Best Private Golf Courses In Texas

Throughout the great State of Texas you will find some fantastic private golf courses. Below is a list of the best Texas private courses that we have played in Dallas, Houston, the Hill Country, Austin, and other parts of Texas. If you are looking for a private membership based golf club, these are some of the best in Texas. We have also included the Best Private Courses in Texas according to other sources like Avid Golfer, Golf Digest, and others. You should also check out our Golf Communities Page and our Featured Texas Golf Communities, both of which have a list of some outstanding private Texas Golf Course Communities

It's not fair to consider public, private, and resort courses in one category, as such, we rated each one separately and here is a link to the Best Public Courses in Texas and Best Resort Courses in Texas.

Texas Outside's Top Rated Private Golf Courses In Texas

 

Golf Digest Recognizes --Best Private & Public Golf Courses in Texas - 2009/2010

Course	City		Course	City
Dallas National Golf Club *	Dallas		The Hills C.C.-Flintrock Falls	Austin
Spanish Oaks Golf Club	Austin		River Oaks Country Club	Houston
Champions Golf Club	Houston		The Tribute Golf Club + *	The Colony
Whispering Pines Golf Club	Trinity		Pecan Valley Golf Club +	San Antonio
Colonial Country Club	Fort Worth		The Rowls Cse +	Lubbock
Briggs Ranch Golf Club	San Antonio		Boot Ranch Golf Club	Fredericksburg
The Club at Carlton Woods (Nicklaus)	The Woodlands		Brook Hollow Golf Club	Dallas
The Club at Carlton Woods (Fazio)	The Woodlands		Escondido Golf Club	Horseshoe Bay
Miramon Country Club	Bryan		The Clubs of Cordilera Ranch	Boerne
Barton Creek Resort & Country Club	Austin		Lochinvar Golf Club	Houston
Walden on Lake Conroe Golf Club	Montgomery		Texarkana Golf Ranch +	Texarkana
The Vaquero Club	Westlake		Horeshoe Bay Resort (Ram Rock) +	Austin
Cimarron Hill Country Club	Georgetown		La Cantera Golf Club (Palmer) +	San Antonio
River Oaks Country Club	Houston		Austin Country Club	Austin
TPC Craig Ranch	McKinney		Traditions Club at Texas A&M	Bryan

* 100 Greatest Golf Courses /+ Open to the Public

 

Avid Golfer 2010 - Best Dallas Private Country Clubs

Best Overall Country Club - The Vaquero Club

Best Overall Golf Club - The Dallas National Golf Club

 

Avid Golfer 2010 - Best Houston Private Clubs Best Overall Country Club - The Club at Carlton Woods Best Overall Golf Club - Whispering Pines Golf Club First Class Category (Initiation over $50,000-$99,000) Elite Category (Initiation $20,001-$49,000) Mid-Priced (Initiation $10,001-$20,000) Best Private Club -Over $100,000 Miramont Country Club Houstonian Golf Club The Clubs at Kingwood River Oaks Country Club Royal Oaks Country Club Champions Golf Club Bay Oaks Country Club Shadow Hawk Golf Club Lochinvar Golf Club Bentwater Yacht & Country Club Walden on Lake Conroe Houston Country Club Lakeside Country Club Woodlands Country Club Deerwood Golf Club     Redston Golf Club Northgate Country Club     Best Golf Experience Best Family Club   Whispering Pines Golf Club The Clubs at Kingwood The Club at Carlton Woods - Nicklaus Course The Woodlands Country Club Champions Golf Club - Cypress Course Northgate Country Club Shadow Hawk Golf Club Sweetwater Country Club Bentwater - Grand Pines Course Hearthstone Country Club Best Private Golf Courses in The Houston Area 1. Whispering Pines Golf Club 11. Lochinvar Golf Club 2. The Club at Carlton Woods-Nicklaus Course 12. Bentwater Yacht & Country Club-Grand Pines Course 3. Champions Golf Club-Cypress Course 13. Champions Golf Club-Jack Rabbit 4. Miramont Country Club 14. Houston Country Club 5. The Club at Carlton Woods-Fazio Creekside Course 15. Deerwood Golf Club 6. River Oaks Country Club 16. Traditions Club at Texas A&M 7. Shadow Hawk Golf Club 17. Royal Oaks Country Club 8. Walden on Lake Conroe 18. Woodlands Country Club-Tournament Course 9. Houstonian Golf & Country Club 19. Bentwater Yacht & Country Club-Miller Course 10. Redstone Golf Club-Members Course 20.Lakeside Country Club   Dallas Morning News Best Private Golf Courses in The Dallas Area Dallas National Dallas Colonial Country Club Fort Worth Brook Hollow Golf Club Dallas Vaquero Westlake Preston Trail Golf Club Dallas TPC At Craig Ranch McKinney Northwood Club Dallas Royal Oaks Country Club Dallas Shady Oaks Country Club Fort Worth Gentle Creek Prosper   Avid Golfer 2007 Best Hill Country Private Golf Courses Barton Creek - Fazio Foothills Cimarron Hills Spanish Oaks The Hills CC - Hills Course Barton Creek - Fazio Canyons UT Golf Club At Steiner Ranch Austin Country Club The Hills CC - Flintrock Hills Escondito Horseshoe Bay - Ram Rock

How Texas Outside Rates Texas Golf Courses

Below is our list of criteria that we use to rate a golf course:

• Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be a flat course with dead bushes instead of trees, power plants instead of multi million dollar homes, and some grass but mostly weeds. The pictures on this page are from courses that score high on the beauty scale.
• Difficulty – a straight, 300 yard par 4 with no traps or hazards, no out of bounds or water would probably get a 1; if it is a 460 yard par 4 over two ravines, with water along one side, natural hazards on the other, strategically placed bunkers, plus that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway protecting your approach to a elevated well protected small green, we are talking a 10. This is a tough one because the harder they are, the more we like and as such rate them higher. This may be contrary to how you like to play.
• Variety – what would you give a course where all the holes looked and played exactly the same (“I thought we just played that hole!”); were side-by-side, which is good for finding other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you could see the flag from every tee box? That’s right, it gets a 1.
• Fun Scale – a 10 is where you walk off the course and say “wow, now that was a great track and a lot of fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes. We try to factor out how we played and our score - both of which can significantly impact how much fun you had on the course.
• Value – a 7 might $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $40, and 1 is $200 or so – of course all of this is dependent upon how you liked the course. For example, if a run down, boring flat course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1. A courses that scores 9s and 10s on all the other categories, but costs $150 would most likely get a 7 to 9 on the value scale.
• Overall Course Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways, roughs, bunkers, and greens. A 10 means very lush perfectly manicured fairways, soft fluffy sand in the bunkers, roughs that aren't dirt or rocks, and fantastic greens. Compared to a rating of 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!

We also rate the green condition independently of the six above criteria that form the course rating. Very hard to read greens with lots of undulation, slope, and spine rate very high on the difficulty scale. Condition is self-explanatory.

At some courses each nine differs in a number of ways and we’ve found courses where the front nine is ugly and boring, but the back nine was fantastic – as such, we have provided an individual rating for each nine holes which does considers all of the above rating criteria but excludes value.