas area, like The Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine, Tangle Ridge in Grand Prairie, Whitestone Golf Club in Benbrook, Squaw Valley in Glen Rose or even Indian Creek Golf Course in Carrollton. Around the Austin area, Brauer has designed Bluebonnet Hill out near Manor and nine holes of the Lady Bird Johnson Golf Course in Fredericksburg.

Recently, two of Brauer's municipal designs -- Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kansas (shown above) and the aforementioned Tangle Ridge -- were on Golfweek magazine’s list of Best Municipal Golf Courses for 2009, continuing a history of acclaim for Brauer and his work, especially on public, municipal and resort golf courses.

Read the press release on the two course's accolades at http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/59996-Two-Brauer-designed-tracks-named-Golfweek%E2%80%99s-2009-list-Best-Municipal-Courses.

"To have two courses recognized as among the best in the country is always an honor, for me, the city and the management of the course, since all contribute to the perception of quality," Brauer says. And that's another thing I like about Jeff -- he is humble and knows where his bread is buttered.

Boulder City offers top-notch golf and lodging away from the glitz of The Strip

2009-12-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

There is a certain crowd that really revels in being in the midst of the lights, sounds and glitz of the Las Vegas Strip – and that’s okay with me. Vegas is a little like an adult theme park, just louder, brighter and a lot more over the top.

Then there’s a group that would rather stay out of that harsh radiance, eschewing flash for a trip back to what Nevada used to be while mixing in a little bit of that opulent present-day luxury for which Sin City is so renowned. Those folks find a true welcome stop from the long and dusty road a bit to the south and west in Boulder City and the waterside communities that border massive Lake Mead, all within a half-hour’s drive from the eastern limits of Las Vegas.

Boulder City has three fine golf courses, Boulder City Golf Course and Boulder Creek Golf Course (both owned by the city) and the finer-than-fine Cascata Golf Club, a super-private, plush track located about two miles out of town on land owned by the city (shown at left). We had a chance to tee it up on all three during a spring trip to the area – when even afternoon golf in the desert was not too extreme – and thoroughly enjoyed each for its individual charm and playability.

Take a look at the feature I put together for Cybergolf on Boulder City's golf scene
at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/boulder_city_offers_topnotch_golf_away_from_the_strips_glitz

Southern Oklahoma is more than OK for golf

2009-12-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

Southern Oklahoma is a bit of a mishmash, with its link to the Chisholm Trail and its Great Plains County to the west and the central Arbuckle Country – named after an ancient, eroded range traversing some 70 miles across the region – and many rivers and lakes.

This is an area wrought with oil and natural gas reserves, farms and ranches by the thousands and nearly as many small towns. The varying conditions of the regions create dramatic sites for great golf in remote locations, but getting away is half the fun in golf, so isolation is a good thing.

During a recent trip to the Sooner State,
we visited three great and very different golf courses -- The Territory (shown at right), WinStar Golf Club and Chickasaw Pointe. All were spurred by a different impetus and bring a style all their own even as two of the trio was designed by the same architect, Oklahoma’s own Randy Heckenkemper.

After this venture through Native America (as the state is also known because of its history as a territory for many tribes that were relocated here) the golf in southern Oklahoma is more than OK – it’s great.

See my story as it ran in Cybergolf at http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/golf_in_southern_oklahoma_boosted_by_homes_native_american_gaming.

Finding great golf in San Antonio is Mission Possible

2009-10-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

The South Texas city of San Antonio is known for many things, among those its friendly people, its unmatched River Walk entertainment district, its great food and its importance as a cultural crossroads between the United States and Mexico. San Antonio is also famous for its missions, which were established in the early 1700s and have become a link to the regions past.

Our mission – and we chose to accept it – during a series of trips to the Alamo City was to find and document the area’s top golf courses. It was very much a “Mission Possible,” as San Antonio and its golf offerings continue to forge their way onto the short list of great destinations in the Lone Star State.

On the second of three trips to South Texas, we were able to tee it up at a great private course (The Club at Sonterra -- shown in pic above), a much-ballyhooed but off the beaten path public track (The Golf Club of Texas -- at right), a 27-hole resort offering (at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort) and at one of the best semi-private courses in the state (River Crossing Club -- shown below).

See my story on the trip that was posted on the Cybergolf website here -- (www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/finding_great_san_antonio_is_mission_possible).

While the golf courses varied as far as price, difficulty, accessibility and conditioning, each were high above the norm and well worth the trip. After all – if you are like me – you can never get enough great golf, and San Antonio has that in spades.

Texas golf course news: Two up, one down and two on the way

2009-10-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

While the golf industry in Texas has been anything but immune to the world economic slowdown, things are looking up in the Lone Star State. Last week a new course opened in the town of Cleburne and another course in the state’s Hill Country region debuted nine new holes.

As reported on Cybergolf in July, Cleburne Golf Links – located about a half-hour’s drive south and west of Fort Worth – opened for play on the Fourth of July. The John Colligan-designed track (shown at right) plays alongside Lake Pat Cleburne as its outward nine extends north to a point furthest from the clubhouse and then turns back around to the south, offering views to the lowland holes adjacent to the shoreline and across the lake.

Cleburne Golf Links – which stretches to 7,068 yards from its back tees – works in concert with the area’s rolling terrain, an approach that helped minimize the amount of material that needed to be moved and kept the course’s budget below the $3 million mark.

“I got involved on this project six years ago, not really knowing what I was getting into,” Colligan said. “When all was said and done we probably went through about 30 concepts of what land to use and what to do on that land – we’d decide and then we’d change again. Our primary objective was to make sure that the design and features of the course did not compete or overpower the site, and I think what we’ve done here is going to attract people from near and far.”

In the Hill Country town of Blanco, Vaaler Creek Golf Club unveiled nine new holes for play on July 4, completing the course that was opened as a nine-hole facility in July 2007.

Vaaler Creek, which is located inside the Rockin J Ranch Development south of Blanco and about 40 minutes north of San Antonio, was designed by Michael Lowry and J.R. Newman. The track (below) features well-placed bunkers and beautiful water features and sports spectacular panoramic views of the Texas Hill Country, an abundance of live oaks and a constantly rolling topography.

The new nine is the front half of the golf course and plays considerably shorter (3,343 yards) than Vaaler Creek’s already established back nine (3,521). “The new nine holes’ real defense is its greens, which demand you play to the correct location to have a chance to score,” said Adam Grosch, Vaaler Creek’s director of golf. Despite playing at just 6,864, the course carries a rating of 73.0 and a slope of 140 from its back tees.

“The reception so far to the new nine holes has been spectacular, as more than 300 golfers played our course in its first two days,” Grosch said. “As a nine-hole course during the first two years, we were averaging about 6,000 rounds a year but we are hoping to at least triple that number now that we have the full 18 holes in place.”

Two other huge projects – the 36-hole TPC San Antonio in that city’s northern suburbs and the Summit Rock Golf Course in the Skywater Over Horseshoe Bay development in the Texas Hill Country – are under construction and have 2010 on the schedule for openings.

Of those two, TPC San Antonio will tee off first as its Greg Norman-designed AT&T Oaks Course will be ready in time for next May’s Valero Texas Open. According to TPC San Antonio officials, grow in is going smoothly even as South Texas has endured consecutive weeks of temperatures in the triple digits and little if any rain.

TPC San Antonio officials hosted a tour of the finishing holes on the AT&T Oaks course at the end of June for Tony Piazzi and his team from Golf San Antonio, along with some of PGA Tour staff to review progress. “The golf course is simply looking marvelous,” said Jimmy Terry, TPC San Antonio’s general manager. “(Golf course superintendent) Tom Lively and his team are working tirelessly to insure the golf course is just right when it opens for play early next year.”

The resort’s other track – the Pete Dye-fashioned AT&T Canyons Course – will debut sometime in the fall of 2010 as primary construction has been moving ahead at a fast pace with completion slated for early July. Grassing is already in place on eight holes.

Up the road in Llano County, which is about an hour’s drive from Austin, things are moving forward once again on the construction of Summit Rock, a Jack Nicklaus signature track set to be the fourth golf course at the famed Horseshoe Bay Resort and the centerpiece of the uber-posh Skywater Over Horseshoe Bay development.

The course’s construction was put on hold as its developers ran afoul of the recent economic challenges but the project has emerged from receivership and is set to crank back up.

Originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2008, the 7,200-yard par-72 course will be divided into two distinct sections: a lower, level playing area and an upper, more rugged terrain. Designed with the natural landscape in mind, existing oak trees play a key role in determining the placement of each hole.

“This piece of land incorporates all of the elements a designer looks for in a golf course – nice vegetation, creeks, streams and variation of terrain,” Nicklaus said. “We will try to maximize these features in order to create the best possible golf experience for Summit Rock course members.”

A construction team should be on site by the end of July and optimistic hopes are that Summit Rock will be ready for play at the end of 2010, although mid-2011 seems a more likely scenario.

But, as they say, with every bit of good news there also comes some bad. Owners of the King’s Crossing Golf & County Club in Corpus Christi (below) closed the club’s golf course at the end of July, opening the possibility of housing development on the approximate 220-acre facility.

Kingley Properties LLC, the club’s owners, notified homeowner associations and developers of the closing in late June The clubhouse will remain open for social membership, including dining, fitness, pool and event functions, the notification said.

Kingley Properties, owned by Basil Beck, purchased the golf course and country club property in April 2005 from Shell Land Management and Oso Creek Properties, without restrictions after the first three years, and that term has expired. The property is zoned as a single-family or multiple-family dwelling district.

During those three years the new owners often antagonized the homeowners in the King’s Crossing neighborhood by sending letters threatening to shut the club if more residents didn't sign up for social memberships. Rather than scaring the homeowners, the letters seemed to have the opposite effect, generating a backlash against the club.

“In today’s economic climate (the course) will probably grow up in brush before it develops very fast,” King’s Crossing homeowner Richard Clark told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

King’s Crossing opened in the late 1980s to much fanfare, a quasi-links design by architect Bill Coore, who has since gained considerable notice as Ben Crenshaw's design partner.

“This was a beautiful place to play until this guy came along,” Clark said about Beck. “Now it’s burned up and a pile of rocks.”

A source at King’s Crossing (who asked not to be identified) confirmed that the course will close and that it will be rudimentally maintained as potential buyers are courted and to keep up with required code.

Texas Gulf Coast courses back in the swing and pining for play

2009-10-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a year now since Hurricane Ike - a storm that killed 37 people in the state of Texas and inflicted more than $11 billion in damages - swept across the Texas Gulf Coast in September 2008. Each had some modicum of damage from the storm, but Moody Gardens is just now back in the shape it was before the storm.

I was able to travel the area back in April and see the devastation and the rebuilding first hand -- I didn't get over to the old family beach house haunts in Crystal Beach but I heard there was no reason to because there was little left to see.

I played three great golf course while I was down there: South Shore Harbour Country Club in League City, The Wilderness in Lake Jackson and the Moody Gardens Golf Course -- about a mile from where Ike made landfall -- in Galveston.

See the Cybergolf story about my trip at www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/texas_gulf_coast_courses_back_in_the_swing_after_ike.

South Shore Harbour CC is a private 27-hole facility designed by Dave Marr and Jay Riviere, and renovated and augmented by Jeffery Blume in the late 1990s. The Wilderness offers remote challenges among protected wetlands. Moody Gardens (photo at right by Carlton Wade) is a links-style jewel on the old site of the former Galveston Municipal Golf Course that underwent more than $16 million in comprehensive renovations, before the storm hit.

I was also able to stay at the Moody Gardens Resort Hotel when I was in Galveston, and the accommodations there are top-drawer in every way. While in League City, I spent a night at the South Shore Harbour Resort, which is a nice place that was convenient (meaning across the street) from the country club. Both are worth your attention and patronage if you are in the region.

The grass is always greener at Olympia Hills

2009-10-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

I was able to get out and play the fabulous Olympia Hills Golf Course in the northern San Antonio suburb of Universal City recently and wrote about my findings out there in a story in the Summer Hill Country edition of Golfers Guide.

Take a look at the story as it ran in the magazine here.

Designed by the Finger, Dye, Spann Design Group of Houston and opened for play in February 2000, Olympia Hills is an 18-hole, par-72 layout owned and managed by the City of Universal City. The 6,918-yard course features distinctively different front- and back-nines, holes with drops of up to 60 feet and target golf challenges aplenty. Seven of the holes at Olympia Hills are defined by the course’s two creeks and three more are made tougher by hazards created by the track’s irrigation ponds.

Even in the hottest and dries times of the Texas summer, Olympia Hills was green, thanks to its use of treated effluent from Universal City for irrigation. Such use was a critical factor in the construction of Olympia Hills because of the stringent government regulations and ground water use restrictions in the Edwards Aquifer region.

Here you will find roadrunners dashing among the rock outcroppings and prickly pears. The course features dramatic elevation changes on hole Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11 and 13. ”At Olympia Hills, players get great golf, some breathtaking holes and encounter some of the largest, most picturesque live oaks in Bexar County,” said Baxter Spann, the course’s architect.

There are some salty holes at Olympia Hills, and the course is worth a trip to northern San Antonio -- why not stop over at Retama Park (the Alamo City's horse track) for a little simulcast action on the ponies while you are in the neighborhood?

Course is the real star at Golf Club Star Ranch

2009-09-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Friends, it's been a long and winding road since my last post, but I promise to be more regular here and make it up to you.

First up is a little thing about the Golf Club Star Ranch that I wrote a while back -- back when I was still working for Roy Bechtol -- for the Golfer Guide.

Click on http://centraltexas.golfersguide.com/central-texas/golf-courses/the-golf-club-star-ranch.htm for a look at the story as it ran in that magazine.

Those of you who have played Star Ranch know it's one of the finest and fairest golf course around, thanks mostly to Bechtol's design and the incomparable upkeep of the course by the staff there, which is headed by Ricky Heine, the former president of the Golf Course Superintendents of America.

Star Ranch's also features a 55,000-square foot driving range and short game area with multiple teeing areas, six target greens, five bunkers, two chipping greens and rolling terrain for every golf shot in the bag.

A round at Star Ranch is always enjoyable. Expect to shoot a few strokes better than normal here, thanks to the course’s friendly bounces and playability. But don’t take Star Ranch for granted – it is a true and fair challenge.

For me, the only drawback about the course is the fact that it is all the way up in Hutto, which is a good hour from my homebase in Wimberley. That's has kept me off Star Ranch so far in 2009, but I will try to get a round in up there before the end of the year.

Tom Kite Design makes a splash with Liberty National

2009-08-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

Like the proverbial cat, I have landed on my feet despite the challenges of the recent economy. One of the things I have been working on is a gig as the media coordinator for Tom Kite, the World Golf Hall of Fame member and all-round great golfer and guy of this generation or any since.

Back in July, Tom, his daughter Stephanie and I worked on a brochure/flyer to be used in promoting his course-design work and especially the super-fabulous Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, NJ. This course, barely four years old, hosted The Barclays Classic Aug. 24-30 as the first of the four tournaments that make up this year's FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Take a look at the website for Liberty National (libertynationalgc.com). There is a photo of the course above.

Because this is the really the first time the public has seen Liberty National -- it is super-exclusive but opens it doors for various charity events as well as The Barclays -- Tom wanted to take advantage of the timing to make a bit of a splash in the design world.

As we all know now, most everyone loved the course and its challenges and The Barclays was an exciting and well-received tournament. Liberty National has since had hundreds of inquiries about new membership, and Mr. Kite has been contacted by several groups about building new courses in Hawaii and in Virginia.

Texas Tour stops helped define professional golf

2009-08-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Texans are never shy, so the bold statement you are about to read from a native of the Lone Star State should, perhaps, have been expected: professional golf would not be the same if not for the impetus of Texas businessmen, golfers and tour stops.

This is how I began my advance for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial back in May as the pros got set to test the old course known as Hogan's Alley. See the rest of the story here.

In 1922 the first Texas Open was held in San Antonio at Brackenridge Park. The $5,000 prize – the largest in pro golf to that time – attracted the best talent to Texas, and the tournament was the inspiration of two-farsighted Texans: San Antonio newspaperman Jack O'Brien and pioneering golf architect John Bredemus.

In the 1940s and 50s, the Texas tour stops were dominated by the state’s Hall of Fame professionals – namely Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan (whose statue at Colonial Country Club is shown at left), both of whom grew up in Fort Worth. Nelson won the first Dallas Open in 1944, Sam Snead won the second and Ben Hogan won the third. Hogan won the first Colonial tournament in Fort Worth in 1946, won it again the next year, and would go on to serve as the tournament's unofficial host until his death.

Colonial, the longest running event on the PGA Tour to be played at its original site, became the first Texas venue to host a United States Open (in 1941) and a United States Women's Open (1991). Northwood Country Club in Dallas hosted the U.S. Open in 1952.

As we all know, Steve Stricker went on to win this year's event at Colonial, and he did so with very few reporters even seeing him hit a shot until the two-hole playoff. We all thought the winner would come from the final group of Tim Clark and Steve Marino -- talk about two guys that are polar opposites -- but either could find enough stokes to keep Stricker out of the playoff and then he just wore them down. Here is my story from Cybergolf about the tournament.

Colonial is one of my favorite courses and to have your name up on the Wall of Champions (seen to the right) has got to be the thrill of a lifetime.

Texas Open bids farewell to LaCantera -- and that is kind of sad

2009-07-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

This past May saw the final Valero Texas Open at the up-and-down Resort Course at the LaCantera Golf Club. The 2009 edition of the tourney -- which has been contested since 1922 -- was won for the second consecutive year by Zack Johnson and in the past has been garnered by greats such as Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jackie Burke, Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw and Lee Trevino.

See my story about the tournament here, as it ran in Cybergolf the evening of the final round.

The Resort Course at LaCantera – which has lots of elevated tees and downhill fairways on which "normal" golfers can blast away off the tee, scads of large, mostly unsevere greens on which low handicappers can actually make some putts and great scenery that resort players can drive (and not walk) around – is great for most players, it has never been a favorite of Tour players. In fact, a Golf Digest poll of PGA Tour pros named The Resort Course at LaCantera the worst course they play on tour each year. LaCantera was a runaway winner, with 33 percent of the votes.

I have played the Resort Course a number of times (see my story on a trip to SA and LaCantera here) and always found it both fair and challenging, but I never had to walk the whole thing for five days (including the Pro-Am round) in the heat. I did walk with the leaders on the back nine of the final round, and -- believe me -- that was a workout, so I can emphasize with the Tour guys a bit, especially the more-than-rotund Guy Boros (right), who looks like he weighs closer to four bills than two and had to lose about 20 pounds a day in the Texas heat.

Johnson, who triumphed here in October 2008 ago when the event was part of the PGA Tour's Fall Series, has played the Resort Course at La Cantera twice; he's won both times. "It is bittersweet to see this tournament move from here," he said. "It's bitter in the sense that I like this golf course. I love the character it presents - it's got left, right, up, down short, long. Wind is an element that plays a factor - and I love all of that.

"But it is sweet in the sense that this tournament wants a new chapter, and San Antonio probably deserves it," Johnson added. "I think there are a lot of positives for next year and years to come."

Next spring, the tournament moves to TPC San Antonio's AT&T Oaks Course (whose 15th hole is shown to the right), a new venue designed by Greg Norman with Tour-caliber tournament golf in mind. A second course at TPC San Antonio, the Pete Dye-designed AT&T Canyons Course, is about six months behind the Norman track in its development and is scheduled to be the eventual home of the AT&T Championship, a Champions Tour event now played at Oak Hills Country Club.

There will be a lot to miss about LaCantera, but the anticipation of seeing the pros tee it up at the new TPC San Antonio Oaks Course kind of makes up for it.

Kerrville will rock your world for great golf, food and fun

2009-07-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Back in the Spring, on some days when it was actually still a bit cool in the Texas Hill Country, we ventured south and west a bit to play some golf and experience some good times in Kerrville, a town about an hour's drive from San Antonio and twice that distance from Austin long noted as one of the Lone Star State's most popular escape destinations.

While in Kerr County, I stepped out on three of the area's top golf courses -- Comanche Trace, Riverhill Country Club and the Scott Schreiner Golf Course, Kerrville's municipal track. Each of the courses were wonderful in their own right (see my story about the trio here), and -- when asked (and I am quite often) where my favorite place is to play golf -- Kerrville would rank high on the list, especially venerable Riverhill, which was designed by Byron Nelson and Joe Finger.

Riverhill should be placed in a small group of must-play traditional Texas golf courses; the others include Oak Hills and Pecan Valley in San Antonio, Memorial Park in Houston and Colonial in Fort Worth. It's truly a jewel and a privilege to play fairways once trod by "Lord Byron."

If you have a chance to head to Kerrville, try to get on and play the Club at Comanche Trace. It is a highly regarded 27-hole layout (18 were fashioned by the Kite-Bechtol-Russell design team and a new nine holes drawn up by Jay and Carter Morrish opened last year) set below a huge hill to the west of town. Everybody, and I mean everybody, who has played Comanche Trace has raved about it -- it is really that good.

When in Kerrville stay at either the expansive YO Ranch Resort Hotel and Conference Center (check out the huge pool and chandeliers made of branding irons in the hotel lobby) or the Inn of the Hills Resort and Conference Center. Both hotels are run by 1859 Historic Hotels, Ltd., a firm known for quality and service.

As far as restaurants, we visited a few that were awesome. You must try the steamed mussels at River's Edge Tuscan Grill on the banks of the Guadalupe River (try to get there before sundown for Mother Nature's ultimate show). We were supremely pleased with the offerings at Francisco's Restaurant on the square downtown; order the Veracruzana nachos (they are made with a signature chicken salad) and sit back, relax and contemplate your next round in Kerrville. It's a little piece of golf heaven in the Texas Hill Country.

San Antonio is one of nation's golf hot spots -- and it's not just the weather

2009-07-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have been able to take a few long weekend trips to San Antonio this year to profile some of the Alamo City's best public offerings. Though I have for years believed that there is no town with overall quality public golf than Austin, the two tours to SA have me thinking hard about that belief.

Take a look at my first travel piece here. It talks a little about my rounds at both the courses at La Cantera, at The Republic and Pecan Valley (both run by Foresight Golf of Boerne) and at The Quarry -- five rounds of golf in two and a half days.

On one of those rounds -- at the Palmer Course at La Cantera as a matter of fact -- I was able to play with Gates Whitley, who, is just a short time, has become one of my very good golf buddies. We so enjoyed each other's company that he joined me for another round out at The Quarry, and has since been along for rounds at the Live Oak Course at the Lakeway Golf Club, at The Golf Club of Texas, at River Crossing and at The Buckhorn in Comfort.

Keep an eye on this blog for an upcoming story on my second trip to the Alamo City.

San Antonio -- with its newly renovated municipal gem at Brackenridge Park and the 36-hole mega-resort at TPC San Antonio coming on line in the first quarter of 2010 -- has become a real destination for golfers looking for top quality public-access tracks.

Kudos to Horseshoe Bay, even with the difficulty at Ram Rock

2009-07-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Texas Golf Writers’ Association, of which I am a proud member, finished its annual meeting last Monday at the fabulatasic Horseshoe Bay Resort. We all got to play two of the resort’s three golf courses (Slick Rock was used as a warm up and friendly get together in advance of our championship round at Ram Rock), and some of us even stayed for a third round at Applerock.

All three of the courses are in spectacular shape, thanks to the work of director of agronomy Kenny Gorzycki’s team of workers and the total efforts of Glenn Lee, HSB’s director of golf, and his staff.

I can not tell you how much fun we all had at the Horseshoe Bay Resort, and it would be hard to find a better golf experience anywhere than we all encountered in the steamy final weekend on June on the constant-level Lake LBJ. The meals and accommodations were over-the-top great, surpassed perhaps only by the hospitality and service of the people that work at the resort and its golf courses.

And the service we saw was not provided only because we were all writers. Take a look at the feature I wrote on HSB for Cybergolf here and remember that when I was in town last winter to work on that story the vibe was every bit the same – wonderful.

Two things to add to the above: anybody who thinks they are tough enough to tackle Ram Rock from even the white tees in a real competition (like we had) had better bring their best game and a whole box of balls along for the ride. Oh, and there is no shame in shooting triple digits on Ram Rock when the temperature is just as high.

Thanks Michael, Martha, Jack, Glenn and Ken for the good times and great golf.

Horseshoe Bay shines in Texas heat

2009-06-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've been away for awhile, first on the PGA Tour trail and then on trips to Southern Oklahoma, Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and Northern Arizona, so I apologize for not being more frequent with my posts (so much for my New Year's resolution). I am back in the swing now -- though a few things have changed in my close circle -- and we will move onward and upward for here on out.

First up to post is a feature I wrote and posted on Cybergolf about the wonders of the Horseshoe Bay Resort, which stands about an hour west and a little north of my home base in Austin. We were able to stay and play at the resort at the end of the winter (man, wouldn't that cold air feel good about now?), and you can click here to see that feature.

Established in 1971 on the south shores of Lake LBJ in the heart of the Texas Hill Country near the small town of Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay Resort has grown and adapted through the decades, enough to lend credence to its claim as Texas’ premier lake and golf resort.

The years have been kind to Horseshoe Bay, and especially the resort’s three championship Robert Trent Jones golf courses. Horseshoe Bay Resort is home to the largest golf complex personally designed by Jones, the golf course architect who has either designed or redesigned 26 of Golf Digest's “Top 100 Courses” and whose hand has influenced the shape of 10 former US Open venues.

I post this entry just as the Texas Golf Writers Association prepares to hold its annual meeting at HSB. Here's hoping the group enjoys the resort and the golf as much as we did.

Johnson doubles down at the Valero Texas Open

2009-05-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I was able to anchor Cybergolf's coverage of the Valero Texas Open, played first in hot and windy weather, then driving rain, then cool and swirling breezes in San Antonio. Those of you who are not from this part of the country may not realize that such weather changes are seemingly just part of the normal routine in Texas, but the differing conditions sure played havoc with those golfers testing the Resort Course at the La Cantera Golf Club for the final time.

See my wrapup story on the tournament here.

I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon following the leaders -- eventual winner Zack Johnson, three-time Texas Open champ Justin Leonard (who is a friend of mine) and noted "dirtbag" Paul Goydos. Although seven players were within two shots of the lead with five holes to play, Johnson -- the winner in San Antonio in October when this tournament was part of the Fall Series -- prevailed in a sudden-death playoff with upstart and unheralded James Driscoll with birdie on the first playoff hole following a sweet six-iron to within 10 feet of the hole.

As mentioned above, next spring this tournament will leave La Cantera and move to TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks Course, a new venue designed by Greg Norman with Tour-caliber tournament golf in mind. A second course at TPC San Antonio, the Pete Dye-designed AT&T Canyons Course – is about six months behind the Norman track in its development and is scheduled to be the eventual home of the AT&T Championship, a Champions Tour event now played at Oak Hills Country Club.

It will be sad to see the event move on from La Cantera, which -- despite its tough hills and "amusement park" shots (such as the drivable par-4 seventh which is played in the shadow of the Rattler rollercoaster at next door Six Flags Fiesta Texas) -- has always been a favorite course of mine. The Resort Course's companion at La Cantera -- the Palmer Course -- is also a whale of a track.

See the excellent blog posting of the Austin American-Statesman's Kevin Robbins on the Valero Texas Open here.

The word on the street is that now that the Resort Course will not be used for the Texas Open, there will be some renovations to the track. I will keep you posted.

Here's to you Bud

2009-05-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

On May 8, Edwin "Bud" Shrake -- Austin journalist, writer, playwright, screenwriter, golfer and all-around man of letters and charm -- passed away after a long bout with cancer and from the travails of a life lived well but roughly.

See the story I wrote about Bud, his passing and his wonderful life (his was one made for the movies) here, as I filed it for Cybergolf last week.

Bud was a friend of mine, although I was far from the center of his close circle. Copies of many of his novels sit on my bookshelf, and every time I am in a bookstore I always stop to see if there is one there for sale that I don't own.

Even though Shrake was successful in his writing, he never gained the huge popularity he so richly deserved. If you have the chance to pick up Strange Peaches, or The Borderland, or Billy Boy or any other of his 10 novels, bask in the details of the writing -- that (in my opinion) is what separates the great author from the mediocre.

I will miss you Bud, and I will keep looking for your books.

Tunica brings glitz and golf to Northwestern Mississippi

2009-05-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Last October, I was able to visit the all-out gaming town of Tunica, Mississippi -- located in the Magnolia State's far northwest corner -- for the second time in an 18-month period in order to gather info about the resort town's three golf courses for a story I compiled for Cybergolf.

See the story in its entirety here.

There is a lot to like about golf (and gaming, if you are into that sort of thing) in Tunica. The area's trio of courses -- The Links at Cottonwoods, Tunica National and River Bend Links -- all have their own personalities, but each will always be buffeted by strong winds that are common in this area. Those winds will make a difference in your scores.

The best golf memory from this trip was gathered early on a Tuesday morning on The Links at Cottonwoods. Usually the course doesn't open until 10 a.m. on Tuesdays to allow for maintenance but the management knew I was on a time crunch and let me out solo before the rest of the thundering herd to follow. There was a minute or two out on that cool, calm morning -- I think it was when I was on the par-4 third hole -- when there was absolute silence and still, just me and the green of the golf course.

When in Tunica, you must also sample the incredible Peanut Butter Pie at The Gold Strike Resort and Casino's Chicago Steakhouse (by the way The Gold Strike -- at 40-stories tall -- is the tallest building in Mississippi); the Paula Dean Buffet at Harrah's; and the Mississippi River Museum, which has a first-class look at Big Muddy and what is has meant to the country.

Highland Lakes Great 18 -- a story that never ran

2009-04-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I was employed on a contract basis as a golf columnist by the River City Tribune, the daily newspaper in Marble Falls, Texas. After about a year in that role, my weekly column was dropped as a cost-saving move and was, perhaps, a harbinger of things to come on the horizon for those of us in the newspaper business.

Before I left the Trib I put together the below story for the newspaper's yearly golf guide -- that section (and this story) never ran. I was going through some old files this week while on the road and looked over this piece, eventually deciding that it was good enough to be published and that it might be of some interest to some of you out there.

So here it is in its entirety -- write me back if you have any comments.

--

Highland Lakes Great 18
This was tough: determining 18 of the top golf holes in the region

There is no shortage of great golf holes in the Highland Lakes region, as the immediate area’s 11 courses give players a chance to experience the topography, views and hazards that have made this area such a favorite for both local and visiting golfers.

That makes it extremely difficult to single out just 18 holes from such a
smorgasbord of available candidates, and in helping to bring to life the list you see on this and the following pages, we spoke with head professionals from the area’s golf courses, queried players who know the tracks well and even relied on a little firsthand knowledge.

That means we went ahead and played all 11 courses – tough work if you can get it.

We are sure that there are holes not listed here that should be, but we wanted to have every course represented while sticking with a typical course layout of four par-3s, four par-5s and 10 par-4s. Here we have fashioned our Great 18 holes, playing at a combined 7,091 yards with a par of 72.

If you think we made a mistake or a glaring omission, go play the holes (and the courses) we have on this roll and then take a look at our list again. The worst case scenario involves teeing it up on 11 tracks of varied condition, quality and opulence, so – believe me – it’s a win-win proposition.

Par-3s
Highland Lakes Golf Club, Buchanan Dam
No. 6, 165 yards
This beauty plays next to Inks Lake and sports a putting surface surrounded on three sides by water. You will get wet if you are short, right or long, and the key to the hole is gauging the wind, which will be in your face during the winter months. Bailout is to the left, and sometimes that is a prudent option.

Blue Hole Golf Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 8, 189 yards
The green on this testing three-par is guarded on the left and front by a large tree and is bordered on the right from tee to green by a forest that seems to beckon your ball into an unplayable lie. You can play over the tree, but don’t go far left as you will end up in the adjacent fairway.

Legends Golf Course, Kingsland
No. 15, 253 yards
This hole plays longer than the yardage (how can that be?) as the large green slopes from back to front. Avoid the bunker to the left of the putting surface and take heed
of the wind. With its 38-yard-deep green with a ridge in the middle, it is a bear just to get the ball close even if you hit the putting surface off the tee.

Escondido, Horseshoe Bay
No. 17, 165 yards
Course designer Tom Fazio (with -- in this case -- the aid of local designer Roy
Bechtol) offers a phenomenal, but treacherous short hole here, as the green’s setting is perfectly positioned between the small rock-bottom creek to the front and Pecan Creek to the rear. There is no place to escape, making club selection vital as the downhill approach and the unpredictable breezes will play havoc with your ball flight. This green slopes severely from back to front, making it a real challenge to keep your ball on the green you are on top and the hole is located in the front.

Par-4s
Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Ram Rock Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 2, 488 yards
This is one of the toughest holes I have ever played; from the back tees I usually feel lucky to write a bogie on the scorecard. The hole is a dogleg-right that sports a group
of trees and a bunker at the bend, which is slightly uphill and a good 280 yards to the narrow fairway. Your second shot is through a chute defined by trees on both sides of the fairway, and the green is protected front to back on the left and on the right front by sand. It’s the No. 1 handicap hole on one of the state’s toughest courses for a reason.

Blue Hole Golf Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 5, 366 yards
This hole is not one of the toughest in the area, but it is one of the picturesque, and sometimes you just have to stop and smell the roses. On the fifth at Blue Hole you hit downhill to the fairway and then uphill to the green, which adds some difficulty because of an approach that can be a bit blind. Once you get to the putting surface, take a look around at one of the best vistas in the region. I will always take beauty over difficulty, and it is that beauty that puts this hole on this list.

Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Apple Rock Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 6, 451 yards
The sixth at Apple turns hard from right to left and has a fairway that is protected at
its far right corner by a punishing bunker. You tend to aim for the trouble because there is even more on the left – the woods wait there for shots hit to the left or even the left of the fairway. The putting surface is uphill from the fairway and is protected front and back by sand, making a back-left hole placement one of the toughest on the course.

Legends Golf Course, Kingsland
No. 7, 480 yards
This monster hole is the toughest on the course’s frontside. The key is the tee shot, which you can let fly down the right side – away from the slope and bunkers on the left of its dogleg. The second shot plays downhill to a large, undulating green with several shelves. Watch the bunker to the left of the green, and be sure to check the hole placement. The Colorado River meets Lake LBJ right behind the hole, making it
one of the prettiest on the Roy Bechtol-designed track.

Hidden Falls Country Club, Meadowlakes
No. 13, 453 yards
This hole used to be a pushover when the course was known as Meadowlakes, as you could drill a drive over the houses on the right of the fairway and nearly always get your tee ball on the green. But the new ownership has backed the tees up 80 yards and now forces you to hit the fairway, which runs alongside the granite ranch and on
which tee shots tend to roll left and off the short grass under a tree. There is out of bounds to worry about on the right, too, so choose wisely and hit your shot with confidence.

Escondido, Horseshoe Bay
No. 13, 348 yards
There needs to be a short par-4 on this list, and I have a hard time keeping this hole out of my mind when thinking of the best in the area. Take a moment to enjoy the magnificent granite dome and the sweeping Hill Country vistas from the tee. Your first shot’s target is a small granite outcropping on the left side of the greenside bunker. Unless there is a stiff headwind, a good strategist may leave the driver in the bag to avoid the large sentry tree guarding the green and the difficult fairway bunker. There is a nice “tournament” shelf on the back left of the putting surface to add an additional challenge to this deceptively difficult hole.

Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Slick Rock Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 14, 361 yards
This one gets on the list for its beauty, and – quite frankly – its audacity. The
awe-inspiring “Million-Dollar Hole” features a winding cart path that takes golfers on a ride through a waterfall that spans more than 35 yards and dumps more than 8,000 gallons of water into Slick Rock creek each minute. The fairway is slightly uphill and the green is oddly, triangle-shaped and guarded by sand on both sides. Get out your camera for pictures from the tee, and then get back to business – you can score on this hole and that makes a difference.

Llano River Golf Course, Llano
No. 16, 396 yards
The 16th at this course is tough and scenic because it rolls right alongside the river from which this track takes its name. With water down the right side and a fairway bunker strategically placed on the right side of the fairway, left is right (or at least correct) on this hole, which is perhaps the most challenging on this deceptively difficult course. Trees await you if you stray too far left, so play it smart.

Escondido, Horseshoe Bay
No. 16, 430 yards
This hole flows naturally with the rolling landscape and winding stream and could be the most beautiful offering of a spectacular course. The journey on this hole is enhanced by two crossings where water cascades over the stone streambed, both in front of the tee and as you approach the green. The approach shot is the key to success after a well-positioned drive, as the green is canted at a precarious angle, forcing the player to hit away from the bunker complex and rocky stream guarding the left. Fortunately, the easiest area from which to pitch is from the right of the green, so plan your safe area away from the trouble left.

Delaware Springs, Burnet
No. 17, 310 yards
Mentioned prominently in the book “1,001 Golf Holes to Play Before You Die” by Jeff Barr, this hole is called Temptation because it offers a tantalizing quandary: should you try to whip your tee shot around the huge tree that guards the left side of the fairway and go for the green or just lay up and play for a chance for birdie from the fairway? "At first glance this is a birdie waiting to happen. But, as is often the case in
this tricky game, first glances can be deceiving." Barr writes, "This is a devilish little hole, and it's deception is delicious.” The hole is stretched out along Delaware Creek, and gives golfers a choice – what more can you ask?

Par-5s
Packsaddle Golf Course, Kingsland
No. 6, 534 yards
This hole was developed as part of the course’s re-routing several years ago, and shows the best of the new design. The tee shot is hit to a generous landing area, but that is the only break you will get. Your second can either be played at the green (where a granite outcropping awaits short and then right of the putting surface) but the prudent play is a layup short of the finger of rock that protrudes about 75 yards this side of the green. Putting is not bargain, either, as the green is peaked in the middle and just about anything hit to the back half of the surface will roll off and leave a tough up and down.

Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Ram Rock Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 9, 540 yards
Favor the right side off the tee on this dogleg left offering. That may leave you a longer second shot, but you'll at least have a shot. Don't even think about getting home in two as the green is surrounded on three sides by water and is long and skinny. The best option is a shot to the fairway that leaves you with a short approach to the green. The second shot is downhill as well, so keep it short of the water in the front. The best of the three par-5s at Ram Rock, you can score here with a little patience and restraint.

Horseshoe Bay Resort’s Apple Rock Course, Horseshoe Bay
No. 10, 567 yards
One the highest points in the Highland Lakes region awaits you on the tee at this hole, and the scene is one not to be missed. Hit the ball from the top of the world (or so it seems) down to the fairway but keep it as close to the right-middle as you can. You take your ball over the ravine to a fairway that slopes towards the green. A good drive gives you a chance to get home in two, but if you are not going for it, play down the left side on your second shot as a safety outlet away from the bunkers short and right of the green. This will give you an open look at the putting surface on your approach shot.

Escondido, Horseshoe Bay
No. 18, 595 yards
This hole is a climactic finishing hole, to both the course on which it sits and to our list. It offers stunning beauty and formidable challenge and is a true three-shot
masterpiece. The suggested method of play is a drive toward the left edge of the
second fairway bunker, a second short of the net fairway bunker complex and then
a wedge to the flag. A wayward shot to the left of the putting surface will find Pecan Creek (which runs the entire length of the hole), but there is ample room right and over the green for a successful pitch to the hole. The green is fairly level, giving you a chance to make an impact on the final hole of your round at this course. A great way to finish!

Miami golf is much more then Doral

2009-04-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

After watching the CA Championship several weeks ago and daydreaming about playing the Blue Monster Course at Doral, I was taken back to a recent story I wrote about other great -- and not as pricey -- options for the Grand Game while in South Florida.

I visited the Miami area a handful of times when I was covering horse racing for a living back in the late 1990s and early part of this decade, but had never spent much time away from the tracks at Gulfstream and Calder (and the now gone Hialeah). I had the opportunity to head back down there in April of 2008 and was able to play three rounds of golf and enjoy some of the fine restaurants the region is famous for.

I was able to play the newly renovated course at The Biltmore, the underrated track at the Country Club of Miami and the peerless Crandon Golf Course (below) , which -- sitting on Key Biscayne -- is one of the prettiest places you will ever see.

You can read a story about my trip here on Cybergolf.

Teeing it up on the Blue Monster Course will run you more than $300 from December through mid-April – the region’s high season, so we set out to find three rounds on different courses for less than it costs for a single loop at Doral. We didn’t quite achieve that, but we managed to play three memorable tracks in three different areas around Miami for about $420 and in the process, toured some of South Florida’s landmark courses and learned a lot about the history of the game in the area.

Dancing Rabbit is ultimate spot for golf and gambling trip

2009-03-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

I had never spent much time in Mississippi until about this time last year, when I was part of a FAM tour that brought a handful of golf and travel writers to the Magnolia State. Our first stop was at the incomparable Pearl River Resort, which sports two golf courses designed by Tom Fazio in conjunction with local lad Jerry Pate, as part of its fabulous Dancing Rabbit Golf Club.

You might have seen ads for the two courses in various golf magazines. Nestled quietly among ancient pines and hardwoods, the two tracks embrace the gently rolling hills and valleys indigenous to this part of the world while still retaining the character and grandeur of the great Southern woodlands from which they were carved. Each golf course offers five different sets of tees to accommodate every level of play.

Those in the know have latched on to what they’ve found at Dancing Rabbit. The Azaleas course has received numerous awards and accolades, including spots on Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Play list, Golf & Travel's Top 100 Modern Courses, as well as Golf Digest's Top 10 New Upscale Public Golf Courses. The Oaks – while not a ballyhooed as its brother tract – was recently ranked as the 25th Best Casino course in the nation by Golfweek magazine.

See a story I filed about the trip for Cybergolf here.

If you really want a treat, indulge in the full Dancing Rabbit experience through various golf packages that allow one to stay in one of the guest rooms in the facility’s majestic clubhouse.

Here guests are treated to some of the finest amenities in the golf world, including eight unique and lavish guest rooms with king-size beds and whirlpool baths – each of which overlooks the golf facility and offers access to the clubhouse’s second-floor veranda – and a casual dining restaurant serving traditional fare for breakfast and lunches seven days a week, complete a full-service bar and a spectacular view of The Azaleas’ 18th green.

Guests also receive their own labeled locker in the spacious men's and women's locker rooms and private use of a lighted golf cart for resort transportation to and from the resort’s hotels, restaurants and casinos.

Even though a stint at the tables or slot machines may be part of your trip to the Pearl River Resort, the golf at Dancing Rabbit is the REAL sure thing. I have a repeat trip on my bucket list of things to do again, and soon.

Much to Bechtol's chagrin, Lajitas owners choose Lanny Wadkins to rebuild its golf course

2009-03-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Roy Bechtol and his Bechtol Golf Design team went en force to the Dallas boardroom of Bridlie Management Group in December in an attempt to try to persuade the powers that be to hire them for a job that was meant for the Austin-based firm -- the rebuilding of the golf course at the Lajitas Resort.

Alas, Bridlie instead eventually announced that Lanny Wadkins and his Wadkins Design Group had been selected to rebuild the company’s Ambush Golf Course, which is located in the Big Bend Region of Texas at the Lajitas Resort & Spa. Upon completion, the resort will offer guests and members a championship 18-hole golf course plus a nine-hole, par-3 track.

“The Wadkins Design Group is very excited about the opportunity Lajitas presents,” Wadkins said. “In all my years of playing competitive golf I have never seen a location for a golf course that can equal Lajitas.”

This posting may be old news to some, but it still has life because of the economy of the golf world and the dearth of real jobs available to even the best and most-noted of course architects.

Bechtol, who – along with former partner Randy Russell – was the original course’s designer, was given every indication that his firm would get the job to rebuild (and re-route, if necessary) the track at Lajitas and developed four different plans for that purpose. Wadkins got the nod over Bechtol and at least one other designer: Rees Jones (the noted Open doctor architect). Many other golf course architects bowed out of the chase in respect for Bechtol, and some of that bunch was surprised Bridlie would give the work at Lajitas to anyone but Bechtol. After all, he had worked in the desert before and, in his own words "knows where all the skeletons are buried."

Construction on the course – which was destroyed by floods from the Rio Grande River after Mexican officials were forced to release water that threatened the integrity of dams in their country – began early in the new year with an estimated completion date of Fall 2009. This new multi-million dollar golf course (which will incorporate the some of the holes designed for the swamped track by Bechtol and Russell) is being built by Fezler Golf.

The design and construction team will work to bring to Lajitas one of the best golf courses in the U.S. on a track featuring one of the only international golf holes – with a tee in the United States and a green in Mexico -- in the world. The 18-hole course will be more 7,000 yards in length from its back tees and play to a par of 72.

“We are going with Paspalum grass wall to wall on the course because we think that turf will thrive in Lajitas' environment,” said Edwin Leslie, Lajitas' president and chief executive officer. “Paspalum has become the grass of choice for many new courses in the South and the Caribbean. It's very hardy and grows and covers well in less than ideal conditions. The color of the grass is remarkably brilliant green.”

The new layout on the Ambush Golf Course will feature more than 100 new golf course lots ranging in size from ¾ of an acre to two acres with incredible golf course and mountain views.

“We're optimistic that we will be open for play this fall,” Leslie said. “The exact time will depend on Mother Nature. Given the stable climate of Lajitas, we think a fall date is very doable.”

Loss of the job at Lajitas was a real blow to Bechtol and his company, but -- with almost 35 years of this process under his belt -- the venerable golf course architect and community master planner has soldiered on during these tough economic times. See a press release I wrote about Bechtol's determination here.

I sought out the latest edition of the Lajitas newsletter and got this information there:

" [The newsletter editor] caught up with Lanny last week when he was here overseeing the construction. In his own words, Lanny is "ecstatic to work here. … It is a marvelous opportunity for 18 fabulous holes of golf.” Lanny is particularly interested in the historical aspects of the Lajitas area, commenting on photos of Black Jack Pershing and George Patton crossing the Rio Grande. About the new course at the Resort, Lanny had this to say: "We are very excited and pleased with the progress so far on the new golf course for Lajitas. It will have some of the most spectacular holes in Texas, and will test the skills of all levels of golfers! Several holes are nearing completion and we are getting ready to install the irrigation. Hopefully, grassing will be started by May."

Check out page 2 of the newsletter for photos of the construction at the course.

I needed a beach towel at The Hills

2009-03-05T23:47:00.001-08:00

I was able to hack my way around the Nicklaus Signature course at The Hills Country Club Thursday as part of a story I am putting together on the Lakeway Resort as a golf destination. I have played The Hills on several occasions and have always been able to hit the ball well on the track and score accordingly -- that is until this latest round.

Playing in a stout southerly wind and on greens at about 12 on the Stimpmeter, I put together my worst round of 2009 on the fair, but demanding course. Beginning with the par-3, 165-yard second hole, I hit either tee shots or approaches into sand bunkers on nine of the 18 holes, including three separate bunkers on the 399-yard, par-4 fifth hole!

It was one of those rounds were I was hitting the ball well, but the winds would either push the ball into the bunkers or my aim was so poor that I couldn't help but find the sand. I really felt that I needed a beach towel for a little while out there.

The only thing that saved me from having a catastrophic score to post after this round is that I managed to record four sand saves from the nine opportunities, including three that almost went in the hole from the bunker and stopped less than two feet away.

I was perhaps most proud of the grind-it-out bogey I accomplished on the aforementioned fifth hole. I hit into the huge fairway bunker off the tee and then pushed a seven iron into the bunker that guards the left of the green. There was very little sand under my ball and my next shot came out hot, rolling past the pin and into the bunker that stands behind the putting surface. I blasted a shot out of that bunker to about 15 feet and made the putt to halve the hole.

Check out the website for The Hills here.

TPC San Antonio taking shape

2009-02-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

I was able to tour the construction site and the in-progress courses at the burgeoning TPC San Antonio earlier this week with Jimmy Terry, the project's director of business development. I am happy to report that things are on schedule and that there is plenty of hustle and bustle at the site.

TPC San Antonio will open in the Spring of 2010 with 36 holes of golf designed by two of the game's most innovative architects: Pete Dye and Greg Norman. Situated on 2,800 acres of rolling land at the base of the Texas Hill Country, both the AT&T Canyons Course by Dye and the AT&T Oaks Course by Norman are being built with the infrastructure to host PGA Tour events.

To keep up with the project, check out Terry's blog.

The Oaks Course is fully grassed and growing in well and could be ready for limited play by founding members by the end of the year. There are four types of turf being utilized at the Norman-designed track and the course looks tight in places but should play hard and fair. See a photo (right) that Terry's took of the Oaks Course at sunrise on Feb. 20.

The Canyons Course is still taking shape, but the Dye team has already positioned many of the track's bunkers and greens complexes while the clay cap (which is required on the courses because of their stringent irrigation runoff requirements) are still being poured on some holes.

Expect the Dye course to seem easier but play harder -- perhaps even more so than the Norman track, which is more in your face than Dye's efforts. At right is a picture Terry snapped at the Canyons Course late last month.

Hitting the greens in the Home of The Blues

2009-02-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

We ventured up to Memphis recently to play golf and enjoy the tourist attractions, great food and music that the city has to offer. We came back with a huge grin on our faces and a desire to go back to the city sooner than later. With a mandatory excursion to Graceland, great barbecue, seeing the famous ducks at the Peabody Hotel and two rounds of golf at a pair of challenging golf courses, there was a lot to like and cherish.

Here is the link to the story I wrote about the trip as it ran in Cybergolf.

There is plenty to do here where the Mississippi River meets the southwestern corner of the state of Tennessee and if city leaders have anything to say about it, golf should be added to the stout lineup of Memphis attractions. We were lucky enough to play two of the Mid-South's finest courses while in Memphis: the private Ridgeway Country Club and the private/resort TPC at Southwind track, home of the PGA Tour's Stanford St. Jude Championship. If these two courses are any indication of the rest of the golf offerings in the area, Memphis should be considered a "must-play" destination.

Ridgeway was especially memorable for two reasons -- the outstanding Ellis Maples golf course and the friendliness of the trio of fellow golfers with which I was able to share the round. Most great golf courses are defined by their finishing holes, and the final trio at Ridgeway gives you a group to remember.

The 16th – a 465-yard, par-4 – tests you with water on the right side, woods on the left and sand all around the green. Where No. 16 beats you up with length and danger, the 17th hole calls for absolute accuracy. Playing 178 yards, the true island green looks like a postage stamp as you stand on tee box. Ridgeway’s finishing hole is a fitting end to a great round of golf. The course’s signature hole – the oak tree featured on Ridgeway’s logo protects the green – plays to 550 yards and sports a lake that will come to play both off the tee and on the second shot.

We played Southwind after a day of pouring rain that left us in cart-path-only conditions and made the course even harder than advertised, especially its brutish trio of monster par-4s, the 457-yard ninth, the 465-yard 10th and the 461-yard closing hole. Add to that the 165-yard, par-3 11th hole -- which is considered to be a smaller version of the famous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass and forces a short iron shot over water to a small island green -- and the 231-yard, par-3 hole 14th, an offering that ranks as one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour each year, and you know you are in for a real test.

If you ever get the chance to travel to Memphis, it is well worth the time to stay a few days and have some fun.

Enjoying Kent’s course on the day of his retirement

2009-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

On a picture-perfect (if a little windy) afternoon Jan. 22, my friend Jack and I were able to enjoy a round of golf at one of my favorite courses: Lakecliff Country Club on Lake Travis, a little west of where the so-dry-you-can-walk-across-it Pedernales River meets the lake.

Lakecliff is a wonderful Arnold Palmer layout that was, and is, championed by lauded developer Bobby Day (who, I am happy to say, is still fighting the good fight in his battle with brain cancer). Day was the guy who brought us another Lake Travis-area golf course – the Palmer-designed track at Barton Creek Lakeside (then known as Hidden Hills) back in the 1980s – and when in good shape, the two courses, which sit virtually side by side, are a pair of the best and most fun golf course challenges anywhere.

The course at Lakecliff has had its share of financial troubles, many of them because Day has not been able to put all his energies into marketing Lakecliff and its housing development as he has battled his illness. Last year – after listening to pitches to buy the course and the development and to manage the course from a handful of golf course management groups – Day sold Lakecliff’s golf course to major league baseball player Jeff Kent, who lives with his family in Austin and Spicewood. Day also brought Brian Dees, formerly the director of golf at Barton Creek Resort, into the fold as the club’s director of golf and general manager.

When I played Lakecliff several years ago with my friend, former University of Texas quarterback Marty Akins, it produced a round for the ages. See the story I wrote about that trip around Lakecliff here.

The photo at right was taken during the summer when everything was green at the course; our latest round was played on dormant golden fairways.

I am happy to report that my latest sojourn to Lakecliff produced another round I will never forget, thanks mostly to the track’s out-of-this-world bent grass greens. The putting surfaces were so smooth that any time you got your ball to the greens, you felt you had a real chance to hole your first putt – no matter the distance. Kudos are due to Ray Marshall, Lakecliff’s director of golf course maintenance, and his staff for the condition of the track and the fantastic greens.

If there is a golf course that I could play every day, it would be Lakecliff. The track – which tips out at 6,724 yards and plays to a par of 71 with a rating of 73.1 and a slope of 136 – offers plenty of teeth and keenly passed the walkability test because most of the teeboxes are close to greens of previous holes. This is a course where rolling mounds are – when there has been rain, which we haven’t had here in so long – intercepted by lakes, streams, ponds and waterfalls spilling down deep ravines as they make their way to Lake Travis. With 12 lakes, stone bridges, sheer cliffs, wide Bermuda grass fairways and – of course – the greens, there is first-class quality to every corner of the golf course.

Dees will be the first to tell you that Lakecliff’s bunkers (I counted 63 of them on the scorecard and I was in a handful of them during the round) still need a little work, and that is on the agenda for the coming months.

As we made the turn for the back-nine, on the television in Lakecliff’s grill room was a press conference with Kent announcing his retirement from baseball after a 17-year career that included stops in Toronto, New York (Mets), Cleveland, San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles. He leaves the playing field as the career home-run leader among second basemen with 351, 74 more than Ryne Sandberg, and he was a five-time All-Star and the 2000 NL MVP. Kent had a .290 career batting average, 377 homers, 1,518 RBIs and a .500 slugging percentage.

I have never met Kent, though I did cover him occasionally when he was with the Astros. When I do spend some more time with him, I hope it will be for another round of golf at Lakecliff; thanks Jeff for helping keep the course going in these tough economic times.

Dude ranches bring out the cowboy -- and the golfer -- in us all

2009-01-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

Lately -- thanks to the folks over at Adventure Travel Media Service -- I have been getting a lot of inquiries on me paying visits to dude ranches out west in Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona and playing golf courses either in or around those ranches.

Through those contacts, I was lucky enough to spend three days and nights out in Wickenburg (some 60 miles northwest of Phoenix) and the fabulous Rancho de los Caballeros when I was in the Valley of the Sun to cover the Tosititos Fiesta Bowl -- which was won in dramatic fashion by the Texas Longhorns over Ohio State. Rancho de los Caballeros (with a really good Greg Nash-designed golf course as part of the deal) is an over-the-top great place to stay and comes highly recommended on all fronts by yours truly.

I have a penchant for dude ranches -- see a story I wrote on Bandera's Flying L Ranch that ran in Universal Golf magazine here -- especially ones with golf courses to play as well.

Remember when you were a kid and wanted to be a cowboy and ride horses and eat meals prepared from a chuck wagon and enjoyed under the stars? Then you grew up and became accustomed to the finer things in life, such as sleeping in real beds and sipping drinks by the pool while the kids splashed happily in a fancy pool and you played a round of golf in advance of an all-you-can-eat buffet. That's what things are like at places like the Flying L and Rancho de los Caballeros.

Make the trip out to Wickenburg if you get a chance -- it is really a trip you will never forget.

Great public golf can be played in Central Ohio

2009-01-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

The central region of Ohio in and around the booming metropolis that is Columbus and its suburbs is known around the world for its fine private golf courses, its famous golfers and its benchmark golf course architects.

But a recent trip to Columbus and points east and southeast illustrated in vivid detail that the quality of golf in this region are not limited to those with access to the country clubs or just the well heeled.

Yes, the world recognizes that this region is the home for clubs like Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village, Pete Dye’s The Golf Club and Donald Ross’ Scioto Country Club – the place where the Golden Bear learned his game as a boy. Here, too, is where golfers such as Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and John Cook have darned the scarlet and gray to play for Ohio State University.

Last year, Golf Magazine (through its web portal Golf.com) and the National Golf Foundation ranked the Columbus area as the second best golf city in the nation, behind only Austin, Texas.

Those rankings were determined by a city’s weather, affordability of green fees, quality of courses, accessibility, number of courses designed by esteemed architects, availability and crowdedness. According to study, Columbus and its metropolitan statistical area sports 66 public golf courses with a median green fee of $34 per round.

During a three-day blitz of the region in mid-September (a time when the leaves are starting to turn and football rather than golf is in the air), we put three area public tracks to the test. If the other 63 public courses in Central Ohio are as good as the trio we challenged as The Longaberger Golf Club, EagleSticks Golf Club and Tartan East Golf Club, it is easy to see how the city got such a high ranking from the golf aficionado.

Take a look at my Cybergolf story on the three courses by clicking here.

Longaberger (shown in the photo above) was rated as the No. 4 public course in the state by Golf World, and is ranked in the top 100 courses by both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest. This is truly a championship course and could be one of the best tended courses that you’ll ever play.

Meanwhile, Tartan East (middle photo)has that secluded, private club feel – maybe it’s because of the heavily-wooded layout that has no parallel holes, or homes anywhere near the property to distract you from your round.

EagleSticks (right) has plenty of teeth in the form of severe elevation changes, three-tier putting surfaces and tight confines required by the property’s limited acreage.

All in all, a great trip with unexpectedly good golf -- you owe it to yourself to go play the tracks of Columbus and its surrounds.

UT Golf Club is worth its weight in gold – or even burnt orange

2008-12-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to spend a glorious Christmas eve morning and afternoon playing golf with my buddy Jack Seib at the Bechtol-designed University of Texas Golf Club in the Steiner Ranch development west of Austin. The course – as per the norm – was in impeccable shape, even as the usually lightening-fast greens were a little slower than expected.

Thanks to Steve Termeer, UT Golf Club’s director of golf, for allowing us out on the course and to Ray Robbins and his son Quinton of St. Louis for playing along with us.

Jack, who had never seen the UT Golf Club other than on the internet and has played just about every great golf course in the state in the years before and since he retired as a high-powered Dallas attorney, said he would put his experience at the course last Wednesday “up there with any I have played. The course is so fair but still challenging, and the conditions and attention to detail are on par with a course like Dallas National. I can’t begin to tell you how fun the day was and how blessed I felt to be out there on the day before Christmas in Austin.”

With the completion of the UT Golf Club’s stunning and virtually perfect clubhouse (see my story on its construction, its destruction and its re-construction here as it was run in Cybergolf), everything is in place for the ultimate golf outing at the Longhorn-themed facility.

Come this spring, the course will conduct a NCAA men’s regional championship, and club officials are looking to lasso the national championship tournament for the UT Golf Club in the near future.

Here's a picture of the course's sublime seventh hole from behind the green. Thanks to compadre Carlton Wade for the permission to use the photo.

Been away...let's catch up: Update on Lajitas

2008-12-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted here...due to a busy travel schedule and extra work created by Texas's run to a BCS bowl game (don't even get me started on that subject), I have been negligent on keeping up with this blog.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to post here at least twice a week; in the weeks running up to the turning of the calendar, I will catch you up on some news you may not (or may have) seen. Some of this will be work news, some will be news about golf in the region as well as nationally, and even more will be on the Horns and their run up to their Fiesta Bowl matchup with Ohio State in Glendale come Jan. 5.

First order of business: the tragedy that struck the Lajitas resort in September. I chronicled the flood and its damages in a story that ran in Cybergolf and is referenced here. In the months since my story ran, Bechtol Golf Design vice-president Jim Bechtol has visited the site twice, and took the pictures you see to the right and below.

Bechtol Golf Design -- who, along with his former partner Randy Russell -- designed the course and has another 18 holes ready to be built in a higher area of the resort. Bechtol Golf Design pushed hard to get the job to rebuild (and re-route, if necessary) the course, and developed four different plans for that purpose. Other designers making a run at the Lajitas job included Rees Jones (the noted Open doctor architect) and Lanny Watkins, who has not done much design work but is a personal friend of one of the owners of Lajitas.

This week, Bechtol Golf Design was informed that it DID NOT receive the job to rebuild Lajitas, a stunning turn of events because of BGD's former relationship with the resort and its intimate knowledge of the region and the efforts it will take to get things done in West Texas.

In a time when winning and losing work on golf courses can mean the survival of a firm, Roy Bechtol and Bechtol Golf Design are taking the upper road and staying positive. See a press release about news of Bechtol-designed courses here, as it also ran in Cybergolf.

Golf on Texas Gulf Coast resumes after Hurricane Ike

2008-10-15T08:17:00.001-07:00

The big storm did a lot of damage from the Texas gulf coast all the way to Ohio and Kentucky, and a lot of the golf courses in those areas were struck by wind damage and rain.

I put together a little wrapup of those damages in a feature I wrote for Cybergolf on the Texas Gulf Coast’s golf courses. Click here to take a look at that story.

I spent a week in late-September in the Columbus, Ohio area playing golf and that region – which is better than 1,000 miles from the carnage in Galveston and Port Bolivar – was not fully recovered from the brunt of the storm. One of the courses we played, an Arthur Hills course called Tartan East, had hundreds of downed trees that were still being cleared.

I spoke yesterday with Bill Pushak, the general manager of the refurbished Moody Gardens Golf Course in Galveston. To the right is a photo of the course before the storm, courtesy of Carlton Wade.

Pushak said the course’s driving range is back open but the course may not be ready for play until Oct. 24 or so – the facility still does not have phone service or internet capability.

The workers at Moody Gardens are also trying to figure out how they are going to remove the shrimp boat that ended by on the shore of the course’s retention pond; it has blown to the course from its moorings two miles away. Maybe they should just clean it up and leave it there as a reminder of the storm.

The Number Three plays huge role in Texas’ win over OU

2008-10-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

If you are a college football fan – and you know you are – I don’t have to tell you what a fantastic game I saw Saturday in the Cotton Bowl. But in my review of Texas’ 45-35 win over Oklahoma (a victory that pushed the Horns to the top of the polls in the regular season for the first time since Oct. 13, 1984) there were some bizarre numerical stats in which the Number Three comes up all too (for my tastes) regularly.

Take a look at this:

1. Texas outgained OU by just three yards (438-435) and had three more first downs than the Sooners (23-20).

2. The Number Three is worn by Texas players that made two of the biggest plays in this game – running back Chris Ogbonnaya (127 yards rushing – including a 62-yard run that all but sealed the win) and sophomore defensive back Curtis Brown. Combine the numbers 1 and 2 on the back of McCoy’s jersey and you get…the number 3.

Curtis Brown’s crucial play came in the third (naturally) quarter when he charged into the backfield on an attempt to block a punt by the Sooners’ Mike Knall. Instead of kicking the ball, Knall ran to the right side – away from Brown – as he tried to surprise the Horns with a fake punt. But Brown never stopped chasing and ran down Knall from behind, bringing him down about a ball length from making the first down.

Texas took over at its own 47 and drove to a field goal that allowed it to take a 30-28 lead.

3. And how many rushing touchdowns did the Horns score? There were three, all by freshman running back Cody Johnson, including two in the deciding fourth quarter that covered a total of, you guessed it, three yards. How many carries did Johnson have in the game -- three.

Are you ready to go totally Jim Carrey on us (like he was about the Number 23 in the film by that same name)? Here’s more.

4. Texas’ Hunter Lawrence kicked three field goals (which were worth three points apiece), including one from 33 yards and another from 26 (six divided by two equals three).

5. Oklahoma fumbled three times, punted three times and was 0-3 on fourth-down conversions.

Even though the Horns are ranked No. 1, it would be hard not to think that their next three games (at home against Missouri and Oklahoma State and on the road at Texas Tech) will go a long way to deciding if they can keep that lofty ranking.

Life is good and the golf is great at Valero Texas Open

2008-10-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

This week’s tournament on the hilly Resort course at the Weston La Cantera Resort in San Antonio is enjoying the best of everything – save from the majority of the PGA Tour’s top players.

The weather is sunny and warm and the breezes have been just enough to pull away any perspiration created by an Indian summer couple of days here in South Texas. The course – which is likely hosting its penultimate edition of this tournament – is in great shape, especially considering that the area has been pretty much void of rain the past several months.

The Bermuda greens have been ultra-receptive, so much so that the leader as I write this entry is relative newcomer Chris Stroud of Houston, who enjoyed a two-shot lead at 10-under 130 after recording a 64 Friday to go along with his 66 on the opening day of the tourney.

Stroud has played in 25 events this year and made the cut in eight of them, with his best finish (and payday) to date coming when he tied for 12th at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in February.

The Valero Texas Open has a history of either spurring young players to success or – on occasions such as last season when Justin Leonard jump-started his career with his third win here – rejuvenating a player’s game.

Stroud will have to hold off plenty of talented players, including “dirtbag” Paul Goydos (at 8-under), Kevin Streelman (-7), a resurgent Olin Browne (-7, coming off his stint at a Ryder Cup assistant captain) and Rory Sabbatini (remember him?).

First-round leader Nathan Green – who hit 16 greens in regulation in the opening round while fashioning a 62 on the par-70 layout – was five-over-par Friday.

Leonard is still in the mix and could be lurking.

I will abandon this post in a few minutes and brave the San Antonio traffic back to Wimberley, where I will begin to prepare for my trip to Dallas for tomorrow's Texas-OU clash in the Cotton Bowl. But I will keep an eye here on the southland, and always have a place in my heart for La Cantera.

Will nobody pick Texas over OU?

2008-10-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Up and down the channels for the past five days, through all the web pages and newspaper articles and amongst my sports writing peers at today’s opening round of the Valero Texas Open I have gone and I am yet to see ONE person pick Texas to beat Oklahoma Saturday when the two meet in the spruced up Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Is OU really that good – so good that no one will go out on a limb even in a rivalry game such as the Red River Shootout? Maybe so…even I believe that the Horns will have to play a near-perfect game to beat the Sooners.

One thing is for sure: even here in San Antonio, where – at least for the next four days – golf is king, the Texas-OU game is not far from the surface of every one’s attention. Texas-exes Omar Uresti and Justin Leonard (the tournament’s defending champion) both made comments about Saturday’s game during a press conference after the pro-am Wednesday, each feigning different degrees of interest.

Leonard knows that he’ll probably be hearing reports about the highly anticipated Texas-Oklahoma showdown throughout Saturday’s round. “I’m sure if I’m getting updates from the crowd, that’s probably a good sign,” he said. “If it’s fairly quiet, then I’ll know things aren’t maybe going our way. But you know, it’s always an exciting weekend.”

Members of the PGA Tour’s staff have running wagers on the game and the tilt is guaranteed to be on the televisions of many of the corporate tents and hospitality areas that line the hilly course.

Let me be the first – at least the first I have seen in print, saw on the TV or heard on the air – to pick the Horns: 24-20 Texas thanks to a defensive touchdown that makes the difference.

New Alto private courses shine through but face hard times

2008-10-08T15:38:00.001-07:00

Back in late July I was fortunate enough to be invited to play the two new private golf courses in Alto, New Mexico, which is a northern suburb of Ruidoso. Of the two courses – Rainmakers and The Outlaw – I preferred the playability of The Outlaw (photo at bottom of page), but stand here to tell you that I was floored by the vistas provided at Rainmakers (at right).

Take a look at my Cybergolf story on the two courses here .

When I spoke to the general managers of the two tracks and their respective developments, I told them that – as much as I admire their ambitions and drive to make two high-end golf communities work in an area with a short season – having two such courses and developments come on line at virtually the same time could be a death knoll to them both.

Maybe I am wrong, but I find it difficult to believe that in today’s economic landscape that there is a plethora of disposable income to throw around at second or vacation homes. I wish them both well.

Four recent area rounds make the grade

2008-09-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Most of the golf writers I meet on the various out of town trips I take want to brag about the variety and overall excellence of the courses they play in the areas around their home bases. These writers come from places like Florida, Atlanta, New Jersey, Utah, Northern California, Washington State and the District of Columbia, and all are well traveled in their pursuit of great golf on great courses.

Based on my experience in the Austin-San Antonio region, my friends’ claims about their own great golf cities and areas pale to what can be had right here in Central Texas. Four recent trips to courses that are often left off the lists of the top in our region shows the depth of courses around the Capital of Texas and the Alamo City.

Last Friday I ventured to the Legends Golf Course in Kingsland, about 13 miles west of Marble Falls. The track, a Tom Kite-Roy Bechtol- Randy Russell design that endured almost two years of closure due to bankruptcy, has emerged as a fine – and ever-improving with age – test of golf.
The most notable of the Legends offering are the holes that end the front-nine, two of which play down toward the Colorado River where it meets Lake LBJ in Kingsland – the 480-yard par-4 downhill dogleg-left testing seventh hole and the eighth, a par-3 that plays at 186 yards from the back tees and to a green on a spit of land on the edge of the water. Follow that with the uphill 452-yar par-4 ninth and you have a lot to chew before you dig into the ham sandwich you can get at the grill at the turn.

Our round at Legends was enhanced by the (late) arrival and participation of Bechtol, who thrashed his way through the first few holes before finding his stride late and posting three straight birdies on the back side.

We give a lot of props to owner Robert Strain and his staff for the job they are doing at the Legends.

On Wednesday, we rolled into the outskirts of the sleepy town of Blanco for a round at Vaaler Creek Golf Club , a nine-hole track (another nine is set open next summer) in the booming Rockin J Ranch subdivision. This was the second time I have played at Vaaler Creek – a Mike Lowery design – and I have enjoyed the track both times I have made the trip around. We played the available nine holes three times on a picture-perfect, late-summer afternoon, and liked what we saw a little more each time around.

The final three holes – a short and reachable par-5, followed by a downhill and dangerous 400-yard par-4 and a severe dogleg left par-4 with an approach over a lake – will make up the course’s 16, 17 and 18th holes in the final configuration and are a great challenge to your game.

Go by and check out the work of superintendent Travis Vordick and say hello to head pro Steven Drew (formerly of the Austin Golf Club) when you have a chance.

On Sept. 19, I rolled over to the best municipal course this area has to offer – the Roy Kizer track in southeast Austin. Although the wind was up, the pace was slow and the greens were a bit ragged, Kizer always is worth the trip. As I have written in this space before, Kizer – the work of Randy Russell before his days as Bechtol’s partner – is a wonder in that it was built on an old water treatment facility.

For the most part Kizer is a fine course; the one hole that is out of place is the par-5, 17th, which winds tightly to the left twice around a tree-filled flood plane area. The rest of the track is wide open and is tough when the wind is blowing.

Kudos here as well to Jason Donaldson and his groundskeeping crew at Quicksand at Woodcreek, the course I call home in the outskirts of Wimberley deep in the Texas Hill Country. Our house is to the right of the sixth fairway (a short par-5 that bends to the left and whose green is protected by huge trees on both sides); our backyard is a magnet for golf balls, and our two Rhodesian Ridgebacks that live there make sure no one goes over the fence for them.

During the past several months, the course at Woodcreek has been in the best shape I have seen it during my almost three years of living in Hays County. There have been plenty of times in that stretch when it was hard to enjoy playing the track because of its condition, but that’s not the case now – and I enjoy going out in my golf cart in the late-afternoon and getting through a full 18 holes in less that two and a half hours.

Woodcreek will never be listed high on the lists of the area’s great courses, but – when it is in good shape (as it is right now) – it is fun and worth playing. Because of that I dread the rapidly approaching earlier sunsets and the end of a great summer of golf.

Barton Creek Resort is all that and a bag of chips

2008-09-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have been all over the world in my travels as a journalist and all around the country as a member of the golfing press to cover events and to enjoy and review the experiences you can have at golf resorts.

I know – and I have heard it all before, believe me – that my job is far from tough (at least that part of it). It is hard to complain about a schedule that includes playing 36 holes of golf a day for four days and seeing four or five golf courses on each trip and staying at great resorts or hotels and eating at five-start restaurants or enjoying action at a casino after the golf every night – but it really can be a grind sometimes.

But it sure beats digging ditches for a living.

In July, I was privileged to be able to stay and play at Austin’s own Barton Creek Resort and Spa and wrote about it for Cybergolf. You can see that story here .

We had a great time at Barton Creek and the experience there measured or exceeded trips to the Emerald Coast of Florida, to the Beaver Creek area of Colorado, to Ruidoso in New Mexico and to Mississippi’s central and northern casino area of Tunica.

Horns Illustrated gives Texas fans a unique look at Longhorns sports

2008-09-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

One of the many things I do as a journalist is to work as the Texas football beat writer for Horns Illustrated magazine – an Austin-based glossy publication that covers the busy world and the many personalities of University of Texas sports.

The magazine has been in business since 1994 (at that time it was owned and published by College Sports Communications out of Dallas) and is now marshaled by Ramser Media here in the capitol of Texas. I have been a part of the extended staff of the magazine off and on since its inception, and every year since 2004, when I returned to the Texas beat after a three-year sabbatical.

My main duty while covering the Horns is to compose a wrapup of each football game and pen the magazine’s signature “Five Questions” feature. And while the magazine is published 10 times a year – the Five Questions feature is emailed or faxed to subscribers on the Sunday following each game for the year – a true treat and a great piece of information for the die-hard Orangebloods around the state and the country.

Below is a portion of the Five Questions piece I wrote for the Horns’ 52-10 win over Florida Atlantic last week:

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What do the statistics show from this game?
Well, a lot — especially from the second half. In the first two quarters, Texas ran just four more plays than FAU (40-36) and gained only 25 more yards than the Owls (264-239) while building a 28-10 lead. The hit-big-or-miss passing of quarterback Rusty Smith (he of the quirky sidearm throwing motion off his back foot) kept Florida Atlantic in the game, as he threw for 226 yards in the first half as compared to McCoy’s 160.

In the second half, the Horns dominated in all aspects, racking up as many first downs in the final two quarters (13 — UT had 31 in the game) as FAU had in the entire game. Texas ran 41 offensive plays in the second half to the Owls’ 26 and finished with 503 total yards to FAU’s 292. Time of possession also favored the Horns in a big way (35:14-24:46).

McCoy, who has learned — or is it remembered — how to use his feet and run again, had 66 more rushing yards (103) than the entire FAU team (37) on 11 fewer attempts.

Two other impressive stats are worth noting: UT was 8 for 8 in red-zone scoring chances and didn’t commit a turnover while forcing two and blocking a punt.

“We wanted to come out and do what the coaches told us to do … just play the game,” McCoy said. “ But there are still a lot of things we can fix.”

Let’s talk about the defense — are the Horns any better on that side of the ball?
It’s hard to tell from an opening game, especially when you’re playing an opponent that runs a pro-style offense (which Texas is unlikely to see again) and when the Horns start two freshmen at safety (Thomas and Blake Gideon). Remember that the Horns ranked No. 109 against the pass last season, so getting better in that aspect of the game is a priority and a key to Texas’ success in 2008.

Thomas was burned for several big plays and a touchdown, but also caused an interception (that was hauled in by Ryan Palmer) with a tipped pass and blocked a punt. “It was a good start,” Thomas said of his performance. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but overall it was a great to get my feet wet.”

The Horns’ defense didn’t record a sack but constantly pressured Smith and his backup, Jeff VanCamp, and controlled the line of scrimmage. “The whole defense played well after the young secondary got settled after halftime, and after the coaches figured a couple of things out,” Brown said. “We’ve got to go back and look at [FAU’s] explosive plays on third down, because there were too many, especially early on.”

Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said he knew the Horns’ defense would make mistakes early on. “We told them the effort is on them and the execution is on us,” Muschamp says. “We’ve got to do a better job coaching in tough situations. If we get into more of those situations and we don’t execute, then it’s on me. We’ll be very technical when we watch the film. They say you make the most improvements going from game one to game two, and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

What were the game’s key plays?
Some might say that in a 42-point win that was never in doubt, there aren’t plays that make a difference — but there are, and they’re actually easy to recognize. First, on Florida Atlantic’s opening drive, the Owls looked machine-like and set to score and establish the game’s tone until an errant snap by center David Matlock sailed past Smith and rolled down the field, where it was recovered by UT’s Sergio Kindle.

Later in the first quarter, FAU used a spectacular 62-yard hookup from Smith to Jamari Grant (who beat Thomas) to move to the shadow of the Horns’ goal line. On second down, under a fierce rush by Texas defensive end Henry Melton (remember him?), Smith threw an awful pass that was tipped by Thomas and nabbed by Palmer.

After two good drives, the Owls had nothing to show. “Those two drives really hurt our momentum,” Smith said. “We’d been able to move the ball on their defense, and we should have been able to put the ball in the end zone. Their front four really did a number on us tonight … pressuring me. We knew coming into this game they’d have great athletes, and they did.”

Add to that list the time the Horns stopped Smith on a fourth down try in the second quarter — as well as the blocked punt — and it’s clear the defense had the key plays of the contest. “We’re a blue collar team,” Texas defensive tackle Roy Miller said. “We’ve got to go back to work — that’s the only way this team is going to get better. We put that hat on every day and go to work.”

Were there any surprises in this game?
A few, actually — and they’re good ones. First, let’s talk about Blaine Irby, the sophomore who’s taken over at tight end for the departed Jermichael Finley and looked a lot like former Horns’ standout David Thomas. Irby hauled in a team-high seven passes for a team-high 62 yards and showed he’s going to be a “secret” weapon for Texas this season.

“I didn’t come in here thinking I was going to catch seven passes, but I doubt that I’m any kind of secret,” Irby said. “Colt and I developed our relationship last spring and during the summer, and it just came down to this game.”

Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis praised Irby’s performance but maintains the young tight end can get better. “Blaine is along the lines of other tight ends we’ve had here, and he does a great job running routes and catching the ball, which makes him a confident target for Colt,” Davis said. “We have to stay after him on his blocking, but he’s working hard on that, too.”

Also a surprise was McGee, who started and had the bulk of the early-game snaps as freshman Fozzy Whittaker (who will be heard from this season) missed the game with a sore knee. McGee handled the ball on five of the Horns’ first six plays and was a focus of the offense before he was injured slightly later in the first quarter.

The sophomore from Longview (who, at 5’11” and 210 pounds possesses 4.3 speed in the 40) ended up with 63 yards rushing on 13 carries and three catches for 10 yards — getting the exact number of touches he hoped he’d get coming in. “I’m happy to share the load, but it was good getting to start the game and do some things early on,” McGee said. “It’s better than sitting on the sideline and coming in on short yardage.”

A third surprise was the play of redshirt freshman receiver Malcolm Williams, who caught the first pass thrown to a receiver and finished with three catches for 25 yards in his first action.

What’s next for the Horns?
Texas will travel to El Paso for the first time since it played North Carolina (coached by Mack Brown) in 1994. The Horns have never played Texas-El Paso, and the Miners’ staff are billing this game as the biggest in the history of the program and Sun Bowl Stadium, which will have its share of burnt-orange-clad fans despite the 10-hour drive to far west Texas.

After falling to Buffalo 42-17 on Aug. 28, Miners’ coach Mike Price offered one of the best quotes by a head coach when asked about facing the Horns next: “Man, I hope they’re not as good as Buffalo.”

Texas has a history of stubbing its toes in early-season games in the western (or central) time zones (remember the 47-6 loss to Brigham Young in 1988, the 27-6 defeat at the hands of Colorado in 1989 and — most notably for Brown’s tenure — the 27-24 setback against Stanford in 2000). The good thing about this game is that it will allow the Horns to play at altitude (El Paso is in the high desert at 3,762 feet) so it should acclimate UT to some of the conditions it will see when it faces Colorado in Boulder Oct. 4.

The bad thing is that it starts at 9:15 p.m. Austin time, and that will be the latest UT has started a game since it played in Hawaii in 1995.

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Cottrell’s book a great resource on leadership

2008-08-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you get lucky in a foursome on a random round of golf, and then there are times when the players teeing it up alongside you are tops in their profession at the things they do and playing becomes more of a pleasure and a learning experience thatn just another day on the links.

Such was the case last summer when I was placed in a group out at Horseshoe Bay’s Ram Rock course with David Cottrell, a highly respected authority and speaker on leadership and business principals.

I just finished re-reading Birdies, Pars and Bogeys – Leadership Lessons from the Links, a short book with a lot of punch written by Cottrell and first published in 1997. Anyone in business in the role of a leader or manager or even those that work for themselves can use the info Cottrell offers in Birdies, Pars and Bogeys, and – at 103 pages – the book is a short enough read to get through in one sitting.

To get a little background on Cottrell, click here .

The book makes an excellent gift for the golfing executives, as even Zig Ziglar praises it as "concise, precise, insightful, inspirational, informative and just plain common sense." The fact that the book is built around golf is even better for us that love the links and need a little reminder from time to time on how to recognize and adopt strong leadership skills.

As I remember from that day, Cottrell – who lives in Horseshoe Bay and carries a six handicap had a great round during our outing as he and his partner played the course in preparation for the upcoming HSB club championship.

If Cottrell continues to play as well as he writes and instructs on leadership, that handicap is surely going to come down.

SouthWood is a capital idea

2008-08-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have been on a handful of golf trips in the past six months, but the one I took to the Florida panhandle and the Emerald Coast back in April would have to be considered a whole lot more than just time well spent.

I flew from Austin to Atlanta and then on to Tallahassee, where we teed it up at SouthWood, the home of the Florida State University golf team and -- as noted in this month's GOLF magazine -- one of the top collegiate golf courses in the nation.

See the story I wrote about my trip to SouthWood here , as it looks on the Cybergolf website.

We continued on to the region between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City to play golf at Camp Creek, Shark's Tooth and The Origins Course -- see my Cybergolf story on that portion of the trip here.

Spend some time in that part of Florida if you really want a taste of the regional flavor; I know the trip left me wanting to get back down there and get some more.

Raves keep rolling in on ConCan

2008-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

There is really no way to explain how good the golf is at the Roy Bechtol-designed golf course at The Club in ConCan. You have to play the track to really understand why all the best golf writers in the state are raving over the 18-month old track and celebrities of all kinds are making the journey to the Frio River Valley to experience ConCan’s testing – and sublimely good – layout.

This weekend, the Austin American-Statesman’s Kevin Robbins (along with photographic help from expert shooter and darn-good golfer Ralph Barrera) profiled the ConCan experience in a great feature in the newspaper’s travel section. See the story here. That story followed one in the July 2008 edition of Texas Golfer in which new editor Jason Stone called his impromptu trip to ConCan “mythical and zen-like.” And late last year, Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express-News penned a feature that called ConCan “a slice of heaven.” Here is a way to see Oliver’s story, if you haven’t already.

I have been able to tee it up at ConCan about 10 times in the year and a half I have worked for Bechtol Golf Design. Every time has been memorable and special, but the latest one – about three weeks ago – was off the charts.

On that day, Bechtol, his son Hub and I traveled by private plane to Uvalde and hitched a 30-minute ride up to the course. Why all the effort? On that certain Tuesday, there were a series of honored guests signed up to play – Bill Powers, the president of the University of Texas, Dr. Bill Cunningham (former chancellor of the UT System and former president of UT-Austin) and Steve Lesley, provost for the University of Texas at Austin, had a tee time that afternoon prior to dinner in Uvalde that evening with former Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe. Briscoe even came out to say “hi” and watch as Bechtol, Powers, Cunningham and Lesley hit off the first tee.

The group had a ball – and praises about the courses were bandied around to Bechtol during a lemonade break on the clubhouse’s patio after the round.

Also on hand that day were Robbins and Barrera, who were putting the final touches on their feature that ran Aug. 10, as well as foursome headed by former Texas A&M and Houston Oilers quarterback Bucky Richardson.

If you haven’t seen ConCan yet, you owe it to yourself to get down there. Here is a pic (taken by, and used with the permission of, Carlton Wade) to whet your whistle:

An Alamo City golf update

2008-07-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

I spent some time recently down in San Antonio and was able to catch up with some of the happenings on several of the major golf projects going on in the Alamo City. See the story about my visit that I published in Cybergolf here.

Yes, golf is hot and hopping in the Alamo City as construction moves ahead at TPC San Antonio, the Brackenridge Park renovations are close to finished and Pecan Valley is thriving under new ownership.

Look for some more news on San Antonio golf – involving the potential renovation and expansion of the Roy Bechtol-designed course at The Golf Club of Texas – in the coming few weeks.

As great as Austin is as a golf city, there are a lot of great options for linksters just an hour or so south. From my home in Wimberley, it can be closer to run to San Antonio to play golf than it is to go to the northern confines of the Austin Metro area.

Newport Beach & Golf makes trip to Mustang Island even more fun

2008-07-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

At this time of the year, when the temperatures soar regularly into triple digits and even the most diligent of golfers are driven inside by the dog-days of summer, the call of the beach is seemingly at its loudest.

Now, with the pending debut of the golf course at Newport Beach & Golf on Mustang Island, there is even a better reason to venture to the Texas coast.

Some colleagues and I were able to play a round on the fine Arnold Palmer-designed course in late June, and – even though the track is not yet in 100 percent playing shape – it was all the golf we wanted and even more.

Thanks to the ever-present seaside winds, Newport Beach (which plays at 6,841 yards from the back set of five tees), is a true test of skill and shotmaking. There is a handful of forced carries over waste areas of native grass; there’s plenty of water to negotiate and the hole locations can be put where attacking them can lead to danger on even great shots.

Fifteen of the course’s holes are on the sea side of State Highway 361, the road that dissects Mustang Island and the main artery to connect Port Aransas to Corpus Christi. Newport Beach’s three other holes, as well as the course’s practice facility, are on the bay side of the island, accessible via a bridge that spans the highway. The completion of that bridge – it is expected to be finished by the middle of August 2008 – is all that is holding up play on the course.

The brainchild of local developer Sunny Castor, Newport Beach will eventually be THE destination of choice for those who love the Texas coast. Castor has moved mountains (well, sand really – and lots of it) to make this resort second-to-none. In its entirety, Newport Beach & Golf is comprised of 2,200 acres that will eventually blend a town center with four distinct villages woven together with luxury homes and townhomes, hotels, a marina with boat slips and a host of recreational amenities.

There are plans for a second golf course on the site – expect that track to be fashioned by Austin-based designer Roy Bechtol and his team.

The first golf course at Newport Beach will open as a semi-private facility, but will eventually move to where only members and resort guest will be allowed to play. If you get the chance to play the track, go (quickly), and bring a slew of bullets along for the trip; one of our party, a 16-handicapper, used up a whole box of balls before getting to the final three holes.

Golf is big business in Louisiana

2008-07-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I was able to play five of the 12 courses on the Audubon Golf Trail in Louisiana during a FAM Tour of the Pelican State. All five of the courses – in fact every one of the dozen tracks that are members of the Trail – are open to the general public, as either municipal or daily fee courses.

The trip was super-enjoyable and the plethora of good courses I was able to play on my trip led me to write a story on the success of the Audubon Trail and its role in the tourism industry that is so important to Louisiana, especially in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Click here to take a look at the feature I put together for the folks over at Cybergolf, where I am the Southwestern United States Correspondent.

It seems that many of the public courses in Louisiana are bucking the downward trend that has taken a bite out of so many municipal and public courses around the country. In Cajun Country, where they are used to marching to the beat of their own drum, public golf is still the king – and an important economic engine for the state overall recovery.

There are some mighty good eateries down there as well, and if you ever get a chance to take a tour of the swamps that make up the Atchafalaya River basin, don’t hesitate.

We want to keep golf on the Brackenridge tract

2008-07-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

That’s the official line from Roy Bechtol, my employer and the designer of a proposed new course for the site that now holds venerable, but antiquated, Lions Municipal Golf Course in west Austin.

Read the fine story by Kevin Robbins that ran in the Sunday, July 6 editon of the Austin American-Statesman here.

Bechtol Golf Design also had a press release of its own on the subject, which I wrote and I submit below.

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‘A rebirth of Muny’
Bechtol and his proposed design for Austin’s Lions Municipal is featured in American-Statesman front page article

AUSTIN, Texas (July 6, 2008) – Nationally recognized golf designer Roy Bechtol and his proposed design for Austin’s venerable, but outdated, Lions Municipal Golf Course were featured in a deeply researched, front page article in the Austin American-Statesman on Sunday, July 6.

Bechtol, who was raised in Austin minutes from Lions Municipal and whose Bechtol Golf Design firm is based in the capital city of Texas, collaborated with Hall of Fame golfer (and fellow Austinite) Tom Kite on an initial “renewal” of the course on the site of the Brackenridge tract.

“With this plan, we are preserving the game of golf on this tract,” Bechtol said. “This proposed plan, is – if you will – a rebirth of Muny.”

The fitness-themed development plan with a bigger, modern golf course routed by Bechtol and Kite is being fashioned by a group of influential business leaders including Austin civic entrepreneur Pike Powers. Although cost and other details remain undetermined, the proposed project includes a hotel, spa, clubhouse, conference center and 16-acre practice ground, as well as 18 to 20 development parcels sprinkled around and inside the golf course.

The University of Texas System owns the rolling, timbered land Lions Municipal has occupied since it opened in 1928. Now the university’s Board of Regents is considering other ways to use the valuable property, part of a 500-acre gift nearly a century ago from Col. George Washington Brackenridge.

The regents retained a New York planning firm in May to create at least two distinct sets of recommendations. Those are due in a year.

Two previous efforts to keep Lions have preserved an affordable place to play golf in a leafy, tranquil setting amid the affluent neighborhood of Tarrytown in west Austin. But with state financial support in decline as a percentage of UT-Austin's budget and a desire to elevate the university's status even higher among American universities, the regents have been given the mandate to extract more income out of the tract, which is located on the north banks of Lady Bird Lake just west of downtown Austin.

The current lease between the city of Austin and the university, scheduled to expire in 2019, allows the city to operate Lions for $345,600 a year through 2009, when the amount increases incrementally. About 67,000 rounds of golf are played annually at Lions Municipal.

Including the golf-course lease, revenue from the 345-acre Brackenridge tract amounts to about $940,000 a year for UT-Austin. The land could be worth far more, and in 2006, James Huffines, the chairman of the regents at the time, ordered a 10-member task force to devise a plan "to utilize the asset to the maximum benefit" of UT-Austin.

Five of the holes Bechtol and Kite’s designed would be on or near the water. The new course’s other 13 holes would be built on the existing Lions site. As outlined in the AA-S story (written by Kevin Robbins), the 7,133-yard golf course would include new water features and a stream that would lead to Lady Bird Lake. Long "creek" bunkers, similar to the sandy waste areas common to courses in North and South Carolina, would define the edges of many holes.

The old Lions clubhouse would be restored, with the goal of converting it into an Austin golf museum. The new course would preserve the par-4 16th (known as Hogan’s Hole after Ben Hogan played the course and singled out the hole for its difficulty) and return it on the scorecard to No. 7, its original place in the Lions sequence.

Bechtol knows every contour of Lions. He grew up near the course, attended the schools near the course and hopped the fence to play the track as a boy.

“I've lived and breathed the place for 50 years,” Bechtol said. “This plan saves Muny. It takes Muny to the next level. We are trying to blend reality with history.”

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The bottom line on the Brackenridge tract from my vantage point: every one who has ever played golf at Lions wants there to remain golf on the site. But there is no way the course is going to survive as it is right now – the track is too short and the land is too valuable to leave undeveloped.

Running to catch up

2008-05-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

There is seemingly never enough hours in the day to sit down and update my faithful readers on the happenings around here, but I will try to catch up a little here now and be more diligent in the future with more constant posts.

Since I last blogged here, I have been on the road to Louisiana (for five courses in four days), survived the triple-digit heat during my daughter’s end-of-school-year day camp and played my share of golf at some great and some not so great courses.

Let’s talk about Louisiana. I was able to play five of the 13 courses on the Pelican State’s Audubon Golf Trail from May 12-15 and was floored by the state’s move to make sure public access courses (read: daily fee and municipal) are the best they can be.

We started out in Alexandria, where we played Oak Wing, a course that has been renovated from the one that used to occupy that city’s England Air Force Base. It was a good track with a nice layout and a stretch of holes (on the tough par-4 14th, the easier than it looks par-5 15th and the visually demanding par-4 16th) that will be remembered and should be experienced.

The next day we moved south to Lafayette and The Wetlands, a good test of golf manned by an extraordinary staff. The two-year-old course has few trees but 11 of the 18 holes are affected by water hazards and the winds are always a factor. Holes Nos. 9 and 18 feature a double green that ends at the clubhouse for dramatic finishes.

On May 14 we headed even further south to the city of Patterson and 7,533-yard test that is The Atchafalaya at Idlewild . Designed by Robert von Hagge, the track contains five lakes and 10 native wetland areas that encompass nearly 40 acres of this 175-acre layout. More than a half million yards of native soil were used to develop dramatic elevations, creating breathtaking vistas. The course also sported a par-5 shorter than one of the par-4s, a par-5 surrounded by sand and a tough-as-nails finisher that the superintendent said was nominated as one of the hardest closing holes in golf.

That afternoon we headed the 80-miles east to The Big Easy, which I am happy to report is thriving and tourist friendly despite what you may have heard from other accounts. We played courses at either end of the spectrum our stay in NOLA, the fully recovered TPC of Louisiana and the reworked Golf Course at Audubon Park, which should be used as a blueprint for urban parkland renewal and civic pride.

The round at the TPC was delayed by a fierce thunderstorm but – after a two-hour wait – we were on the course. Playing Pete Dye's gem and walking in the footsteps of the pros while thinking about all the work that had to be done to bring the course back after the disaster was quite humbling, but not as much as the fact that the 7,400-yard track features four par-4s of 480 yards or longer. Ouch!

That afternoon we raced into the city’s Garden District and enjoyed 18 holes at the beautiful and historic course at Audubon Park. The Denis Griffiths design features contoured fairways, manicured TifEagle greens, four lagoons and exquisite landscaping on a 4,220-yard layout set among hundred year-old oak trees. Golf has been played at Audubon since 1898. The world-famous Audubon Zoo is right across the street and it is the country’s only course accessible by streetcar.

That night we ate a four-course dinner at the famous Brennan's restaurant in the French Quarter – I can not begin to tell you how good it was.

There’s lots more to talk about later.

Kite is a true professional and pleasure to be with

2008-05-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to follow Tom Kite at the final round of the FedEx Kinko’s Classic Sunday as he toured The Hills golf course in a two-under-par 70, his best round of the only professional tournament in his hometown.

See my story about the event, and Kite’s 0h-for in Texas, here: Kite’s frustration continues.

Some people find Kite a bit brusque, but I have always found him to be a true professional and a pleasure to be with.

No one works harder than Kite – I watched Saturday as he, his caddy Sandy, Dale Morgan of Austin Country Club and a member of Chuck Cook’s staff worked on the range at The Hills for three hours after his disappointing 74 in the second round – and he is not afraid to use any tools that could make his game better.

After that session, Kite talked openly about his struggles of late and was steadfastly adamant that he would be back in the groove soon, no matter how much work it involved.

I know Kite plays golf for a living, but if we all attacked our professions with the same zeal he does, we would be much better for the effort. I don’t doubt for a minute he will be back to where he wants through hard work.

Two rounds show versatilityand quality of Austin daily fee golf courses

2008-05-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

When I travel to play golf – and, fortunately that is quite often – I often remark to other golf journalists about the across-the-board quality of the many courses we have in Austin and the Central Texas area.
Lots of places have great private courses, but many of them are never seen by the golfing majority because of their exclusivity. Think about the wonderful tracks at Austin Country Club, the University of Texas Golf Club, Spanish Oaks, The Hills (of Lakeway), RiverPlace Country Club and Twin Creeks Country Club – hey, that’s a heck of a six-pack right, there.
But the real wealth of a town’s golfing worth is shown in its public and daily-fee courses, and Austin and the Central Texas area is wrought with great tracks that everyone can play every day.
On successive Fridays in April, I was able to play two such tracks – the tradition-rich Riverside Golf Course in southeast Austin and Bluebonnet Hill Golf Course, a course out near Decker Lake that for years has been known to have some of the best maintained greens in the region.
I am happy to report that – for the most part – both courses were in good condition; I mention that because, unfortunately, that has not always been the case.
Riverside is prone to flooding and wet spots even when it has not been raining, most notably in the fairway and near the green of its best hole, the 452-yard, par-four eighth, which is as tough as a bucketful of nails on the best of days.
And Bluebonnet Hill – which gets a bevy of action because of its player-friendly layout and outstanding practice facilities – lost much of the grass off its benchmark great greens last winter and is just now recovering, excepting the 150-yard, par-three fourth, which was victimized by a vandal that left two huge tire marks across the width of the putting surface.
The point of this exercise is: if you asked an Austin public-course golfing aficionado it is likely than nine out of 10 surveyed would not list either Riverside or Bluebonnet Hill their ranking of the top five all-access courses in the region. I fact, I doubt that half wouldn’t even list the pair in the top 10. That’s how good this category of golf is in this region.
My top five public access courses in the area would be: 1. Star Ranch; 2. ShadowGlen; 3. Grey Rock; 4. Falconhead; and, 5. Teravista.
We are very lucky to be able to have such options at our disposal.

Rolling through the Florida panhandle and The Emerald Coast

2008-04-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

If you have never been to the Florida panhandle and the state's Emerald Coast you are missing a great time, complete with great locales, wonderful restaurants, extraordinary golf courses and first-class accommodations. Think of rows of homes right on the beach, two-lane roads with houses in the Coastal Chic-style on each side, cloudless blue skies, white sand on rolling dunes and the Gulf of Mexico so still that the waves break just once and then just a few feet from the beach.

I have been in Tallahassee and here in Panama City this week as part of a golf and resort community FAM trip in which I played seven rounds of golf on four courses in five days. It has been a lot of golf, loads of great food and great times and sun galore.

We started the week in Tallahassee, a town that is a lot like Austin was in the 1970s as far as size and demographics. We stayed at the gated, upscale community of Southwood and played the Fred Couples/Gene Bates-designed 7,172-yard course that is the centerpiece of the development. The weather was windy and cold both rounds, but we endured and rolled around the track in good stead. Southwood is a good test of golf and reminds me a little of courses like the two resort/public courses at The Woodlands, near Houston.

On Tuesday afternoon, we headed south to the Watercolor Resort in South Walton County, which is hard by the Gulf of Mexico. If you’ve never heard of Walton County, you have probably seen it in the movies – the neighboring community of Seaside was used for location filming of the Jim Carrey film “The Truman Show.” Watercolor is a place that must be experiencd to be appreciated, but after this trip I think it must be how heaven looks for those of us that love the waterfront and the waves.

As part of our stay there, we played two rounds of golf at Shark’s Tooth Golf Club (designed, of course, by Greg Norman), 36 holes at Camp Creek Golf Club (designed by Tom Fazio) and nine holes at the unique Origins Course, a cool little place for beginners that is part executive course and part big-boys track.

Of the three courses, I enjoyed Shark’s Tooth the most, although many would probably prefer Camp Creek just because the land and the layout is off-the-charts gorgeous and the course (with an average green size of about 7,500-square feet, all of it rolling and fast as the surface of a pool table) is tough as nails.

The Origins Course (designed by Davis Love III) was a treat because of its many options – we played it as a 10-hole par-3 track, but you can also attack it as a six-hole regulation course. Think of the opportunities for a small track of land with its emphasis placed on bringing the game of golf to the young, the old and the harried, and you would have come up with Origins as well.

All in all, a great week of golf in a place that is pretty beyond belief and friendly to beat the band.

Sitting here in limbo…uh, Atlanta

2008-04-18T04:17:00.001-07:00

I ran into a transportation snag on the way to the Emerald Coast of Florida for a golf FAM trip (seven rounds of golf on four courses over five days), so I figured this would be a great time to catch up on things, especially since it has been a while since I have written and I have been busy on the course and in the office. Besides there is not much else to do in the sprawling Atlanta airport on a Monday after The Masters

First on all, I just wanted to say thanks to the AA-S Kevin Robbins and his crew for checking out The Club at ConCan and saying so many good things about the Bechtol-Russell designed track in southwest Texas. The course is sublimely good and sneaky tough, as their group of fine players found out.

I have been on the road for much of the month, first on a FAM trip to Mississippi and now off to Florida. The jaunt to Mississippi included three rounds of golf at the Pearl River Resort and Casino – where there are two great Tom Fazio-designed tracks at the Dancing Rabbit Golf Club (The Oaks and The Azaleas, both co-fashioned by Jerry Pate) – and to the Tunica casino area and three courses – Tunica National, The Links at Cottonwood and River Bend Links – in the state’s northwest corner.

I have nothing but good things to say about the two courses at Dancing Rabbit ; we were able to play the Azaleas Course on a Monday afternoon when our foursome was the only group on the track, and that was quite a treat. We were also able to stay in king-sized rooms on the second floor of the clubhouse, which was cool and a great option for large groups.

After two days in Philadelphia, we boarded a small bus and headed north and west to Tunica, which is the largest conglomerate of casinos in the United States outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. We drove through a pretty serious rainstorm on the way, and by the time we got to the region, the rains had subsided but left the courses we were set to play soaked and soggy.

We went ahead and played Tunica National – a course designed by renowned PGA Tour Player and architect Mark McCumber – that afternoon, and even though the course was saturated and under cart-path-only rules, one could see that the track was worthy of a trip to this corner of the world when it is warm and dry.

The next morning, we tried to play The Links at Cottonwood (a Hale Irwin design) but only managed 11 holes before being driven from the links by rain, cold and wet conditions. There was a lot to like about the course, but not enough to suffer through the weather.

We awoke the following AM to find more rain in the area, but still ventured out to River Bend Links) for breakfast and a look at the inundated course from the safety clubhouse. I am planning on going back to Tunica when the temps get a little warmer and rain, rain is gone away. Instead of playing golf, out group headed to Memphis to catch our flights home and had enough time to roll over to Graceland and pay our respects to The King.

Keep an eye on this space for more info on upcoming FAM trips to Florida and Louisiana.

Surviving the wind in New Mexico

2008-03-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

I was in New Mexico last weekend -- actually through Tuesday the 18th -- on a family vacation, but was able to squeeze in some golf in the burgeoning town that is Ruidoso. If you haven't been there, and you like to golf, you are missing out on a great time. Just try not to play when the wind is howling at 55-miles per hour, like it was last Sunday when I teed it up on the open-year-round-except-when-there-is-snow-on-the-ground Links at Sierra Blanca.

The Links is a course landlocked on all sides by the development in the city of Ruidoso. It was designed by Champions' Tour player Jim Colbert, and is a fair test of your game, with a great combination of long and short holes that are all impacted by the constant wind.

On this day, there were reports of gusts of up to 70-mph due for the entire state of New Mexico, so I tried to play before the "big" winds hit. I know it seems silly to play golf in cold and windy conditions when I can play here in Austin almost any day on great golf courses but I have made a habit of dragging my golf clubs just about anywhere I travel these days, and playing a course I might not have the chance to again always piques my interest, even in extreme weather.

I was fortnuate to make it around the 6,793-yard track in two-over-par 74. I struggled on the par-five fourth hole, which played into the almost-knock-even-me-down wind that made it a real challenge at 517 yards, and the 469-yard, par-four 15th, a dogleg-left on which I never saw the fairway and had to play a hard pitching wedge from the fairway of the previous hole over a set of trees to the green and then one-putt for bogey. Those two holes, joined by the 460-yard second, the 435-yard (into the wind) third, the short, but feisty, 121-yard par-three eighth (where I nearly had my first-ever hole in one) and the 432-yard par-four finishing hole are the ones that will stand out the most in my mind. That and the wind, which at times had the flagsticks bent almost in an upside-down U shape.

We were able to stay at the plush Inn of the Mountain Gods resort, but the golf course there was not open yet for play. On my next trip back to the region -- my parents recently moved from the Austin area to near Cloudcroft, New Mexico (which has its own nine-hole golf course, at about 9,000 feet above sea level) -- I am going to play at the Inn as well as Cree Meadows in Ruidoso. There are also several private courses I am going to try to play, including the venerable Alto Lakes Country Club and two new ones -- Rainmakers and The Outlaw.

All in all, a great -- if blustery -- trip to The Land of Enchantment.

Star Ranch is a star, despite long trip north

2008-03-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

I was able to play the always wonderful course at Star Ranch (a Bechtol Golf Design course) March 13 and was amazed -- again -- at the course's playability and fairness, even in a strong wind. Star Ranch's staff of Ricky Heine, Rob Fulford and owner Tim Timmerman really know how to make you feel welcome and the course gives you a chance to score well if you can keep you ball in play and deal with the (almost constant) wind.

There is a lot of construction going on at the course and all around its perimeter as there are plenty of multi-family housing currently under the blade. Most notable on the course's property is the enclosing of Star Ranch's pavilion -- the building should be ready for to use by the first week of April. The enclosure was deemed necessary because the course is continually busy with tournaments and group outings. Despite the number of people on the course, we were able to play the round in 15 minutes short of four hours, after which we had a cold beer in the clubhouse while watching the Big 12 Men's basketball tournament.

I live in Wimberley, south of Austin between Dripping Springs and San Marcos. As much as I love playing at Star Ranch, my rounds there (and at just about any north Austin course) will continue to be limited because of the long trip to that side of town and the rising cost of gas. On my way home I paid $3.22 a gallon -- it cost me $63 to fill the tank on my truck.

Given the options in my neighborhood, I may play more at Grey Rock (another Bechtol design while he worked for Jay Morrish) and Plum Creek (also a Bechtol design, even though the course was not build to his plans and he doesn't really claim it). Then there is Quicksand at Woodcreek (a short, dated track that is in need of reworking), the Canyon Lake Golf Course, Vaaler Creek in Blanco (just a nine-holer now but soon to be expanded), and -- believe it or not, these courses are almost as close for me as Grey Rock -- The Hawk (formerly Rayner Ranch and Rebecca Creek) and River Crossing (one of my favorites) in Spring Branch.

I sure wish they could move Star Ranch to the south -- I would be there every day, especially with the state-of-the-art practice facility the course offers lucky residents of the northland.

Like watching paint dry

2008-03-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Viewing golf on the tube Sunday afternoon and evening -- even in the wonder of my new big screen LCD HD television -- was kind of like watching paint dry, especially with Sean O'Hair and Bernhard Langer tee it up down the stretch in winning the PODS Championship and the Toshiba Classic, respectively.

Those of you who know me or have played a round of golf with me know that I spend very little time over the ball; as far as I am concerned, the least time thinking about a shot gives you less time to figure out all the things you could be doing wrong. Playing fast works for me -- it obviously doesn't for O'Hair and Langer, both of whom golf their ball like they are waiting for the calendar to change rather than the fact they are on the clock and slowing down the action.

I really felt for Jay Haas, who battled Langer for a stupifying seven playoff holes in Newport Beach before missing a five-foot birdie putt that would have send the playoff to an eighth extra hole. Langer stalked every putt from every angle and didn't make one that really mattered that was more than the length of the flagstick. Meanwhile, Haas -- who likes to play fast -- waited and waited and waited and finally ran out of gas after making a great pitch from behind the 18th green (the fourth time the twosome had played the hole Sunday afternoon).

I can not stand to play slow golf, but I have learned not to let it bother me. Saturday, during a career-best round 67 at the 6,646-yard golf course at the Flying L Guest Ranch in Bandera, our threesome waited on virtually every shot but spent the day enjoying the sun and the fellowship while waiting to hit. Thanks to Jimmy Bounds and Pat Johnson for being patient along with me and making a round that could have been torturous and forgetable into one I will never forget.

By the way, the course at The Flying L, designed by John Bredemus and opened for play in 1972, is worth the trip to Bandera even if it wasn't attached to world-class and super-fun dude ranch. I especially like holes 13, 14 and 15 (a short par-5, followed by a medium-length (375-yards)par-4, followed by another par-5 with a table-top size green. Every great golf course has a stretch of memorable holes, and while the Flying L's course is not great, these three holes (along with the 170-yard par-3 seventh) make it good.

Let's get it started

2008-03-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hey fellow golfers and golf aficionados,

We are going to talk a lot of about Texas golf news and courses from around the southwest on this blog, which will also be a full-blown bulletin board for the golf course design work of Roy Bechtol, my full-time employer.

In case you don't know a lot about Roy, here is the short bio:

About Bechtol Golf Design
Bechtol Golf Design’s principal, Roy Bechtol has designed more than 50 golf courses throughout the United States either as the lead architect or as a collaborator with other top golf course designers.
Bechtol Golf Design combines cutting-edge technology with creative, traditional design practices to determine the best possible plan for blending golf with real estate.

Upcoming projects include courses in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, in the mountains of Panama, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains near Vail, on the coast of Mexico, in the hills of western Virginia, in the Texas Hill Country along the upper banks of Lake Travis and on Mustang Island on the Texas coast, as well as various
sites in Central Texas.

Bechtol Golf Design’s completed projects, both individually and in conjunction with some of the world’s top designers, include:
The Waterford Club (Smithwick, Texas); The University of Texas Golf Club (Austin, Texas); The Golf Club of Texas (San Antonio, Texas); The Golf Club at Star Ranch (Hutto, Texas); Black Bear Golf Club (Delhi, Louisiana); The Ambush at Lajitas (Lajitas, Texas); ConCan Country Club (North Uvalde County, Texas); Great Hills Country Club (Austin, Texas); El Paso Country Club (El Paso, Texas); Diamondback Golf Academy (San Antonio, Texas); Grey Rock Golf Club (Austin, Texas); Vaquero (Westlake, Texas); Barton Creek Resort (Austin, Texas); The Hills of Lakeway (Lakeway, Texas); Austin Country Club (Austin, Texas); and, RiverPlace Country Club (Austin, Texas)

Check out his full deal at bechtolgolfdesign.com.

And here is a little about me:

Veteran journalist and editor Steve Habel has joined the Bechtol Golf Design team and will act as the media coordinator for principal Roy Bechtol and his three Austin-based companies.
Habel, a frequent contributor to TravelGolf.com and Cybergolf.com and the regular golf columnist for Victory Publishing in Marble Falls, is a member of the Texas Golf Writers’ Association.
“Steve’s coverage of our golf course design business as a member of the press has been unparalleled, and I knew he was someone I wanted for my team,” Bechtol said. “His knowledge of golf and business and the business of golf and his professionalism will be an asset for our continued success.”
Habel will maintain his presence as managing editor of Business District magazine in Austin and the Texas football beat writer and a contributing editor for Horns Illustrated, the Austin-based magazine for University of Texas sports. Habel also writes a weekly golf column for The River Cities Tribune in Marble Falls, Texas.
Since 1990, Habel has traveled around the globe covering news, business and sports assignments for various news bureaus, newspapers, magazines and websites.
Habel’s expertise is in writing stories that make people think. He has been lauded and awarded by his peers for his news judgment, his writing and his editing.
Habel will write press releases and coordinate media coverage for Bechtol’s three companies. He will also be responsible for writing follow-ups on Bechtol-designed golf courses and will spearhead a new service Bechtol will offer to clients to provide a running, written chronology of golf course projects as they progress. He will act in the same manner for both Planned Environments, Inc. and Waters Of America.

This is my first time to blog, so if things are a little rough give if a few times...I will get it right.