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Visit the Golf Course Finder
On the Green in Houston
By Brian McCallen
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Not
far from the city's impressive glass-and-steel skyscrapers are
dozens of superb daily-fee facilities, many of which have
sprouted like mushrooms in the past few years. Drive in any
direction from downtown, and you will find not dead-flat oil
fields-the common misconception-but an attractive array of
courses set on rolling, wooded land. With an average annual
temperature of 70 degrees and 250 sunny days per year, the
weather is perfect for golf, especially in spring and fall.
Perhaps best of all for visiting players, H-Town, while brash
and ebullient, is a very friendly town. Southern hospitality
in SpaceCity? Yes, Dorothy, it exists.
A review of the top tracks follows.
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Houston's most venerable
municipal facility is Memorial Park Golf Course.
Designed in 1936 by John Bredemus, the 'Father of Texas
Golf,' Memorial Park is an oasis of urban golf just west
of downtown. It was not always so. The course had
devolved into a dusty, worn-out muni until it received a
$5 million facelift in the mid-1990s. The roomy,
tree-lined layout, set within one of the city's
prettiest parks, was the original host of the Houston
Open (1951-63). Memorial Park is where golfing greats
Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff and many others got their
start. The legendary track, renovated by Baxter Spann
with input from Houstonians Jay Riviere and Dave Marr,
now features a Spanish Mission-style clubhouse and a
golf museum created from the original clubhouse.
Defined by several ponds, 90 bunkers and lots of
bonhomie, Memorial Park is perhaps the nation's finest
urban muni.
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North of
Houston is the 54-hole Cypresswood Golf Club. The club's
Creek and Cypress courses, both woven through a thick
pine forest, are pleasant and straightforward, but the
star attraction is the Tradition Course, a Keith
Foster-designed layout debuted in 1998 and named to GOLF
Magazine's 'Top 10 You Can Play' list the following
year. Carved from tall pines and live oaks on rolling
land marked by sand flats and deep ravines, the
Tradition is an old-fashioned shotmaker's course
designed to rekindle the charm of the game's past. The
pair of gaping sand pits at the par-three 11th hole, for
example, were inspired by the famed Spectacles bunkers
at Carnoustie in Scotland. Clever risk-reward scenarios
will delight experts and novices alike--if they can
avoid the meandering brooks, rock-rimmed ponds and
bathtub-shaped bunkers.
This is a course that puts out a welcome mat on its
opening holes but tries to slam the door on unsuspecting
players at the finish. Host of many prominent
tournaments, the Tradition at Cypresswood was ranked the
No. 1 public course in the area in 2003 by the Houston
Sports News.
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West of the city is
BlackHorse Golf Club, a 36-hole complex spread across
rolling, wooded ranchland. Horses were once raised here,
but it also looks like the kind of place where buffalo
roamed. The North Course, debuted in 2000, is
intersected by a creek and dotted with thick-waisted
oaks. A brawny track marked by wide corridors and large
greens, the North is a big-time test from the tips at
7,301 yards, even for PGA Tour pro and course
co-designer Peter Jacobsen.
The facility's South Course, opened in 2001, is a little
shorter at 7,171 yards and quite a bit tighter, with
trees pinching the fairways and water in play on 12
holes. The club's finest holes are found on the South's
back nine, a few of which are routed around the rim of a
spent sand quarry that has long since filled with water
and is now a cavern of reedy wetlands. The signature
hole is the par-three 17th, its target a massive green
that rises on grassy pilings from the center of the
quarry. After the round, drop by Jake's Grill, one of
the best 19th holes in town.
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Also situated west of
Houston is Meadowbrook Farms Golf Club, a well-groomed
course that offers exceptional diversity on terrain that
does not inspire at first glance. Course designer Greg
Norman chose to revitalize the Texas Gulf Coast prairie,
a landscape unique to the region and one that is fast
disappearing. Tall native grasses and wildflowers were
planted to attract birds and create a pleasing frame for
the holes. The look is simple, pure, traditional; the
holes fit the gently rolling land hand-in-glove. The
plateau greens at Meadowbrook Farms, many of them
embraced by close-mown humps and hollows, are very
slick. Stacked-sod bunkers and a tree-lined bayou add to
the challenge. This subtle, beautifully manicured test,
opened in 1999, is one of the finest designs on Norman's
resum?and one of the most respected venues in town.
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The Gulf plain flattens east
of the city, but a superior country club-style
experience awaits at Redstone Golf Club. Unveiled in
2003, Redstone was built by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy
on the site of a pre-existing club. The layout retains
many of the original corridors but is essentially a new
course marked by enhanced wetlands and minimal
bunkering. In fact, there is little here to terrify the
game's best players: local hero Fred Couples, a star on
the University of Houston golf team, posted a 21-under
par victory in the Shell Houston Open held at Redstone
last spring. Average players will find the course
interesting, fair and more than a little watery in
places. It's a big hitter's ballpark: From the tips, the
back nine measure over 4,000 yards. Redstone, the
highest-priced daily-fee facility in town ($130-$145),
will debut a Rees Jones-designed course in 2005.
A new tradition in Houston golf began in August 2005 at
The Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club. The first
of its kind in the region, the Tournament Course was
designed specifically to host Houston's only PGA TOUR
stop, the Shell Houston Open. Famed golf course
architect Rees Jones worked side by side with PGA TOUR
professional and course consultant David Toms to ensure
that the Tournament Course at Redstone provides a
spectator experience unlike anything Houston's golf fans
have ever seen.
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For those who enjoy replica
tracks that emulate America's greatest courses, Houston
offers two good copycats. Tour 18, opened in 1992 east
of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was the first
facility to borrow holes from famous clubs. The club's
homage to Amen Corner, inspired by holes 11, 12 and 13
at Augusta National, coupled with holes drawn from
Inverness, Colonial and Oakmont, provide an enjoyable,
d??vu-style test. |
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In 2000,
the developers of Tour 18 produced Augusta Pines, its
front nine inspired by the storied back nine at Augusta
National, a string of holes imprinted on the national
consciousness by The Masters.
The layout's incoming nine borrows from Pinehurst No. 2,
Oakland Hills and other classics, though the holes are
inspirations, not cookie-cutter copies. Site of the
annual Champions Tour, Augusta Pines, characterized by
small, undulating greens and plenty of water, offers a
solid test on heaving land framed by tall pines.
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Outer space may be the 'Final
Frontier,' but for dyed-in-the-wool golfers, links-style golf
is the last stop on the shuttle. A few miles south of the
NASA-Johnson Space Center is Magnolia Creek Golf Links, a
27-hole complex that simulates an authentic links. The
rolling, tumbling fairways on this nearly treeless site are
pinched by manmade hillocks and 'dunes' cloaked in tall native
grasses. Situated a scant 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico,
the facility's Ireland, Scotland and England nines are
invariably swept by steady winds. Conditions are firm and
fast. Bump-and-run shots into the open-entry greens are
encouraged.
Designer Tom Clark, who moved 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt
to create the course, did himself proud here. Magnolia Creek
may lack centuries of tradition, but it saves visitors the
trouble of making an overseas trip to the U.K.-or booking a
flight to the moon.
Brian McCallen is the former travel editor of GOLF MAGAZINE
for 16 years and now writes for T&L Golf and others
publications.
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