Squaw Creek Golf Course Review

Texas Outside Rating: 8.5

Golf - Public Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Willow Park
Website · Locate This Course

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Squaw Creek Golf Course Review

Just west of Ft Worth in the city of Willow Park is an excellent golf course that won't cost your a fortune - Squaw Creek Golf Course. Squaw Creek was built in 1971 by Ralph Plummer and is owned by Lockheed Martin and is primarily for the benefit of Lockheed's employees, but it is open for public play. Squaw Creek is an excellent value and was named by the Dallas Morning News as "Best Bang For The Buck." The PGA Tour Caddies used to play their tournament on Squaw Creek.

The course was named for Squaw Creek which meanders beside and across 10 holes and on some holes it seems strategically placed and just waiting for you ball. As such, you need to deploy some course and club management to avoid getting wet. #16 is a good example where you need to manage the course - this par 5/6, #1 handicap hole is 595 yards from the tips, requires a precise tee shot to make the turn and clear the creek through a narrow slot on your second shot. The second shot needs to avoid the creek on the right and land on a narrow fairway. And finally, the approach shot is to a small green protected by trees and 4 bunkers.

The terrain is rolling hills with trees lining both sides of most of the fairways. You'll find a little bit of everything here to make this a fun and challenging course - elevated tee boxes, a 22 acre lake, rolling hills, slopping fairways, blind shots, narrow approaches, and both uphill and downhill bunker protected greens. The course is tough, but fair and won't beat your brains out. There is no in-course out of bounds, but if you spray the ball, you're in trouble.

When we played in the middle of November, the day after four and a half inches of rain, the fairways were still in very good condition and the course was very well maintained and manicured. The bent grass greens were in near perfect condition, soft, a tad fast, and somewhat difficult to read. You should practice putting before setting out if you want to limit your number of putts. You need to add this course to your list of must plays and you won't find a better value than Squaw Creek.

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Blue 6,749 72.1 132
White 6,124 69.2 128
Red 5,575 72.7 125

Course Information

Course Architect:
Ralph Plummer
Greens Type:
Bent
Greens Condition
9.0
Greens Difficulty
7.5
GPS:
No
Walkable:
Yes
Beware of water on 12 holes and the 40 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
8.5 out of 10
Beauty:
8.0
Difficulty:
8.0
Variety:
8.0
Fun to Play:
9.0
Value:
10.0
Condition:
8.0
Front Nine Rating:
8.5
Back Nine Rating:
8.0
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FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $38.00 to $38.00

Service is good but there are not cart ladies. The food is limited to snacks and hot dogs.

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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.