Review of Tenison Park -- Highlands Course

Tenison Park -- Highlands Course
Texas Outside Rating: 7.8
18 Holes - Golf - Public
Dallas
214-670-1402
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Date Played: January 24, 2010
Front Nine Rating: 7.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 8.0 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $42.00 to $56.00
Brief Description: Tenison Park has 36 holes and is notorious for all the Lee Trevino stories from his days of growing up playing at Tenison. The Glen course is the older of the two courses and has been playing over and around White Rock Creek Since 1924. The Highlands is the flagship of Tenison Park and is more scenic and fun to play after a 2000 redesign by D. A. Weibring.

In 2006 the Dallas Morning News rated Tenison Highlands as #3 in their Top 25 Best Daily Fee Courses. Overall, Tenison Highlands is an excellent course, in very good condition, with undulating greens, rolling hills, and a fair amount of variety. The fairways are forgiving and on most holes you can see what you're up against, so if you pick the right set of tee boxes you should have a fun and enjoyable round of golf.

The fairways are typically in above average condition and the greens have always been in very good condition when we've played. The greens are ample size with both slope and undulation - we didn't find putting to be a challenge. The bunkers have soft white sand that may made you want to set up your lawn chair, pop a cold one, and pretend you're at the beach.

The front nine isn't as much fun as the back but it does have a couple great holes - for example, #1 is an uphill shot and then a blind downhiller to the green and #3 has a great view and looks tough with the lake and creek encroaching into the fairway making your second shot challenging as you head to the smallest green on the course.

We really like the back nine - more variety, a little more challenging, and some great holes. In particular, the last three holes (two of them to an uphill green) and specifically #18 are great. Overall, Tenison Highlands is a great course and pretty good value - add it to you list of must plays.

Texas Outside Scorecard for Tenison Park -- Highlands Course
Beauty:
Difficulty:
Variety:
Fun Scale:
Value:
Condition:

Other Good Information:

Designer/Architect: D. A. Weibring redesign
Beware of water on 8 holes and the 24 sand traps.
Service is ok, the putting greens are a good place to spend some time, and the range is good.
Condition of the greens is 8.6 and the green difficulty is 7.0 out of 10.
Type of Greens: Tif Eagle
Walkable: Yes
GPS: No

Course Yardage, Slope, and Rating:

Tee Box	Yardage	Rating	Slope	Par
Black	7,078	73.9	129	72
Gold	6,610	71.6	124	72
Blue	6,242	70.2	121	72
White	5,930	68.2	119	72
Red	4,883	68.3	114	72

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.