Official publication of the Oklahoma Golf Association
www.golfoklahoma.org
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Golfers tee off on the “Million-dollar hole” on the Slick Rock Course at Horseshoe Bay Resort.
Golf in Austin is a capital idea
There’s a little bit of everything at these Central Texas golf resorts
by steve habel
Sometimes it seems that the only people
not in a hurry to move to the Texas Hill
Country and Austin are those who have
never visited the most verdant and vibrant
region of the Lone Star State.
Austin is bustling and nearly bursting at
the seams, with construction continuing at
a fever pitch.
Recent statistics show that 70 people
move to Austin every day, as the city has
grown 2.7 percent in the past three years
to about 842,000 citizens in the city limits
alone. There are more than 2.5 million people in the Austin metro area, a number that’s
expected to double by 2030.
Despite the growth, Austin still holds on
to its small-city charm. Part of that appeal
is the great golf options that the area offers,
led by three of the nation’s top golf resorts
– all within a 45-minute drive of the downtown sector and the gleaming Texas State
Capitol building.
Barton Creek is the most well known and
has been a top destination for decades. Following is a closer look at the other two major golf destinations in the area, Lost Pines
Resort and Horseshoe Bay Resort.
Wolfdancer GC highlights
package at Bastrop’s Hyatt
Lost Pines Resort
A trip to the fabulous Hyatt Regency Lost
Pines Resort just east of Austin works to lull
visitors into a splendid bliss, thanks to its
call for serenity and relaxation and a feeling
that you’re far off the beaten path.
The Hyatt Lost Pines Resort is two miles
off the main road, but it feels utterly secluded, as it is surrounded by sleepy farms and
the 1,100-acre McKinney Roughs nature preserve and set just across the Colorado River.
40 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org
A combination of the resort’s Texasthemed hotel, its lavish spa, an unmatched
lazy-river pool and other environs creates a
world of things to do that recharges one’s
battery. But for the golfers in the brood,
there are plentiful challenges that command
and demand attention and precision.
Here, in these rolling hills and among
stands of tall “lost” pines and along the
banks of the Colorado River is the Wolfdancer Golf Club, a 7,205-yard, par-72 gem
designed by Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and
Associates.
The track, which opened in June 2006,
makes the most of the region’s terrain and
natural beauty and occupies about 150 acres
of the sprawling 405-acre Hyatt Regency
Lost Pines Resort, located about halfway
between the Austin airport and the town of
Bastrop.
At Wolfdancer there are plenty of pines
but there are even more ancient oaks, cedar
elms and pecans. The trees impact your play,
but not so much as you feel you’ll need an
axe for your 14th club, as the sparse grouping – some of it naturally occurring, some
the result of skilled selective-clearing – acts
to keep you out of trouble instead of being
punitive.
On many golf courses, an architect is
lucky to have two desirable golf environments in which to create distinct golf holes.
At the Wolfdancer, Hills and Forrest had
three: high prairie, forested ridgeline and a
sparsely wooded floodplain along the river
bank.
Most of the fairways at Wolfdancer are
fairly wide and the approach shots can be
challenging. There are lots of randomly scattered steep faced bunkers just waiting for
your ball, and No. 8 sports the 15-foot deep
“Big Mouth” that guards the fairway. The
greens are large and undulating and kept
quick but fair and in very good condition.
No. 12 at Wolfdancer is one of the prettiest and perhaps most challenging holes in
Texas. The 155-yard, drop-shot par-3 featured a green that seems to cling to the side
of a mountain and looks like a tabletop from
the tee box, which sits atop a ridge with a
180-degree view looking down on the remainder of the course, the Colorado River,
the entire resort area and far into the distant
horizon. Be sure and bring your camera with
you on the way up the steps.
But things change when you leave the
12th green and head down to the river valley
below. The final six holes run back and forth
in the flatlands that line the Colorado and
cut through the old, broad-canopied oak, cedar and pecan trees.
Wolfdancer offers golfers five sets of tees
to fit the round to their game, and the tips
are rated at 76.1 and sloped at 137. The track
has been lauded as the No. 6 on the Best
Courses You Can Play” in Texas and is No.
56 “Top 100 Resort Golf Courses,” both by
Golfweek magazine.
Away from Wolfdancer, relaxation is
the modus operandi at the Hyatt Lost
Pines Resort. The experience is highlighted by Spa D’jango, the resort’s full-service
20,000-square-foot spa and eight separate
dining opportunities.
Recreational amenities include a water
park with multiple pools, including a 1,100foot flowing river pool and water slide;
Camp Hyatt children’s program, bike riding,
equestrian program, kayaking, rafting and
fly-fishing on the Colorado River, as well as
more than 16 miles of hiking trails. The resort also offers more than 60,000 square feet
of indoor function space and 230,000 square
feet of outdoor function venues.
Horseshoe Bay Resort
No place is better for a set of challenges
on the links than the venerable – but always
Waterfall guards the sixth at Wolfdancer.
fresh – Horseshoe Bay Resort, established
in 1971 on the south shores of Lake LBJ in
the heart of the Texas Hill Country near the
small town of Marble Falls.
The years have been kind to Horseshoe
Bay and especially the resort’s three championship Robert Trent Jones golf courses.
Horseshoe Bay Resort is home to the largest
golf complex personally designed by Jones,
whose hand has influenced the shape of 10
former U.S. Open venues.
You’ll need all your skills to master Horseshoe Bay’s visually challenging offerings,
many of which look harder off the tee than
they really are.
The resort’s Slick Rock course, which sits
south and east of the other two golf courses
and was the first built, opened for play in
1972. It embodies the Jones philosophy of
“hard par, easy bogey,” carrying a rating
of 72.8 and a slope of 138. The front-nine
is routed through colorful outcroppings of
granite and a magnificent mixture of native
oak, cedar, persimmon and pine trees, while
the back-nine is open and gently rolling.
Slick Rock’s most famous hole is the 14th,
called “The Million Dollar Hole,” which
was added to the course in 1990. The hole,
a slightly uphill dogleg-right 361-yard par-4,
sports a winding cart path that takes golf-
ers on a ride through a waterfall that spans
more than 35 yards and dumps more than
8,000 gallons of water into Slick Rock creek
each minute. Don’t worry, you won’t get
wet as long as you stay in your cart.
Slick Rock is considered the easiest and
most forgiving of the Horseshoe Bay’s trio
of courses and was chosen as one of the six
best inland resort golf courses in the book
“America’s Greatest Golfing Resorts.”
If Slick Rock is the sheep of the three
courses at Horseshoe Bay, then Ram Rock
is the mountain lion. The course, which
opened in 1981, has earned respect for its
toughness and as one of the stoutest tests
of championship golf in the United States;
Ram Rock has been named the hardest 18hole layout in the state of Texas and singled
out as one of the nation’s outstanding golf
courses by various publications and golf
journals.
With narrow fairways, natural streams,
plenty of water and sand, rock gardens,
granite outcroppings, blind tee shots and all
manners of trees, bushes and plants, Jones
held nothing back to challenge golfers on
Ram Rock. This is a roller-coaster ride of a
course – you are constantly going up and
down and from side to side – and sometimes
just survival of the 18 holes seems like an
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THE ULTIMATE
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www.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 43
challenges is Apple Rock, which
was named “Best New Resort
Course in America” by Golf
Digest when it opened in 1985.
The par-72, 6,999-yard track is
situated in high, rocky terrain
with magnificent views of Lake
LBJ. Using some of Horseshoe
Bay’s most elevated and scenic
land, Jones employed the natuThe 10th hole at Apple Rock at Horseshoe Bay.
ral ebb and flow of the landscape along the hills and draws of the edge
accomplishment.
Ram Rock, a par-71 layout playing to of the lake, framing his holes with native
6,626 from its back set of four tees, sports oak, elm and persimmon trees.
Horseshoe Bay Resort also offers golfers
a rating of 74.5 and a slope of 140, features
more than 60 bunkers lining fairways and an 18-hole, par-72 putting course (Whitegreens with water coming into play on 10 water) designed like a regulation 18-hole
holes. One of the most noted holes – al- golf course, complete with fairways, bunthough every hole seems to possess its own kers, water hazards and the finest of putting
type of challenge – is Ram Rock’s treacher- surfaces, just on a smaller (1,712-yard) scale.
ous island green par-3 fourth hole, where Every shot is played with a putter, but unyou must accept the challenge of a 191-yard like a practice green, Whitewater is a fully
carry to the middle of the green after ze- landscaped competitive course.
The 7,000 acre-luxury resort is the perroing in on a shallow putting surface surfect place to play, relax, meet or entertain,
rounded by water and sand.
Ram Rock is not for the faint of heart. It as its luxurious accommodations include
may be the beast in Horseshoe Bay’s beau- the 385-room Horseshoe Bay Resort hotel
ties, but just take your medicine and learn that boasts 117 suites, the adjacent and recently renovated Paseo villas and 50 luxury
to live with it.
A combination of the two other courses’ lakefront condominiums available for rent
44 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org
at The Waters at Horseshoe Bay Resort.
Visitors can rejuvenate in the full-service
spa offering a wide variety of body treatments, massage therapy, facials and nail
and salon services or make a splash in four
sparkling swimming pools and play on
constant-level Lake LBJ with personal watercraft and boat rentals at the marina.
Horseshoe Bay Resort also offers seven
dining facilities, 16 adult tennis courts, three
USTA-sponsored Andy Roddick Kids’ Tennis Courts and two fitness facilities, plus a
private airport and jet center with a 6,000foot runway.
The “wow” factor at Horseshoe Bay is
matched only up its luxury and the professionalism of its award-winning staff. There
is something for everyone here. The Horseshoe Bay Resort is a real load of fun, no
matter your specific tastes or the shape of
your golf game.
For golfers, the appeal of the city and
the region is obvious; the skies are clear
about 300 days a year and one can hit the
links in all seasons. In fact, Golf Magazine
(through its web portal, Golf.com) named
Austin as America’s top city for golf in
2008 and the courses that publication
loved so much are even better now than
they were then.