Omni Barton Creek
Sometimes the best of experiences are the ones you take for granted or don’t have to make a huge effort to enjoy; oftentimes the most pleasing golf courses and resorts are right around the corner from your home, so close and accessible that they can be underestimated because of their familiarity.
Such is the case for this intrepid journalist with the much-ballyhooed Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa, a jewel of a getaway and four fabulous golf courses that I drive past and see about 200 days of the year since I live in a suburb of Austin and work in the capital city of Texas.
Barton Creek has, since its opening in 1987, been recognized as one of the nation’s top destinations for golf and getting away. Now operated by Omni Resorts, Barton Creek is a hybrid resort/country club, sporting an opulent luxury hotel and conference center along with a private club with hundreds of members.
For years, this is where Texans and Austin’s well-heeled have come to call home and play, as the development that surrounds Barton Creek Resort & Spa boasts a 4,000-acre envelope in the heart of the Texas Hill Country and some of the region’s most breathtaking views.
I spent some time at Barton Creek in the early 1990s when I attended its famed golf academy for a three-day stint. And, throughout my years in Austin, where I’ve lived since 1976, I’ve played the resort’s courses on a few occasions and even covered two editions of the Legends of Golf Tournament when that event was played on the resort’s Fazio Foothills course.
But I had never stayed at the resort nor enjoyed the full Barton Creek experience until recently, and the visit was a home run in every way.
The verdict: Barton Creek offers a ton of bang for the buck and one of the best overall experience in Texas, especially for those visitors to the Austin area – mainly because you will have a hard time finding a golf trip where you can play four great courses and still be so close to a city like Austin, one renowned for its nightlife, entertainment and quality of attractions.
Barton Creek Resort is just a 20-minute ride from the Austin airport and about that far from the city’s downtown sector and famed Sixth Street district. Go west instead of east and you’ll find yourself at one of the lakes that surround Austin, where boating, waterskiing and sailing can be found.
Designed by such masters of the game as Tom Fazio, Arnold Palmer and Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, Barton Creek’s four layouts are a tribute to the game and the rugged beauty of the Texas Hill Country.
Fazio Foothills is fabulous
Fazio Foothills is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of Barton Creek’s four courses and the signature layout at the resort. Fazio Foothills is a design masterpiece, featuring dramatic cliff-lined fairways, natural limestone caves, waterfalls and smallish, pristine TifEagle Bermuda greens. The track provides plenty of elevation change and visual impact, while its undulating aprons and grass bunkers make it a shot-maker’s paradise. The five different sets of tee boxes appeal to a wide variety of skill levels.
Foothills was renovated in 2004 and again a few years back to evolve with a changing game. It received new fairway and tee turf and gained nearly 200 yards, taking the par-72 course to 7,125 yards from the tips.
The Fazio Foothills course, established in 1986, is situated atop plenty of the experts’ lists. Golfweek has rated Foothills No. 4 among America’s 50 Best Resort Courses. The course has also been named the Best Resort Course in Texas and has the distinction of consistently having several holes listed among the state’s Best or Most Beautiful Holes (Nos. 4, 9, 10, 12, 16 and 18), as recognized by the Dallas Morning News.
The course is impeccably maintained and plays every bit of its length. I would add that the opening hole — a tree-lined 460-yard par-4; the short but deadly par-5 eighth and No. 17 (at 203 yards with a deep and narrow green the longest par-3 on the course) to the above list. Let’s see: that’s nine of the 18 holes as readily memorable after a round.
Fazio Foothills has hosted numerous PGA of America Championships including the PGA Cup, Inaugural Women’s PGA Cup and is slated to host the 2022 PGA Professional National Championship.
Fazio Canyons makes you work
Fazio’s second — and newest — Barton Creek masterpiece is called Fazio Canyons and located two miles from the main resort. It boasts its own pro shop and practice areas. Canyons is like Foothills on steroids: you get the same quality experience except Canyons is not quite as green, not quite as manicured along its edges and is quite a bit beefier.
Opened in 2000, Canyons has been lauded as the top-ranked resort course in Texas by the Dallas Morning News. It offers many scenic holes lined with red oaks and sycamore trees and features spectacular views of Short Springs Branch, a beautiful limestone bed creek that meanders through.
After beginning your round with some momentum, Fazio Canyons then takes a toll, especially on its final four holes. The 561-yard, par-5 finisher runs downhill and rivals Foothills’ much-lauded 18th hole.
Other spectacular holes at the par-72, 7,153-yard Fazio Canyons are the 596-yard, dogleg-left par-5 fifth; the 457-yard uphill par-4 ninth, which usually plays into the wind and ends at a huge putting surface; the 450-yard, right-bending par-4 10th, where your approach is played over a creek in front of the green; and the sporty par-4 13th, which – at just 357 yards from the back tees – has teeth aplenty with two huge fairway bunkers left and a cliff wall on the right that borders an immense green that measures 54 yards from front to back.
It would be hard to stand before a judge and say honestly which of Barton Creek’s two Fazio courses are the best, so let’s just say this: if Foothills is No. 1, then Canyons is No. 1A – both are a pleasure and a challenge to play and can leave you humbled if you don’t bring your A game.
Palmer Lakeside is a long-hitter’s paradise and the course management haven
Of the four Barton Creek courses, the one I have played the most is Palmer Lakeside, which is perched on a hilltop overlooking Lake Travis about 45 minutes west of main Barton Creek Resort compound.
Palmer Lakeside‘s par-71, 6,668-yard course, opened in 1986 as Hidden Hills, is fun for proficient players and quite manageable for novices, and has its share of excellent holes. It features panoramic lake views, dramatic elevation changes and twilight glimpses of whitetail deer and turkeys.
The routing asks for the lay-up shots off the tee on the 395-yard par-4 fifth and again at the 403-yard par-4 seventh – both of which require approaches over deep canyons. There’s a dual green on the short par-3 14th that makes the hole either a beauty or a beast.
A cascading waterfall and native flora highlight Lakeside‘s signature 11th hole, an outstanding par-3 that the Dallas Morning News ranks among the “18 Most Beautiful in Texas.” The par-5 12th and par-4 13th both dogleg left with sloping fairways that reward any right-handed player who can draw their shot off the tee to find the speed slope here.
Prowess with the driver is a plus here as Palmer‘s course is a big-hitter’s delight, just don’t forget to bring your thinking cap and some course management, too.
Omni Barton Creek
Crenshaw Creekside honors traditional game
The natural beauty of Texas Hill Country is the focus of Crenshaw and his architect-partner Coore at the underrated Crenshaw Cliffside. Rolling hills, natural plateaus, soft contours and native vegetation are harmoniously woven into a playable layout that provides a variety of interesting holes.
Crenshaw admits his is an “old-style” philosophy: “We let the land dictate the routing rather than imposing ourselves on the landscape,” said the two-time Masters champion, an Austin native. Indeed, “Gentle Ben’s” course plays across the land quite naturally and most magically.
The par-71 Crenshaw Cliffside, which plays to 6,630 yards, offers a rare taste of traditional design. The course features broad, rolling fairways and widely-varied green sizes. The large, undulating putting surfaces give players their biggest challenge.
There are a slew of great holes at Crenshaw Cliffside, most notably the 464-yard par-4 sixth; the 455-yard par-4 10th (which Crenshaw modeled after the famed 10th at Augusta National); the drivable, downhill 317-yard par-4 14th; the 590-yard uphill par-5 15th, which requires a 240-yard carry over a waste area off the tee; and, perhaps the best of all, the 393-yard par-4 closer, where the approach requires a downhill carry over a creek to a green that looks like it will repel any shot.
Omni Barton Creek
More than golf here, and that’s a good thing
The expanded and updated hotel and resort offers 493 guest rooms and suites furnished in an elegant modern Lone Star State-style.
It contains a variety of recreational options, including the golf courses that have been ranked as high as the top-two resort tracks in the state (and that’s saying a lot), one of Austin’s most luxurious spas with a pool and a rooftop deck, a full-service fitness center with Peletons, indoor and outdoor pools, a miniature golf course, a fully-supervised children’s program and seven exceptional restaurants.
Barton Creek’s conference and meeting facilities also accommodate groups of all sizes.
If you are in Texas, the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa should be on your short-list of drive-in staycations. And if you are elsewhere, there’s no finer way to get the flavor of Austin and central Texas while being pampered to the nth degree.