Texas Outside review of Links at Waterchase

Date Played: September 22, 2007
Front Nine Rating: 8.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 8.5 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $44.00 to $69.00
Where To Get Coupons: Their website and GolfQ.com

Brief Description:
Now this is a great course - every hole is different, challenging, and fun to play. Most of the holes are very scenic and the course is in excellent condition.

The Links at Waterchase was designed by Steven Plumer and opened in 2000 to rave reviews and even received a nomination to Golf Digest's Best New Courses. You'll find five par threes and five par fives, tree-lined doglegs, water holes, split fairways, gigantic strategically placed bunkers, tight approaches, and other hazards - bring your A game if you want to score well.

This is one course where club selection and course management are critical - you'll be presented with a number of risk and reward opportunities. You should consider leaving the driver in the bag on a number of holes. To make it a little more challenging the first time you play the course is that there are no pictures of the hole on the hole markers or the score card. The greens and fairways were in excellent condition.

Don't let all of the above mentioned challenges scare you away, there are six tee boxes ranging from 4941 to 7304 yards to choose from to make the course more challenging or somewhat easier, depending on your selection of tee box. The greens are large and undulating and have been in very good condition every time we have played the course. The staff is very friendly and helpful and committed to making sure you have a fun round. Coupons are available on GolfQ.com and on the Links at Waterchase website, making The Links at Waterchase an excellent value. The clubhouse is a temporary trailer with limited food, no bar, and no pro shop.

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.