Texas Outside review of Tierra Verde Golf Course

Date Played: August 13, 2006
Front Nine Rating: 6.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 8.0 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $28.00 to $61.00
Where To Get Coupons: Website, Golf Now, GolfQ

Brief Description:
Tierra Verde Golf Club is owned by the City of Arlington, but it isn't your typical muni course. The clubhouse, bar, pro shop, and course seem new and are in very good condition and well maintained. The front nine lacks character and has no real memorable holes from our perspective. The front nine of Tierra Verde is a very good track, but based on the way we rate courses, it scores lower than most people would rate it. In 2005 Avid Golfer rated this #6 of the Best City Owned Courses. The front nine is also relatively trouble free so you should score well on this nine -- on most of the holes you can see the flag and there are no hidden hazards. The back nine of Tierra Verde is outstanding! It has plenty of variety, seemed to be in much better condition, and had some very pretty, fun, and challenging holes. There were blind shots, dogs, water, and natural hazards. Club selection and course management are important if you want to score well on this nine. All of the bunkers were in good condition with very soft sand. The greens were in excellent condition, big, undulating, fast, and challenging -- make sure you study the putt from all angles to read it correctly. This is a very fun nine and makes up for the lack of variety on the front nine. You should buy a course map in the club house if this is your first time at Tierra Verde -- the scorecard and tee boxes don't have a map of each hole and there are no 150 yard poles to help you read the course. Enjoy! The head pro at Tierra Verde, Scott McClinton, sent me the following comments after reading our review of the font nine and we don't disagree with his comments: "you open with a short, pretty easy par four. You follow that up with a very difficult par 5 that rises up a scenic hill to one of our most recognizable features, the windmill. Number 4 is a short but very strategic par 4 with very attractive fairway bunkering. Number 6 is one of our most difficult par 3's as it plays predominantly into a strong south wind. Number 8 is a reachable par 5 that could yield a good score if you hit two good shots, but it could also yield a high score if you happen to get caught in one of the bunkers. Number 9, I think, is the toughest par 4 on the course. When we have competitive events such as the USGA Amateur qualifying this year, statistically, the front nine yields a higher scoring average."

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.