Public Golf Courses

Played Kizer this morning, and I urge any and all to get out there. The fairways were in the best condition I have EVER seen a public course in Austin.

I have have the opportunity to play several high dollar courses, and pretty much every CC in the Austin area, and the fairways at Kizer were as good as any of 'em.

It was like hitting off a carpet in most places. The greens were fine, and the course is as green and as inviting as I have ever seen it.

Don't know how long this can last because of the lack of rain, but perhaps since they use the wastewater plant maybe it will be this way for a while.
 
The rain - damn the rain, and yet, thank god for the rain. Was supposed to play out at Kizer on Sunday, but obviously Thor made sure I couldn't do that. But, all this rain should keep the course(s) green for weeks to come. So for that, I'm ok.

Let's hope it clears up by friday, for our golf outing with the family and friends.
 
Despite my serious reservations, the consensus of my golfing buddies was to play Blackhawk on Saturday. I've never played it until then.

Not to beat a dead horse, but Blackhawk stinks! The greens are the worst I've ever seen and I've been an avid golfer since 1980. I thought surely the badmouthing on this thread was exaggerated, but it is not. And get this - I dare say the greens are the best part about the course. The "fairways" are weedy, the tee boxes sparse, the water hazards have trash floating in them, the ball washers had no water, etc., etc. One hole has nothing but black dirt and a few sparse weeds in the first 300 yards off the tee. I felt like I was in a third world country for the day.

The course is two steps below Hancock in condition, but quadruple the price. The layout is just plain boring. The Marshall gave a lame excuse about the poor course condition being from the sprinkler system being broken for 2 weeks so they could only hand water the course. The whole friggin sprinkler system?? Pressurized water pipe technology is not rocket science.

Is this course going out of business? They need to slash their green fees and be up front with golfers before they play the course or this course could go out of business.
 
Iowa,

Can't agree more. Played my first round ever our there on Friday, and if it hadn't been a free round, I'd have asked for my money back.

The greens, worst I've ever played on. And holes under repair in the summer? The #2 fairway didn't exist - we teed off into the best spot of dirt we could find then lifted and placed balls where we could find grass. We actually lost two balls in the MIDDLE OF A FAIRWAY!

We also had a early morning tee time, and we literally were approaching grees as they were turning off the sprinklers! Its not everyday you strike a putt and get a roostertail of water behind it!

The only positives I found ... hit the first double eagle of my career on I believe #17 (another hole where I had to outdrive the non-existent fairway), after driving a par 4 green the forst time in my life on #16 (and f-ing three-putted for par).

That course has potential, but whoever runs it and is the greenskeeper needs to get canned.
 
Avery Ranch looks beautiful, I've driven by several of the holes checking out the new neighborhood. I'd not realized it's open, I'll call for a twilight tee time as soon as I don't have to swim to get out of my house... how much is the twilight rate, do you know?
 
Mon-thurs twilight is $37, ans supertwilight is $29. I assume the latter is after 5.

The course is in great shape for such a new track. With the excepton of two greens, you'd think you were playing at an established course. It's a bit more difficult than Star Ranch, but comparable in quality (sans GPS, which sucks)

I'm up for playing a twilight round with a few of you hackers as soon as the rain stops.
 
With all the bashing we do on this thread, I'd like to take this time to give props to Lago Vista Golf courses. We scheduled a family and friends tournament at the Lago course on Friday the 5th, after all the rains. The course was wet in parts, but on the whole, the course was in excellent condition. Greens were quick and rolled true, and the course drained extremely well (it's nice to have a lake nearby, no?). In addition, the staff was extremely helpful, allowing me to have a block of 6 tee-times without any sort of official tournament fee or anything like that, and only charged each player the standard summertime greensfee ($25 to ride!). They even made up closest to the pin and longest drive stakes for me.

The courses (Lago and Highland) consistently have good greens, and offer a challenging test of golf, and Friday was no different. Kudos.
 
I second that Capn

Lago is one of if not the best public golf values in the area.

It just sucks that it takes a while to drive out there.
 
capn, that's good to hear. It's been a while since I've driven out there to play those courses. My one complaint was that Lago Vista had some hole that seemed sort of tricked up, and didn't make a lot of sense. Is the course in good shape?

Just to echo what many have said, I went out to Kizer this Saturday, and it is in excellent shape. The fairways are like hitting off carpet, and there's actually some rough, which is a rarity in central Texas.
 
The course is in *good* shape, and the accented good will be exchanged for an excellent once the rains dry up and the greens benefit from all that natural water. There was grass on every fairway and every green - not a bare spot to be seen.

There are a few holes that seem ... arbitrary, at Lago. #11 is rediculous, and I'm not a big fan of #10, either. At the Highland Lakes course, there are many blind shots, but the holes are all fair. Some people don't like blind shots, and so the course sometimes gets an ill-deserved bad rep. It's a great track.
 
Arbitrary is a good word. I agree, it gets something of a bad rap. Doesn't #9 involve hitting your tee shot over a house? Big dogleg right down 3 or 4 "tiers" of fairway?
 
#9 is one that most people commonly reference as to why Lago has issues. I for one don't mind the hole a bit. It drops about sixty feet to the green from the 150 plate in the middle of the fairway. From the teebox, the hole plays as a dogleg right. Were you to hit your drive directly at the pin, the shot is over the left edge of a house, with is also the left edge of the out of bounds (the house in AGAINST the course). That said, the shot is a soft cut, since the severe slope will carry a ball down towards the hole - if you go right at the pin and lose the ball right, you're OB in a hurry. If you pull it left, it's usually through the fairway, since you're usually holding driver or 3-wood in order to carry the ball all the way to the green. #9 is, for me, an excellent example of a course designer taking what he was given, and making a tremendous risk-reward hole. It's vey common to put a well struck 2-iron on the front edge of the green. However, I've hit 4-iron through the fairway into the scrub-trees, when I've hooded it just a little. In addition, any ball that gets stuck on the downslope is NOT an easy birdie, no matter how close you are.

I like the hole. A lot of people don't. However, I'm able to hit a high cut with a 2-iron, and that helps
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My favorite is the double cross. Trying to hit a nice high fade, start the ball left and hit a low pull-hook. That is one beautiful shot. Approximately 90 yards off line to the left.
 
played lago this morning. touch ******* course, for my skills anyway. the rough was brutal, particularly considering last night's rain. soggy, wet and deep, with no intermediate cut. 32 putts, though. i love those greens. like velvet.

however, #11 should be completely redesigned. what the **** is the idea putting a massive oaktree immediately in front of a green, if you're lucky enough to gotten through the 15 yard window of a fairway before the dogleg.

also, why is 17 the #1 handicap? that was the easiest hole on the course. unless they reverse their numbers.
 
Like I said, Nacho, #11 is a little interesting. It's a great hole in the winter, when the giant oak tree on the left of the fairway isn't so large and leafy. Makes the fairway big enough to actually play into. During the summer, forget it. Blast and pray is the only thing to do.

In #17's defense, it's the only real long par-4 on the course, with a very difficult green to get a ball close to the pin. I agree that it isn't the hardest hole on the course, but it's definately one of the hardest, and if not for #15, would be definately the hardest on the backside. So, maybe it should be 3 or 5 handicap - either way, it's not too far off of what it should be.
 
I just heard about the (new?) Terra Vista golf course in Round Rock when I read the paper today. I did a web search and came up with very little. It's supposedly near Chandler Rd and IH35. Anybody heard of it/played there?
 
It's opening at the end of August (supposedly)

Forest Creek is one of my clients, and the GM out there said that it will be comparable to his course.

here is a link to their incomplete website:The Link

by the way, I am playing out at Forest Creek tomorrow (around 2 pm). Anyone interested in free golf, yes free?
 
Damn! 2:00 pm tomorrow? I wonder if my boss would mind my not showing up for the conference call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Guess I better not. I would imagine Forest Creek would be in damn good shape after all this rain.

BTW I went out to Terra Vista last weekend to look around. The practice area is very, very nice, with a huge putting green. Looks like they have about three or four holes that are in great shape right now, but they lost a lot of fairways in late May and early June, and are just now getting them back.

Wanted to open by July, but decided that for the sake of first impressions, they didn't want to open until the course was pristine. Looks interesting, although more wide open then Forest Creek.
 
Unpainted, dang, I should have read this last night. I could have joined you guys today. Oh well. FYI I'm a member at Balcones, and usually play at Spicewood. The only problem having folks join me there is that the stupid guest fee is 40 plus cart weekdays, 50 weekends. Way overpriced IMO.

Thx for the teravista link, I'd not realized there was only one "r" in tera. Keep it in the short grass.
 
Unpainted,

How was Forest Creek yesterday? Was it in good shape? Is #9 still a ******* mess down near the pond?

Played Star Ranch this morning and everything was in VERY good shape except for the greens, which had sand on them. They should be very good also in about a week or two.

Shot 81 from the tips.

hook'em
 
Niner - the course was beautiful. #9 has recovered nicely, although there's a nice muddy watermark where the top of the lake grew to - weird to see it two feet up into the weeds back in the rough. I can bet that it was a joke for a few days.

The golf? Now that wasn't so beautiful. Unpainted played a good backside ... I'm just glad that I finished without hurting myself somehow.
 
It ain't a public course, but I am supposed to play Fazio #2 (the Canyons) tomorrow out at Barton Creek on somebody else's dime.

If it rains I am gonna be really, really pissed.
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my good back 9 coincided with my consumption of a few beers.

I agree, course in good shape. They weren't ******* around with the pin placements. You would have thought it was the final day at Augusta.

I putted out of my mind, ask Nacho or capn. I attribute my freakishly good putting to the true roll of the greens.

oh, and I love carding a birdie on 18 at Forest Creek, especially when the round is free
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