Austin-area’s Horseshoe Bay Resort showcases Robert Trent Jones Sr. at his best

Apple Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort

Central Texas is a portion of the Lone Star State that’s relished for its livability among its verdant hills and panoramic vistas and has quality golf experiences by the bunch.

Golfers will be hard-pressed to find a better set of challenges on the links than at the venerable – but always fresh – Horseshoe Bay Resort, located just about a 45-minute drive north and east from the state capital in Austin. 

Established in 1971 on the south shores of Lake LBJ in the heart of the Texas Hill Country near the small town of Marble Falls, the scenic Horseshoe Bay Resort was built and fostered on land that was once 7,000 acres of rolling scrub-brush and spiny rock outcroppings, all set on the banks of the largest of the vaunted Highland Lakes chain that was formed when the Colorado River was dammed. 

Through the decades, Horseshoe Bay has grown and thrived and maintains its hard-earned claim as one of the premier lake and golf destinations in Texas.  

With three courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., an exclusive Jack Nicklaus course for members, and its innovative Whitewater Putting Course, this is a place that sets the bar high and produces plenty of memories, both on and off the links. 

In 2016, Horseshoe Bay embarked on an expansive $7.5-million project to upgrade all three of its Robert Trent Jones Sr. designs: Slick Rock, Ram Rock, and Apple Rock. The improvements to the courses and overall golf product has the resort community in position to re-establish nationwide attention and secure a rise in out-of-state rounds.  

Tropically adorned with palm trees, bold water features and the most colorful vegetation this side of Hawaii, this resort destination stands apart, both visually and in the guest experience. The golfing experience matches that uniqueness. 

Before there was ever a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Horseshoe Bay was home to three very distinct courses designed by Jones, Sr., patriarch of the Jones architecture clan. The trio — Slick Rock, Ram Rock and Apple Rock — make up a series of tests that won’t soon be forgotten. 

Wall-to-wall renovations on all three courses in recent years have enhanced playability and fun from the forward and middle tees while maintaining each layout’s legendary challenge for scratch players.  

You’ll need all your skills to master Horseshoe Bay’s offerings, many of which look harder off the tee than they really are. Just stick to your game and you’ll be okay; trying to extend shots and making swings that are iffy or low-percentage plays are what will get your blood up at Horseshoe Bay’s trio of temptresses.  

Slick Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort

Ram Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort

Slick Rock sets the table & the bar 

Slick Rock embodies Jones Sr.’s philosophy of “hard par, easy bogey.” The course, playing as a par-72 and 6,834 yards from the tips, contains 76 bunkers and water hazards on a dozen of its holes.  The front nine is routed through colorful outcroppings of granite and a magnificent mixture of native oak, cedar, persimmon and eldarica pine trees. The back side is more open and gently rolling.  

Slick Rock‘s most famous test is the 14th, called “The Million Dollar Hole,” which was built in 1990. The hole, a slightly uphill, dogleg-right 361-yard par-4, sports a winding cart path that takes golfers on a ride through a waterfall that spans more than 35 yards and dumps more than 8,000 gallons of water into its namesake creek each minute. Don’t worry, you won’t get wet as long as you stay in the cart.  

The journey around Slick Rock ends with three real tests. The 419-yard, par-4 16th doglegs hard right before ending at a green surrounded on all four sides by sand. No. 17 is a 219-yard par-3 with a wide-but-shallow green placed atop a rock ledge. The finishing hole, a 420-yard par-4, winds upward and to the right around a strand of trees and bunkers.  

Slick Rock is considered the easiest and most forgiving of Horseshoe Bay’s trio of courses and was chosen as one of the six best inland resort tracks in the book, “America’s Greatest Golfing Resorts.” But don’t be fooled – Slick Rock can clean your clock, and it deserves full attention. 

Slick Rock

Ram Rock is tough as nails & unforgettable  

If Slick Rock is the “sheep” of the three courses at Horseshoe Bay, Ram Rock is the mountain lion. The course is one of the stoutest tests of golf in the United States. It has been named the most challenging 18-hole layout in the state of Texas and been singled out as one of the nation’s outstanding tracks by various publications.  

With narrow fairways, natural streams, plenty of water and sand hazards, rock gardens, granite outcroppings, blind tee shots and all types of trees, bushes and plants, Jones held nothing back at Ram Rock. This is a roller-coaster ride; you are constantly going up and down and side to side, and sometimes just surviving 18 holes is an accomplishment.  

The par-71 layout contains more than 60 bunkers along its fairways, and greens ringed by water enter play.  One of the most talked-about holes – although every hole here seems to possess its own type of challenge – is Ram Rock‘s treacherous island-green par-3 fourth, where you must accept the challenge of a 191-yard carry to the middle of a shallow putting surface impinged by water and sand.  

Other great tests on the front include: the beat-you-up-early-in-the-round 488-yard par-4 second, which doglegs right and up a hill to a wicked and sand-protected green; the 368-yard par-4 sixth, whose right-leaning green is virtually ringed by deep sand; and the extremely tight 540-yard, dogleg-left, par-5 ninth, which you should never think of reaching in two even if the approach is downhill.  

The inward nine at Ram Rock is highlighted by the short but deadly 344-yard, par-4 10th, which you have to play over a rock and water-filled canyon to an elevated, well-guarded green; the 217-yard uphill par-3 17th, where the green seems to repel shots and send them into one of the five bunkers standing sentinel; and the ease-on-home uphill, 378-yard par 4 18th, a hole that – uncharacteristically for Ram Rock – gives you a reprieve with a wide fairway and an approachable green.  

Ram Rock is not for the faint of heart. It may be the beast in Horseshoe Bay’s beauties. So just take your medicine and learn to live with it. 

Ram Rock

Apple Rock is a great combination of challenge and fun 

Apple Rock, which was opened in 1985 and was the last of the three Jones, Sr. courses to undergo its renovation, is a great combination of tests and chances to score – and a great hybrid of the two other Jones tracks.  

Apple Rock is routed along some of the highest, most picturesque land in Horseshoe Bay in the area, but it begins in the valleys between the hills before moving up. The top hole on the front side is either the long par-4 opener or the lengthy par-5 fourth. On the latter the golfer encounters a hole that moves downhill then back uphill to a superb green that’s elevated above the fairway and serpentine in shape. It may be the toughest green to solve on the entire property. 

The course is at its zenith at the 10th tee box, on which begins a trip down to the lake’s edge with back-to-back par 5s and then on the edge of the water itself on the 179-yard par-3 12th.

The other great hole on the back-nine at Apple Rock is the 16, a medium length par four that asks for course management off the tee to avoid a rock-filled barranca and a medium-iron approach to a well-protected putting surface. 

Fifty-six bunkers are scattered about the course and there’s water in play on seven of the holes, but Apple Rock is nowhere near as penal as Ram Rock or as easy as Slick Rock – it is, in fact, the perfect resort course.  

Apple Rock

And even more… 

In addition to the resort golf, Horseshoe Bay also offers a distinctive member-only experience with the Jack Nicklaus Signature design, Summit Rock (which opened in 2012). The course offers some of the most stunning scenery in Texas. Nicklaus routed holes along a high ridge, a setting that showcases spectacular views that stretch for more than 40 miles over the Texas Hill Country and Lake LBJ.  

Horseshoe Bay Resort’s 18-hole, par-72 Whitewater Putting Course reflects the resort’s fun philosophy. Billed as the most expensive putting course in the country and rated the most unique by some of golf’s finest professionals and instructors, night-lit Whitewater is a competitive putting course that any level of player can enjoy. 

Whitewater is designed like a regulation 18-hole layout, complete with fairways, bunkers, water hazards and excellent turf, just on a much smaller (1,712-yard) scale. Every shot is played with a putter, but unlike a practice green, Whitewater is a landscaped, competition course. In the center of White is the high-energy Whitewater 360 Sports Bar with more than three dozen TVs, endless libations and quality bar food with a Native Texan twist. 

Most recently, the resort unveiled its opulent, new Cap Rock Clubhouse (recently named Private Clubhouse of the Year by Golf Inc. Magazine), from which rounds at Ram Rock and Apple Rock begin. Members and guests of Horseshoe Bay are enjoying the new setting with its expansive views of the courses and Texas Hill Country. The clubhouse features a dining room and bar area along with a pro-shop, swimming pool, cabana, pavilion area for groups, and a practice/teaching facility. 

Members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the National Golf Foundation and the Golf Course Superintendents of America selected the Horseshoe Bay golf complex as one of the Best Built in the U.S. since 1962, placing all three Jones courses “among the top 1 percent of golf courses in America.”  

If you’re looking for a challenge to your golf game, Horseshoe Bay cannot be beat. The only reason this resort area is not as famous as more popular venues in Northern California, Florida or North Carolina is that for years area residents greedily kept this plush and exciting spot a relative secret.  

There’s something for everyone here – especially those looking for an unexpectedly thrilling destination for their next buddies’ trip. The Horseshoe Bay Resort is a real load of fun, no matter your tastes or the shape of your golf game.