Northgate is pretty good. I like the new Bridges nine, however, I am not a fan of the nine that runs along the ditch the whole way. Is it called "Creeks?"
Ya, creek. I don't like that one either. I prefer Bunkers / Bridges myself. BTW the worst course in Houston by far is Heron Lakes. Granted there are other ghetto golf tracks in H-Town (Melrose), but none that pretend to by High scale as bad as the Heron.
I played a couple of weeks ago and this old guy who teed off ahead of me on the first hole hit from the tips and made to about the ladies tees. Nice drive there, Boom-Boom. No shame in playing the whites.
If you are in Deer Park you might as well play Evergreen Point. It is a great Jay Reviere design down in that part of the world. I haven't played it in a long time so I can say what shape it's in but it is always fun to play. Battleground is just another Muni. I wouldn't bother,even if it is cheap. I played Glenloch Tuesday, it was in surprisingly good shape. Wildcat has 2 fun courses that are right by The Astrodome. I prefer The Highlands because it has shots you just don't get anywhere else in Houston; 40' uphill and 40' downhill. It was closed for aereation this week though, it should be ready for play by this weekend. DUDE! I designed Houston Hills ( also known as The Dump). Sad to day it has closed and they have covered the golf course with 10' of fill dirt. I haven't heard what the future plans are. My picks for the best Houston courses that you can get on and afford to play are in order: The Falls High Meadow Ranch Fish Creek The Tradition Blaketree Blackhorse (either) Tour 18 Wildcat Evergreen Point (I need to getback to Meadowbrook I haven't played it since it first opened) Courses I avoid: Stinko Ranch Battleground Longwood (nice design, bad condition) Houston National (houses on both sides of every fairway) Herman (or any Houston Municipal, well, maybe Memorial) Seinna Plantation (4 or 5 good holes and that's it)
Check out Southwyck in Pearland. It is a nice links-style course. Very underrated and definitely worth the drive into Pearland. Or, if your business connections have ties with Bay Oaks Country Club or South Shore Harbor, you might want to see if you can get on either of those. Bay Oaks is always in immaculate condition.
I seriously cannot get enough of Gleannloch, I play at least once a week. Did you really design "the Dump" or are you just yanking our collective chains...
I only played there once or twice. The layout seemed fine to me, it just wasn't maintained very well from what I could tell.
Yes it's true. Here is the short version; I was working as a land planner and Landscape Architect in the late 80's. We had finished with Greatwood and there was little other work to be had, the city was in a recession and a lot of land developer were going to jail. I was spending a lot of time hitting range balls so I became friends with the pro that owned the driving range on the SW frwy. He told me he had taken an option on the Bellaire city dump that was closing right behind his property and he wanted to build a golf course on it. He needed plans to show the State since they had concerns about the drainage runoff from the dump. So I laid him out the first 9 holes of Houston Hills. I went own to do a lot of the manual labor involved in the construction. As I recall the whole thing was built for about $300 K...cheap! I also did a design for the East 9 on the City of West U dump but it was changed somewhat before it was built. The guy that owned thought there was a market for the low end golfer, you know , the guys that play in tennis shoes with their hat on backwards so he never bothered with aesthetics or maintenance ( to my continuing embarassment). He was a lot more concerned with selling a lot of beer than the golf experience. I guess the golf course glut finally killed em off. I read in the Bellaire paper a year or so ago the City had filed suit on him for back lease payments. Jeep
Good to see ya on here, ever played at the Houstonian Golf Course or Shadowhawk? Great courses. If your looking for the new cheap place try sugar hill, but if you want class try the houstonian.
Greatwood used to be a nice track...way back when before all of the homes were built there....especially on the back 9. It's the same reason I stay away from Southwyck. I just feel claustrophobic on those two courses even though I shot my best round ever at Southwyck (82). Now Royal Oaks...that's a course with homes that I like. Best on course restrooms I've ever had the pleasure of using. Followed closely by The Houstonian. You know you are on a nice course when the on course restrooms are air conditioned.
Faos I'm a former golf pro and all my friends are golf pros and we can't get on Royal Oaks. How did you get on? I do have one friend that is a member but for some reason he hasn't asked me to play. Maybe it's because he knows I try to weasel all the free golf I can and he doesn't want to pay my guest fee. I haven't played Shadowhawk either. I don't have any friends that rich. I did play The Houstonian and thought it was OK-pretty good. But for being a Rees Jones design it a little disappointing. There is however just so much you can do with a flat, boring site. The restrooms are sweet though! Here is a story about Greatwood: I was the back-room grunt doing the land planning on Greatwood. We had completed the master plan and most of the engineering when the Klein School District sued HL&P over a power line too close to a school. hey said prolonged exposure to the power lines could cause Lukemia. Greatwood was developed by American General Insurance so the were very sesitive to any possible liability. They came back to us and asked what we could do to mitigate the big powerline across Greatwood. Deciding to add a golf course was the natural choice; they had considered doing one in the first place but the original Greatwood was only 1488 acres and wasn't considered big enough to make one economically viable. So we went back and added a golf course, our office communicating back and forth with golf designer Carlton Gibson. The problem was the first phase roads were already being bid and they were on the Western edge of the property. The first principle of golf course design is to have your opening holes play west and your finishing holes play East so you don't have to play into the sun. Well oops! Greatwood had to be backward and if you have ever teed up in the morning or finished in the late afternoon there you know the effect. Also, the housing cells (areas of like sized lots) had been laid out and the Project Managers wanted the course routing to reach the less desirable cell (where there were no trees). So the course had to be stretched out to reach them. That is why if you wanted to walk Greatwood you would be walking over 10.000 yards! Due to the creative grading done by Sajo construction the course did turn out pretty nice though, and the course was allowed to grow in for a full year before it was opened for play, that's just unhearded of. In the early years when American General was selling tracts to the developers they spent almost a million dollars a year on maintenance, more than twice the average. But now that the development is nearly sold out the course has to make it on it's own so it is not nearly as pristine as the early years. Jeep
Every now and then I get an invitation in the mail to play with a pro out there. When I show up usually the pro is busy and I just play alone. For some reason I seem to be on a membership drive mailing list. Little do they know I couldn't afford to live out there, but that's my secret. Thanks for the background on Greatwood. I've never been able to score well there for whatever reason...that also lends to my dislike for that course. Plus, the last time I played there...on a Monday morning it was so backed up we skipped a few holes.
Jeep, while I got ya here...how do I stop a shank (at least that's what I call it) when it happens on the course? It's like a little slap shot that goes off to the right...I'm guessing the club face is too wide open and my swing plane sucks when that happens. It only happens with my irons. It can come out of nowhere and completely ruin a round. I been on the range beforehand with no sign of it then it just appears. I'm getting pissed thinking about it.
I've been away from Houston for a while, but the hardest course I ever played was Wedgewood in Conroe. I played it shortly after it opened and I must have lost a dozen balls. If you hit your ball a foot off the fairway it was lost. I understand they went in there and made a few changes and cleared it out a little bit, but I bet it is still a difficult course. I also enjoyed playing The Falls and Waterwood.
Oops! I forgot River Ridge in my list, I do love it. I played Houston national two weeks ago. Too many houses in play. Hell they have some doglegs you can cut by hitting over the houses in the corners. I don't know how Von Hagge keeps getting design work. That place is a maintenance nightmare with all the steep clay hills. If it was carts-on paths you would be in for a deathmarch. A true shank is when the ball hits on the hosel making it go dead right. As I understand it is usually caused by having your weight up on your toes so that the club pulls your upper body forward during the downswing. A a shot that is blocked right is usually the result of swinging too much from the inside and/or not rotating the clubhead through impact. To work on your swing plane use clubs or tees to make a 90' cross. Setup so that the club is on the center of the cross and you feet and shoulders are square to the 12 o'clock-6 o'clock line. Then make your practice swing or hit balls so that the club makes a path fron 7 o'clock through 1 o'clock. To get a feel for clubhead rotation make a 1/2 swing, taking the club just up to shoulder high on both sides , no fold or follow through. As your are making this swing think TOE-UP TOE-UP. Check and see that you have the toe of the club pointing straight up and the club face parallel to the swing plane at the peak point on both sides. The club has to rotate through the impact zone to make this happen. Here is my disclaimer: I was about 36 when I thought it would be fun to work in the golf business (it isn't). I went to work at a golf course to remain unnamed and got my PGA apprentice card but could never pass the Playing Ability Test to get my full card. You have to shoot a score around 153 for 36 holes to pass. The best I ever did was 160. Taking the test is a little more nerve-wracking than just playing a casual round. Now I just help the pro at a local Country Club run the Monday Tournaments and they let me hang out there. I have however taught a bunch of beginning golfers how to get the ball off the ground. But basically I just taught Ben Hogan's Five Fundementals of Golf that you go out and buy for $10. Faos, all I get is stuff fromCarton Woods with no invitation to play. I did play there once though. My brother-in law (the doctor) is a Nicklaus Signature Member at Hilton Head so he supposedly has access to all Nicklaus Signature courses. Well, they let us play for $160 but required we play with one of their assistant pros and pay her $125 too. I didn't think the course was that great. I can really only remember 3 or 4 holes. Sheesh!
