South Texas Golf - River Bend Golf Club Review

Texas Outside Rating: 7.3

Golf - Semi Private Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Floresville
Website · Locate This Course

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South Texas Golf - River Bend Golf Club Review

Review & Rating of River Bend Golf Club in Floresville, TX

South Texas Golf manages two courses about 20 miles south of San Antonio - Pleasanton Country Club in Pleasanton and River Bend Golf Club in Floresville.  We were pleasantly surprised when we played River Bend during a visit to San Antonio.  We were expecting a flat, dry, cow pasture (I don't know why) and we found the course fun to play, with an interesting mix of holes, fair conditions, and very reasonable rates.

The front nine is a links-style layout with wide forgiving fairways and huge receptive greens.  The back nine is more traditional with some tighter fairways, smaller greens, minor elevation changes, lots of Live Oaks to worry about if you spray the ball, and a meandering creek that crosses the fairway on some holes.  

Some of the holes that we liked included:

  • #3 is a 557-yard par 5 with a carry over a dry pond, a creek and gully that cuts across the fairway at 200 out, and a slight dog-left to the green
  • #7 is a fun  410-yard par 4 with a slight uphill shot off the tee box, then a dog-right around 5 bunkers on the right and one on the left, and a huge green with 2 bunkers guarding it
  • #11 is an interesting 511-yard par 5 with a split fairway - the lower fairway is tighter but a little shorter and if you spray the ball left or right you're lost in the trees and dense brush
  • #12 is a 421-yard par 4 with a risk-reward shot off the tee box if you think you can carry the creek and trees on this dog left - the creek cuts back across the fairway at 190 yards out

The greens at River Bend are huge, some are guarded, a few are raised, and all are relatively gentle in terms of slope and contour.  When we played they were a tad slow (around an 8 or so), soft, true, and in fair condition.

The River Bend fairways were in rough shape with a mixture of grass, weeds, and dirt.  They are very firm and dry which means we got lots of extra roll.  There are some minor ups and downs - for example, #17 is a 194-yard par 3 with a steep uphill climb that requires you to club up one or two clubs.

The sand in the 25 bunkers was good - fairly deep and soft.  The bunker faces are manageable at 6 to 10 inches tall.  The edges could use some TLC. 

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Black 7,030 73.1 128
Blue 6,264 70.2 116
White 5,868 68.0 111
Gold 6,583 71.5 120
Red 5,247 70.4 117

Course Information

Greens Type:
Champion Bermuda
Greens Condition
7.0
Greens Difficulty
7.0
Fairway Condition
6.5
Bunker Condition
8.0
GPS:
No
Walkable:
Long between holes
Beware of water on 5 holes and the 25 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
7.3 out of 10
Beauty:
7.0
Difficulty:
7.5
Variety:
7.5
Fun to Play:
8.0
Value:
7.5
Condition:
6.0
Front Nine Rating:
7.0
Back Nine Rating:
7.5
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FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $28.00 to $42.00

Full practice facility with an island green as a target. Lew's Patio & Grill has a wide selection of food for lunch and dinner. The pro shop was closed due to Covid-19, so we don't know how much gear it has.

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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.