Review of Turtle Hill Golf Club

Turtle Hill Golf Club
Texas Outside Rating: 7.2
18 Holes - Golf - Public
Muenster
(940) 759-4896
Website
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Online Tee Times

Date Played: June 08, 2008
Front Nine Rating: 7.7 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 8.5 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $28.00 to $37.00
Where To Get Coupons: Their website

Brief Description: Turtle Hill Golf Club is a little out of the way, but if you're looking for a fun and inexpensive round of golf and some excellent German food, then head to Muenster and play "The Turtle". The Dallas Morning News named Turtle Hill "a diamond in the rough" in 1998 and #18 in the State's "Most Economical Courses" in 2008.

The front nine is fairly traditional with a couple fun holes and a couple that will challenge you - so you should score well on this nine. You'll find one par three with an elevated tee box, a few holes that require some course management, and some straight traditional easy holes where what you see is what you get.

The back nine is really fun and offers lots of variety including dog legs, blind shots, up and down holes, narrow approach shots, and elevated tee boxes. #13 is one of the best par threes in Texas and similar to #4 with a dramatic elevated tee box, well protected green, and panoramic views of the rolling hills and into Oklahoma - save your mulligan and an extra ball for this hole. On some holes you need to study the hole before you tee off because you may want to leave the driver in the bag.

Turtle Hill is a fun and inexpensive round of golf, so take the time to play it. It is also next to a new wind farm - a unique sight to see.

Texas Outside Scorecard for Turtle Hill Golf Club
Beauty:
Difficulty:
Variety:
Fun Scale:
Value:
Condition:

Other Good Information:

Beware of water on 6 holes and the 19 sand traps.
The club house is small and dated with limited food and gear. The staff is friendly and down home.
Condition of the greens is 8.0 and the green difficulty is 7.0 out of 10.
Walkable: hard
GPS: No

Course Yardage, Slope, and Rating:

Tee Box	Yardage	Rating	Slope	Par
Blue	6,510	71.2	127	72
White	6,078	69.4	121	72
Red	4,821	68.9	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.