Texas Outside golf course review of Grey Rock Golf Club in Austin

Date Played: January 07, 2007
Front Nine Rating: 7.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 8.5 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $40.00 to $90.00
Brief Description:

Grey Rock Golf Club, previously known as Circle C is an outstanding course about 15 minutes from downtown Austin. It is well deserving of the following accalades: "Best Places to Play" (2004) by Golf Digest and "Top Public Golf Courses in Texas" (2001) from Texas Golfer Magazine. We found the course to be in excellent condition and very scenic with some challenging holes that require thought and good club selection. The fairways are mostly flat to gently rolling, fairly open, and have lots of berms and stunning live oak trees. Water comes into play on 5 holes and there are plenty of dog legs to make each hole a little different and fun.

The greens are midsized with a fair amount of undulation, in great condition, pretty fast, and demand some study before putting. The sand in the traps was excellent and most of the traps were deep and steep faced and strategically placed just waiting for you. Try to avoid them unless you have a Pina Colada, sun glasses, and an umbrella.

The club house, pro shop, and food are outstanding. Avid Golfer gave Grey Rock an award for "Best Burger". We really liked the brisket quesadilla with mushrooms, onions, and raspberry chipotle sauce. Equally important, the service at Grey Rock was excellent - the young lady behind the counter was friendly, the starter was helpful, the restaurant help was efficient, and the cart lady always seemed to be there when she was needed (which is not true for the large majority of golf courses). In addition to the food, you will really enjoy playing this great course.

Here's How Texas Outside Determines the Scorecard Rating

The Texas Outside rating scale ranges from 1 to 10 – a perfect 10 course would be something like this: links along a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean and bordered by tall trees; lush fairways on rolling hills with lots of natural hazards; water (which is crystal clear) on most of the holes; immaculate greens (but they are undulating and tough); lots of variety and character (each hole is completely different and includes blind shots, elevation changes, doglegs, and significant challenges); perfectly manicured traps with the whitest and prettiest sand you’ve ever seen; a nice club house with great food and a 19th hole; a GPS; plenty of beverage carts or your own cooler and ice; and it only costs $40 bucks! What this means is that you probably won’t find any 10s in Texas – try Cabo San Lucas, Pebble Beach, or some of the Hawaii courses!
Texas Outside rates courses on the following:

Beauty – tall trees, rolling hills, beautiful houses, waterfalls, and similar stuff would score high; a 1 would be flat, bushes or cactus instead of trees, and some grass but mostly weeds

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 traps or that dreaded tree right in the middle of the fairway, we are talking a 10.

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 or dodging other people’s balls, but not much fun; and you can 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 “now that was fun” and you can’t wait to get back, or you immediately turn around and play another 18 holes

Value – a 5 is $50 to $60, a 10 is $20 to $30, 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 municipal course, with six players on each hole was only $10; it would still get a value rating of 1.

Condition – this one’s pretty easy – what condition are the fairways. A 10 commands very lush perfectly manicured fairways, compared to a 1, which has fire ants, weeds, and more dirt than grass!

Condition of Greens and Difficulty – very hard to read greens with lots of undulation and tough pin placement, rate very high on the difficulty scale. Condition is self-explanatory.

All of the above determines the overall score for the golf course. In other words, we like courses that are pretty, fun, very challenging with a lot of variety, and fairways and greens in excellent condition – all for $40. We also tend to play the courses that are affordable for the masses, which means in the $30 to $80 range. We rate hard and we haven’t found a 10 in Texas yet – don’t worry we haven’t given up and we’re still looking.