Canyon Lake Golf Course Review

Texas Outside Rating: 7.0

Golf - Semi Private Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Canyon Lake
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Canyon Lake Golf Course Review

Review of Canyon Lake Golf Club

Canyon Lake Country Club is located in the Central Texas Hill Country and is close to beautiful Canyon Lake. This semi-private course was built in 1980 to take advantage of the rolling countryside, live oak trees, and the views of the emerald green water of Canyon Lake.  Watch out for the deer that are all over the place - watching you drive and try to hit the greens. 

You'll find Canyon Lake to be a relaxing, fun, and affordable round of golf. The course if very fair and offers good variety with some up and down holes, dog legs, and a couple of challenging holes. You'll encounter a good mix of open let-er-rip holes on the front and some tight "leave the driver in the bag' holes on the back. 

The back nine is more fun and demanding from our perspective.  You'll need to manage some elevated tee boxes, uphill approach shots, sharp dog legs, tough approach shots, and some tight tree lined fairways.  For example:

  • #12 is a 498 par 5 with a tight narrow landing zone, than a decision to make to see if you can fly the lake or need to lay up, and an approach to a big sloping green
  • #14 is fun - a short 247 yard uphill dog right shot to the green, offering an excellent risk reward opportunity to try and go for it
  • #15 an big elevated tee shot to a green 191 yards downhill - wind and the elevation change require good club selection
  • #18 is a 508 yard sharp dog leg right that requires an accurate tee shot to avoid the trees, not overrun the fairway and be in shape to see the green with is narrow, oblong, and has water on the right side

When we played in August, the fairways were in poor condition with a mixture of grasses, weeds, ant piles, and bare spots.  The severe drought and record temperatures had taken their toll.  Maintenance was required on several holes and it appeared that a long of the sprinklers were broken.  The rough was indistinguishable from the fairways.   The fairways are mostly tree lined, a few are side by side, and several have slope and elevation changes.  

The majority of the traps are to the front and either side of the green. The sand was soft, thick, and fluffy. 

The Canyon Lake greens range in size from small to about average and most have gentle to severe slope.  Some are raised and guarded by the bunkers.  When we played in August the greens were in below average condition, a little bumpy, and a tad slower (8 or so) than we like.

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Blue 6,037 69.1 123
White 4,830 68.3 119
Gold 6,528 71.6 127
Red 4,726 67.9 114

Course Information

Greens Condition
7.0
Greens Difficulty
7.0
GPS:
No
Walkable:
yes
Beware of water on 9 holes and the 28 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
7.0 out of 10
Beauty:
7.5
Difficulty:
7.0
Variety:
7.0
Fun to Play:
8.0
Value:
7.5
Condition:
5.0
Front Nine Rating:
6.5
Back Nine Rating:
7.3
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FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $29.00 to $35.00

Service is ok. Canyon Lake is a country club and has a pretty good restaurant, pool, and tennis courts.

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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.