Texas Outside review of Garden Valley Golf Resort Dogwood Course

Garden Valley Golf Resort Dogwood Course

Texas Outside Rating: 8.6

18 Holes - Golf - Public
Lindale, TX
903 882-6107
Website
Stay & Play

Date Played: February 02, 2008
Front Nine Rating: 7.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 9.0 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $45.00 to $65.00
Where To Get Coupons: E- mail newsletter

Brief Description:
For 2006 Texas Golfer Magazine selected Garden Valley as the number 1 golf course in the "Top Mid Range ($50 to $75) Public Courses" and the 2007 Dallas Morning News ranked them number 8 in Texas in the "Top High Priced Courses." Garden Valley is well deserving of these accolades and it is an outstanding course. The course is very scenic with towering pine trees lining the fairways, blooming azaleas and dogwoods, sparkling lakes, and rolling hills - all of which is why Garden Vally has been dubbed the "Augusta National of Texas."

The course offers lots of variety, is in excellent condition, and it's a lot of fun to play. Garden Valley is clearly a Texas Outside Favorite and offers a number of challenges that demand good club selection and course management. Most likely, you'll find your ball under the 100 foot pines and pine needles that line the fairway, be surprised by some of the blind shots and dog legs, need to blast your way out of the strategically placed bunkers with soft sand, and watch your ball go for swim in the sparkling water of the lakes and ponds.

Each time we played Garden Valley, the fairways were in excellent shape and the greens were fast and in near perfect condition. The greens are average size with minor slope and undulation. They aren't that difficult to read and most have a least one bunker protecting them.

Garden Valley offers a variety of Stay and Play packages with accommodations that include A-frame cabins, condos, lake house, a four bedroom house, and lakeside cabins next to the clubhouse. Click on the "Stay & Play" link at the top of the page to read more about their Stay & Play package. You need to add this excellent course to list of "must play courses".

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.