Review of La Cantera -- Palmer Course

La Cantera -- Palmer Course
Texas Outside Rating: 9.3
18 Holes - Golf - Resort Public
San Antonio
210-558-2365
Website
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Online Tee Times Stay & Play

Date Played: December 29, 2009
Front Nine Rating: 9.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 10.0 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $50.00 to $125.00
Where To Get Coupons: GolfQ.com

Brief Description:

La Cantera's Palmer Course is clearly one of the best courses in Texas - very scenic, fun to play, excellent condition, lots or variety, and somewhat challenging. They don't get much better than the Palmer Course which is evidenced by all the awards that both La Cantera courses have won - from Best Resort Course (GOLFWEEK, 2007), Top 100 Golf Resorts (Conde Nast Traveler, 2007), to 75 Best Golf Resorts in North America (Golf Digest, 2006).

The Palmer Course is sculptured out of and plays on-top of some of the highest rolling hills just north of San Antonio. As you play along the ridge-line on the back nine you have magnificent panoramic views of the countryside, San Antonio, and the Resort and it's very hard to focus on golf and chasing the ball when you have such fantastic scenery. Natural streams, dramatic waterfalls, magnificent live oak trees, and limestone rock outcroppings further enhance the beauty of the Palmer Course. In addition to the natural beauty, the course is in excellent condition, very well manicured, and landscaped with lots of colorful plants.

The back nine has got to be one of the best nines in Texas. As it plays up and the down and along the ridge line you'll find dramatic elevation changes, uphill and downhill greens, deep valleys that will devour your balls, blind shots, forced carries, strategically placed soft sand bunkers, and lots more that makes golf both fun and challenging. #10 sets the stage for this nine with an uphill blind shot to dog leg right fairway that runs along the edge of a deep valley to the green protected by a limestone wall on the left, bunkers, and the cliff on the left. And #18 is a perfect hole to end a fantastic nine - it's an up hill blind shot (a perfect risk reward opportunity to try and fly the trees and hill to shorten the hole) to a dog leg left down hill green that is well protected with mounding, water, and large bunkers. With five sets of tee boxes, you can find a yard and rating that fits your game. The course is 6926 yards from the tips and fairly wide open from the tee boxes. It's a very fair course and one where you should have a very enjoyable round with a good score. The Palmer course is the harder of the two La Cantera courses (slope of 142 from the tips!) with 4 blind shots, lots of ups and downs, and smaller well protected greens. You'll find a little bit of everything that makes golf fun on the Palmer course - panoramic views, magnificent scenery, blind shots, elevated tee boxes, dramatic downhills shots, ponds, waterfalls, and fantastic conditions. You're going to love the finishing hole - it's one of the prettiest and most dramatic holes in Texas. The 19th hole is outstanding with a deck that overlooks the 9th and 18th greens, ponds, seven cascading waterfalls, and the surrounding hills - a perfect place to reminisce about the round or watch the sun set - you may not want to leave.

When we played in December 2009, the greens were over-seeded and the fairways were dormant, but both were in perfect condition. Unfortunately, hogs had done some damage to the fairways. The TIF Eagle greens seemed a little small, mostly flat with some slope, a tad fast, and were very difficult to read. Make sure you study the GPS and read the excellent GPS tips prior to teeing off if you want to score well.

The Resort and Palmer course are open to the public and with twilight rates, either course is a real bargain and a must play. If you really want a fun and enjoyable weekend, than stay at the resort and play both courses - you'll find outstanding accommodations, fantastic service, excellent amenities, and very good food. Read our review of La Cantera Resort to learn more about staying and playing at La Cantera. Both of the La Cantera Courses should be on your must play list.

Texas Outside Scorecard for La Cantera -- Palmer Course
Beauty:
Difficulty:
Variety:
Fun Scale:
Value:
Condition:

Other Good Information:

Designer/Architect: Arnold Palmer
Beware of water on 5 holes and the 50 sand traps.
Service is very good and the cart lady seemed to always show up when needed. The practice range is excellent and the clubhouse, bar, pro shop, and restaurant are outstanding.
Condition of the greens is 9.0 and the green difficulty is 8.5 out of 10.
Type of Greens: TIF Eagle
Walkable: No
GPS: Yes
Course Map
Scorecard

Course Yardage, Slope, and Rating:

Tee Box	Yardage	Rating	Slope	Par
Black	6,926	74.2	142	72
Gold	6,535	72.4	139	72
Blue	6,115	70.6	134	72
White	5,684	69.3	128	72
Red	5,066	65.3	116	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.