In my time as a denizen of the greatest town in the South, I was afforded the opportunity to play at a number of fine Houston area golf courses. Here are some rankings of a few courses which come to mind. Please feel free to leave comments and offer up your thoughts as well!
(8) Bear Creek Presidents Course. I always kind of liked this track. No frills golf as they might say across the pond. What you see is what you get -- flat fairways, flat greens, the occasional miscreant sneeking out onto the course near the "camp grounds" and snatching your ball.
(7) Bear Creek Masters Course. If one ventures on over to Bear Creek's website, the first sentence declares "The best thing about Bear Creek is that it opened." I'm not sure I'd go that far. I've long felt that the Masters Course -- once described as a "unique experience" by the prole manning the cash register in that sorry compound they call a clubhouse -- is perhaps the most overrated of all courses in these United States, except for maybe the University of Meatchicken golf course, because Michigan sucks. I did drain a 60 footer on the 18th hole my senior year for St. John's to claim the SPC championship, so I can't totally bash on the place. All I really can remember is that I can't remember the course well, save for the little par 3 running parallel to highway 6.
(6) Herman Park. Fore in the monkey house. Chocolate Hills. Playing at Herman Park really brings you back to another era. Domed greens. Cement in the fairways. The little train going around with little boys and girls there to see the animals at the zoo. Fun times.
(5) Jersey Village. I especially liked the Blue Course at Jersey Village, which opened with a 400 yard par 5. That might be the only par 5 in Houston that I can consistently reach from anything beyond the ladies tees. Always in pretty decent shape, and some interesting holes.
(4) Pinecrest Golf Club. Also known in some corners as "Gessner Country Club". Once, as I pulled into the fabled white stucco clubhouse at venerable Pinecrest, a mustached gentleman with coaches shorts on told me "Best greens in the city". Not sure I would go that far, but I do suspect that Pinecrest leads the city in consumption of Natural Light and imitation Marlboros. I shot a fabled 69 there once, and it's Stark's home track, so you gotta give it some respect.
(3) Westwood Country Club. Once the playing grounds for those demographic groups shunned by the city's elite clubs, Westwood is now open to all -- they even let Danny and Richard Nystrom in. A fine track, really. I particularly liked the second and third holes, and also enjoyed the short-ish par four near the end of the front nine (maybe it's 9 or 8) that I once could almost drive when I still had some flexibility in me.
(2) Lakeside Country Club. Upon returning from the recording break Masters Tournament in 1997, I proudly declared "Lakeside is a better course." After the renovations a couple of years ago I'm even more inclined to think so. Aside from the first hole, which is one of the worst opening holes in the history of golf, Lakeside has 17 lovely holes set in bucolic rolling terrain. The fourth hole, with its psuedo island green, is routinely voted as one of the prettiest holes in the Americas. The fourth hole is also home of Dos's famed hole in one -- the shot heard round Memorial -- from a year and a half ago. The 18th is a reachable par five (if you can hit your tee ball further than 230), and was sight of Dos's triumphant victory over Ryan a couple of weeks back.
(1) Lochinvar Golf Club. One has the feeling of being on a first date with a real hottie as one pulls up to the non-descript guard post and, with butterflies in one's stomach, calls the club house. "Lochinvar Golf Club, this is Randy" booms the voice from the other end. After one announces one's familial relationship with the President and CEO of Genesis Energy, the gate opens and one drives down a road not dissimilar from Magnolia Lane. I once read in a golf magazie about Lochinvar that it "looks like Augusta." Well, maybe, except for the fact that there is maybe six inches of elevation change throughout the course. My favorite hole is #3, and I once fired a 68 on these hallowed golfing grounds.
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