 River Place Country Club
Texas Outside Rating: 9.2
18 Holes - Golf - Private
Austin
512 346-1114
Website
Date Played: October 26, 2008
Front Nine Rating: 10.0 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 9.0 Stars
Approximate Weekend Price Range: $50.00 to
$85.00
Brief Description:
River Place is a Texas Outside Favorite and an excellent course - it's very beautiful and chiseled into the hills and valley which provides lots of ups and downs, cliffs, ravines, elevation changes, sloping and rolling fairways, and more. It is very scenic with views of the hills, valley, and huge beautiful homes on the hills and valley. The first hole sets you up for what you are going to experience. From an elevated tee box, this 402 yard par 4 dogleg left requires an accurate but blind tee shot to carry the ravine but on the way you need to avoid the hill on the left, miss some real trouble on the right, and make sure a boomer drive doesn't carry you into another ravine. A good tee shot gives you a relatively challenging downhill shot over another ravine and tall oak to a small well protected green. The front nine goes along a creek that cuts across 6 holes which adds to the course difficulty. There is a lot of variety with no two holes the same - lots of dog legs, dramatic elevation changes, and plenty of blind shots. The first time you play River Place be prepared to be surprised and loose some balls. If you can keep the ball in play and have played River Place before will find it much more fun and relaxing. If you have trouble keeping the ball in the fairway, the creeks, ravines, narrow fairways, and blind shots are going to cause you some real trouble - so forget about your score and enjoy the golf course and scenic beauty.Condition seems to vary at River Place - tradionally it seems a little dry and not as lush as it could be. Traps are well placed but not a lot of trouble to avoid. The greens are in very good condition and not that tough - some are two tiered, most are medium size and it can be a little hard to read some of the breaks. The clubhouse has a full menu and a great 19th hole.
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Other Good Information:
Designer/Architect: Tom Kite & Roy Bechtol
Beware of water on 11 holes
and the 61 sand traps.
Service is very good - the pro staff is great, the cart lady shows up on time, and you're met at the parking lot with a cart and returned to your car.
Condition of the greens is 7.0 and the green difficulty is 6.0 out of 10.
The 19th hole is great and the clubhouse food is great.
The pro shop is good
Walkable: No
GPS: No
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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.
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