The Golf Club of Texas Concan Review

Texas Outside Rating: 8.8

Golf - Public Course · 18 Holes · Par 72
Concan
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The Golf Club of Texas Concan Review

Review of the Club at ConCan Golf Course

Wow, what a pleasant surprise and a blast to play.  Sitting in a valley close to the beautiful Frio River and surrounded by some of the prettiest Texas Hill Country,  The Club at ConCan is a real treasure.  It's fun, challenging, very pleasing to the eye, and a good shot makers course. 

The first hole sets you up for the rest of the course - it's a 413 yard down hill par 4 with strategically placed fairway bunkers and a tough shot across a dry ravine to a well protected green.  Most of the holes are named and give you a good idea of the hole, for example:

  • Wow - this hole will evoke a couple of them
  • Easy Does It - be accurate on the drive or you've got a problem
  • It's A Dandy and Awesome  - a good description of both of these holes
  • Ker Plunk - the tightest fairway and the only water hole requires an accurate drive and a precise second shot to stay dry
  • What Was Roy Bechtol Thinking - a very challenging 177 yard par three over a natural area to a small green with three bunkers and a deep dry gulch three quarters around the green

A round of golf at The Club at ConCan is peaceful and quiet -  no road noise, barking dogs, kids playing in back yards, police sirens, airplanes, or horns honking - just wind whistling through the trees, an occasional "moo" from the grazing cattle, birds chirping, and the ricocheting of my ball off the trees.  Speaking of the trees, don't miss the fairways or you'll be lost in the trees and natural areas.  Most of the landing zones off the tee box are more than ample and the first cut is playable, but then it's "good bye ball!" 

If you can keep it in the fairway, avoid most of the bunkers, and manage the approach shots and elevation changes, and putt (all of that is easy to say, extremely difficult to implement) you'll have a good round.  You need to deploy some good course management and club selection skills to score well.  The Club at ConCan is very demanding but very fair and with five sets of tee boxes and yardage ranging from 5187 to 7333 yards, you can play a set of tee boxes that fits your game. 

When we played in June the tree lined fairways were in very good condition but very dry.  We played in early August, the temperature was over 100, and it turns out that the Club was have electrical problems with their watering systems!  Normally, the fairways were be a lot softer and greener but we didn't mind because the dryness gave us a lot of extra yards thanks to some good roll.  Most of the fairways have some slope, gentle mounds, and plenty of contouring.  You'll encounter several dog legs as well as elevation changes. 

In 2010, new management took over The Club at ConCan and they were making excellent progress on improving the course conditions.  Apparently, the greens had been neglected over the last year and were now improving but still not up to the new owners standards.  In fact, some had some mole and weather damage and most were a little bumpy thanks to a recent sanding. 

A majority of the greens are elevated, they vary in size and shape, and have plenty of slope, contour, and multiple tiers.  They were running about a 10 or so and very challenging for us to read. 

The bunkers can also cause havoc on your score - there are quite a few of them, most are steep and deep, and the sand was a little gritty.  Plus the rough was cut very think around most of the bunkers - so if you missed the bunker, you still had a challenging shot out of the deep rough.  A majority of the bunkers didn't look like they had been groomed before the round started - there were several animal holes and tracks as well as foot prints and divots that hadn't been raked.  You need to do what you can to avoid the bunkers if you want to have a good round.   

The clubhouse is also home to the Spa At Mountain Valley, so stop in a get a massage after your round - doesn't get much better than that!

Bottom line, our foursome loved this course, thought it was very pretty, fair but challenging, and a blast to play.   And we had a hard time leaving the cool patio, cold beer, and excellent view.  Can't wait to get back and play this course again.

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Course Slope & Ratings

Tee Box Yardage Rating Slope
Black 7,333 75.9 138
Blue 6,798 73.4 136
White 6,157 70.3 128
Gold 7,022 0.0 0
Red 5,187 70.9 125

Course Information

Course Architect:
Roy Bechtol
Greens Condition
6.5
Greens Difficulty
8.5
GPS:
No
Walkable:
yes
Scorecard
Beware of water on 1 holes and the 77 sand traps.

Texas Outside Rating

Overall Rating:
8.8 out of 10
Beauty:
9.0
Difficulty:
8.5
Variety:
9.0
Fun to Play:
9.5
Value:
9.0
Condition:
8.0
Front Nine Rating:
9.0
Back Nine Rating:
9.0
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FEES & AMENITIES

Approximate Weekend
Rates: $59.00 to $69.00

Service is country friendly, the pace of play is excellent, the pro shop has the basics, the practice facilities are adequate, the food is good, and the patio is superb.

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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.