Texas Outside review of Tour 18

Tour 18

Texas Outside Rating: 8.5

18 Holes - Golf - Public
Flower Mound
1-800-946-5310
Website
Stay & Play

Date Played: July 23, 2006
Front Nine Rating: 9.0 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 7.5 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $35.00 to $75.00
Where To Get Coupons: GolfQ.com

Brief Description:
In 2006 Avid Golfer rated Tour 18 as #3 in their Top 5 Luxury Courses and #4 in their Top 10 Best Dallas Fort Worth Courses. And we can see why, wow, this is an outstanding course and one that you will really enjoy! If you watch golf on TV, as you play the course it will seem familiar to you because each hole is a simulated hole from some of the greatest golf courses in America (i.e., Sawgrass in Florida, Pine Valley in New Jersey, Augusta National in Georgia). We recommend you get a pamphlet at the clubhouse that explains each hole and provides some tournament history for that hole (i.e., Arnold Palmer dubbed this hole The Monster", Ray Floyd describes this hole as the toughest par 4 in the world). There are some very interesting, challenging, and fun holes to play -- for example, a par 3 surrounded by water or a green with a sand trap in the middle. The front nine is relatively open with minor elevation changes and doglegs, however good club selection and course management are still key to scoring well on this nine. The bunkers are strategically placed and seem to attract of lot of your shots. We found the back nine to be much prettier, more challenging, and a lot more fun than the front. Huge and very beautiful houses, each with a different architecture, greet you as you drive to the course and they line a lot of the holes -- it's worth the price to play Tour 18 just to admire some of the magnificent houses. We last played Tour 18 during the drought of 2006 and the condition of the fairways and greens were not the best (as you can tell from the pictures) because they could not pump water from Lake Grapevine due to the water level being below the pump. They have fixed this problem and drilled two new wells so Tour 18 should be back to its normal condition which we rated a 9 on our previous visit.

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.