 The Honors Golf Club Dallas
Texas Outside Rating: 8.5
18 Holes - Golf - Private
Carrollton
972-416-2131
Website
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Date Played: December 21, 2009
Front Nine Rating: 8.5 Stars
Back Nine Rating: 9.0 Stars
Initiation Fees: $10,001 to $25,000
Monthly Dues: $401 to $600
Brief Description:
The Honors Golf Club was founded in 1881 as the Phoenix Club and as such it is one of Dallas's oldest golf clubs. The first nine holes were not built until 1954 and a 60,000 square foot clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pool, and the back nine were all built within the following year. D. A. Weibring redesigned the course in 1999 and part of the redesign included new bent grass greens and tiff-sport Bermuda. A stunning new 25,000 square foot club house is in the planning stage. A creek meanders throughout the course creating ponds, water hazards, and the largest privately held lake in Dallas County - all of which adds character and beauty to the course with colorful landscaping, natural areas, water falls, and fountains. The fantastic scenery, excellent conditions, first class service, and fun layout are just some of the reasons we liked the course. The Honors was also named as one of the "Top Ten Private Courses in DFW" and ranked #33 on the list of "Best Golf Courses in the State of Texas" by the Dallas Morning News. With 5 sets of tee boxes and yardages ranging from 5152 to 7042 yards you can find a tee box that will challenge you or provide a fun and relaxing round where you can score well. We didn't think that the course was as tough as the rating of 117 to 132. The fairways can be a little tight and trees and waters will come into play if you spray the ball. In most cases you can see what you're up against and take full advantage of your driver. If you're not putting well, you'll find the greens tough.As you can tell by the pictures, we played in December when the course was dormant, but it was in perfect condition from the tee boxes all the way to the cup. In summer I would image it is very lush, soft, and pretty. The greens were also in perfect condition, fast but true, held well, and were about average size with a fair amount of slope and some undulation. The bunkers have soft fluffy sand.You'll find a little bit of everything at The Honors Golf Club that makes golf both fun and challenging - water hazards, creeks, rolling fairways, beautiful scenery, and dog legs plus elevated greens and tee boxes. #16 for example is a great hole - a 569 yard par 5 that requires a good drive from an elevated tee box to a narrow tree lined fairway that dog legs right to a green protected by a lake on the left. And #18 is a fun one which offers a great risk reward shot from the back tees as you try to shorten the dog left fairway the winds around the lake to a very well protected green.Both nines are fun, but the back is tighter, more challenging, and more scenic and has some of the best holes on the course. On #7 make sure you stop at the snack building for free hot chocolate, cappacino, a soda fountain, peanuts, and trail mix - the hot chocolate really hit the spot on a cold windy December day. Bottom line - The Honors Golf Club has excellent conditions on an above average layout, and is a course where you can have a relaxing and enjoyable round and score well.
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Other Good Information:
Designer/Architect: D. A. Weibring redesign
Beware of water on 6 holes
and the 40 sand traps.
Service is great, the practice facility is excellent, and the new clubhouse will be fantastic.
Condition of the greens is 10.0 and the green difficulty is 8.0 out of 10.
Type of Greens: Bent Grass
Walkable: Yes
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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