Pros:
Very large concrete trapezoid tee boxes on each hole, most well well maintained and clear of sand.
Good tee signage on each hole, with next tee direction on each sign.
Fairways were fairly well designed with decent shaped lines on most holes (more below).
Well used and obvious paths to the next hole after each basket, was very easy to find my way around without needing the map once I looked at it in the parking area and on here once I found hole 1.
Decent work was done to give fair lanes and shot shaping, its obvious the desingers know a little something and are not noobs 'giving it a go'.
Cons:
There was a few repetitive themes I felt that really bring it down for me.
1- holes 1-6 are the same 2 holes 3x over to start the round. Same up/down & distance.
2- It really felt like I mostly threw the same 2 shots the entire round (save 3 holes). Either I threw a 300-310 ft turnover (LHBH), or a 225ft turnover (LHBH). As a lefty this place was turnover city for me & the only 3 holes I got to throw a clean hyzer were a 230 footer and a 200 footer, then hole 18 was my only driver hyzer at 315ish.... Even the dual lanes which were quite nice to see, did not have the flight path that a lefty would take - I choose to throw the turnover down the righty lane almost every single dual fairway as that had a much better lane/flight path. Maybe this is a maintenance issue, as I did notice one of the designed lefty lanes was completely overgrown and not really a fairway anymore. Even the one par four, was two righty hyer shots at 240ft to pin it. Again, the same repetitive throws as many of the par 3s....
3- Some of the concrete tees could have been placed/installed in a slightly different location (a few feet left or right, or even aiming slightly different angle down the fairway) to allow a cleaner or more even chance to utilize both fairways lanes. Again, this may be an installation issue vs. a design issue as just a foot left or right on a box can make a huge difference in a wooded course.
So the repetitive nature of throwing annys, and the repetitive nature of throwing a turnover mid OR a turnover putter over and over was a shame. It really felt like every hole was either 215 ft or 310ft.... I threw the same 2 tee shots both rounds I played yesterday, over and over and over.
36 tee shots yesterday, 6 left hyzers (4 of those were with a putter), 20ish anny mids, and 10 anny putters. I was hoping for more from an over 3.5 rated course.
Other Thoughts:
This is my 35th course in TX, and I feel quite strongly that most courses in TX are rated about a half a mark higher than the should be on a national scale. Could be the state is so big that many golfers don't get out of state too often. BUt 10% of the total number of courses I've played are in TX and this is a common feel for me.
This was indeed a solid TX course, better than most for sure. Solid bones, good design, just too repetitive for me liking. Maybe its a maintenance issue, maybe it just needed some ever so slight changes (1-2 more tree on the left lanes removed for a better lefty shot shape. I just kept throwing the 'safer cleaner lane' as I didn't want to go in the woods, and it was so often a turnover I felt a bit let down at the end of my 2 rounds.
Again, this is not a total knock, its good course, its just not a 3.5+ course in my eyes.
Reviewer background: I travel for work, a lot, and play the very high end courses, as wellas those 1.0 courses just because they are close to where I am working or staying on a trip.
I have seen the very best and the very worzt courses in my travels.
Played as righty for 15 years, got injured, and as a lefty for the last 13 years - so I am one of the guys that really sees both sides of the disc after 28 years of playing.
940ish rated player that has played 302 courses in 29 states, so I've been around to a few to see what's out there as well.
Overall, I'd recommend a player to come here, and recommend a traveling player to stop by as it was some good golf and better than many in the area.