Omni Barton Creek
When they say everything is bigger in Texas, this extends to the range of golf offerings as well.
The Lone Star State is one of only five U.S. states with more than 500 public golf courses, according to the National Golf Foundation, only fewer than Michigan, Florida, California, and New York.
Texas is also active in course development, most prominent being the three new courses at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort.
The $525 million property, located about 35 miles due north of Dallas and home to the new PGA of America headquarters, recently opened two 18-hole championship courses, a 10-hole Par 3 course called “The Swing” that’s lighted for nighttime play, and a 2-acre putting course known as “The Dance Floor.” Given the newness and expanse of the overall project, there can be some confusion in names, as the main golf facility at Omni PGA Frisco is officially known as Fields Ranch – with the East course designed by Gil Hanse and the West by Beau Welling.
Regardless of the name, let’s just say that Frisco will be home to some big events in the coming years, including the PGA Championship in 2027 and 2034, and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2025 and 2031.
Fields Ranch at Omni PGA Frisco has stamped itself as one of the game’s prime new public golf destinations, but there are a host of others throughout Texas.
Following are a few examples separated by region:
Austin and the Hill Country
Horseshoe Bay Resort
About an hour’s drive northwest of Austin is a property that bills itself as the original Texas lakeside resort destination, set on more than 7,000 picturesque acres of the Texas Hill Country and along the shores of the constant-level Lake LBJ. Horseshoe Bay, which recently invested over $100 million in property-wide renovation and new construction, features four championship golf courses as well as an 18-hole natural grass putting course. The three public courses – Slick Rock, Apple Rock and Ram Rock – are all designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. while the exclusive members-only course, Summit Rock, is a Jack Nicklaus signature design. Slick Rock, set along Lake LBJ, is home to one of the most photographed signature holes in Texas, the short par-4 14th which has a 35-foot waterfall-walled bridge and is known as the “Million Dollar Hole.”
Horseshoe Bay
Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa
Closer to downtown Austin in the heart of Hill Country is another serene escape with four golf courses, as Omni Barton Creek is set on 4,000 acres of countryside. For golfers, the draw is highly regarded courses from Tom Fazio, Arnold Palmer and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Fazio Foothills is a challenging ride through the Hill Country that puts a premium on shot-making, some from elevated tee boxes, while the Fazio Canyons course is highlighted by scenic holes lined by stately Red Oaks and Sycamore trees, not to mention a bubbling limestone bed creek that meanders through the course. Palmer Lakeside is somewhat of a hidden retreat, perched on a secluded hilltop overlooking Lake Travis, with the Coore Crenshaw course embracing the rolling hills and natural plateaus characteristic to the area – which is just 10 miles southwest of Austin.
Omni Barton Creek
Houston and East Texas
Pine Dunes
In the sleepy town of Frankston, over 100 miles from both Dallas and Houston, Pine Dunes opened just over two decades ago with an 18-hole championship course from architect Jay Morrish and his son, Carter. The towering pines will evoke images of the Sandhills region of North Carolina for some golfers, but when owner Jodi Lutz first came across the land in the 1990s, the piney woods of East Texas reminded her of growing up in Northern Minnesota. The course, which boasts rolling terrain with firm, sandy turf and pristine greens in its densely forested setting, is somewhat of a hidden gem that has garnered national accolades and offers stay-and-play accommodations next to the 18th hole.
Pine Dunes
Memorial Park
Fewer than six miles west of downtown Houston, architect Tom Doak renovated this municipal course with input from five-time major winner Brooks Koepka. The city tasked Doak with a unique challenge: renovating a popular muni that hosts 60,000 rounds a year while also making it a compelling site for the PGA Tour’s Houston Open. The layout has fewer than 20 bunkers and offers opportunities for dramatic lead changes and excitement, as long as players navigate the property’s deep ravines and thickly grassed hollows. Originally opened near Camp Logan in 1912 as a 9-holer with sand greens for recovering soldiers to use, Memorial Park is now one of only two municipally owned courses to host PGA Tour stops.
Memorial Park
North Texas
TPC Las Colinas
The public offering among the two 18s at the Las Colinas Resort close to the airport outside Dallas, TPC Las Colinas hosted the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson for 35 years. The luxurious resort, formerly part of the Four Seasons brand, is now part of a master-planned community set on 400 acres and is undergoing a $55 million property-wide transformation as the hotel offering is converted to The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas. The property also has a members’ course, Cottonwood Valley, but it’s the par-70 layout that’s part of the TPC network which offers championship-level play to guests. Designated as a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, the original Jay Morrish design was redesigned by D.A. Weibring and Steve Wolfard in 2008.
TPC Las Colinas
Cowboys Golf Club
In the rolling hills of Grapevine, Texas – about a half hour from Dallas — Cowboys is the world’s only NFL-themed golf club. Given the Cowboys’ positioning as “America’s Team,” the club is popular for not only public play and golf outings but for dining and private events, from weddings and holiday parties to fundraising galas and business meetings. The course itself is designed by architect Jeff Brauer and is known for its excellent conditioning, with significant elevation changes and thick stands of mature trees serving as definition and a natural backdrop to many holes. Of course, there are nods to the NFL team’s legacy throughout, including stone markers with team facts and history.
Cowboys Golf Club
San Antonio and South Texas
TPC San Antonio
Located just over a half hour north of San Antonio, TPC San Antonio features two 18-hole championship courses that have hosted professional tour events and are popular spots for weekend golf getaways and vacations. Pete Dye worked with Bruce Lietzke to craft the Canyons Course, which has stately oak and cedar trees lining wide fairways but gets its name from panoramic views of the adjacent Cibolo Canyons. The Canyons Course used to host a senior tour stop, while the Greg Norman-designed Oaks Course is home to the Valero Texas Open – the oldest professional golf tournament to have been held in the same city its entire existence (since 1922). Stay and play packages are available in partnership with the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.
TPC San Antonio
Lajitas Golf Resort
This resort is known for the solitude and natural beauty found in its rugged desert environment, with 27,000 acres rich in Old West history tucked between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park. The golf course at Lajitas, known as Black Jack’s Crossing, was designed by Hall of Fame golfer Lanny Watkins and is named after a U.S. Army general (John “Black Jack” Pershing), who pursued Pancho Villa across the Rio Grande during the Mexican Revolution over 100 years ago. It’s been named by at least one golf publication as the most beautiful course in Texas, with several holes set against dramatic mountain backdrops.
Lajitas Golf Resort
West Texas and the Panhandle
Butterfield Trail
This desert course set in the foothills of the Franklin Mountains got its name from the historic Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route, which extended from Missouri to San Francisco in the mid-1850s. A Tom Fazio design originally built and owned by El Paso International Airport, the picturesque municipal course has had a challenging history – opening just before the Great Recession in 2007 and closing shortly after the start of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 due to a budget shortfall. The course reopened later in 2020 when the city turned over operations to a private management company, which has breathed new life into the well-appointed and well-conditioned Sun Country golf course, which is wedged into the far west corner of Texas not far from the state’s borders with New Mexico and Mexico.
Butterfield Trail
The Rawls Course
Regarded as one of the finest college campus courses in the country, The Rawls Course in Lubbock was created for the golf teams at Texas Tech University. It was designed by architect Tom Doak, who moved 1.3 million cubic yards of topsoil to transform a flat cotton field on the high plains of the West Texas panhandle. Doak and his team shaped the land to mimic the topography found east and south of Lubbock, where the great plain begins falling into the valleys and canyons that lead to the country’s Caprock region. When it comes to college courses, you won’t find many better.
The Rawls Course