Finding great golf in San Antonio is Mission Possible

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.