Bonham Lake Golf Course Review

Texas Outside Rating: 4.8

Golf - Public Course · 9 Holes · Par 72
Bonham
Website · Locate This Course

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Bonham Lake Golf Course Review

Bonham Lake Golf Course is located within the Bonham Lake Recreation and Camping Area and is prairie golf at its best. There are no real tee boxes (wherever you find a bench is the tee box), no fairways (it's all open field), no carts, and no traps or water hazards! The greens are about 90 to 150 yards from the tee bench and straight in front of you. The greens are in surprisingly good condition, very small, and turtle top - meaning if you can't stick the shot on your chip or your put is a little long, you'll roll off the green and onto the prairie.

This is a great nine holes for you to help the spouse or kids with their game and not worry about holding up other golfers, loosing a lot of balls, or breaking some windows - you may find a ball will bounce into a campsite, but that's ok! The kids will love it. If you're camping at the park, you might as well walk the 100 yards to the first tee box, pay your $6, and practice your short game. One local, an 80 year old man with his own cart, plays the course every day, has a pretty good game, and may request that you let him by.

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope

Course Information

Greens Condition
4.0
Greens Difficulty
7.0
GPS:
No
Walkable:
Very
Beware of water on 0 holes and the 0 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
4.8 out of 10
Beauty:
6.0
Difficulty:
4.0
Variety:
3.0
Fun to Play:
6.0
Value:
6.0
Condition:
4.0
Front Nine Rating:
4.5
Back Nine Rating:

FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $6.00 to $6.00

Service - don't expect a cart lady, ball washers, a marshall, or a pro shop - but you can find the very friendly park manager who is really trying his best to keep the course in good shape in the gray house. Make sure you pay before you play!

 

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.