La Cantera, San Antonio Golf Resort Gem
If you’re a bottom line type of person, then here it is for La Cantera - when in San Antonio you’ve got to play this course! It has terrific golf, a beautiful resort and great views of this part of Texas. This place has all the amenities you’d expect of a first class Westin resort. The impressive golf facilities are run by Troon Golf.
I played the Resort Course from the Gold tees at 6406 yards with a rating of 69.6 and a 127 slope. For those with more gas in your tank you can always try the tips at 7021 yards. The course itself is a great blend of golf architecture design techniques – it has a little bit of everything.
The Texas Valero Open was played here in 2006 and 2007. I understand that the pros love the course but don’t like the walking. That’s not hard to understand once you’ve played it. I like to walk courses, but unless you’re getting in shape for a trek to Mt. Everest you’d be well advised to take a cart.
This resort sits in the ‘hill country’ outside of San Antonio which equates to constant and significant elevation changes. The upside is the spectacular views you get of the entire region including San Antonio itself and the Six Flags resort which is right next door.
What I really like about the course was that it seemed to have every type of hole you could imagine which equates to ‘never a dull moment’. There are flat holes and elevated holes, small greens and big greens, water and no water, traps galore and almost no traps – get the picture.
You can’t just use one strategy to get around this course, you really have to look at each hole individually and create your plan of attack. A course guide or GPS is a big help when 220 or 280 is a perfect tee shot and everything else is trouble.
Unfortunately, when we played, the greens looked like they had been sliced and sanded in the not too distant past. They didn’t roll as well as they should have and the sand made the subtle breaks hard to read. But that was overshadowed by the pure ‘fun’ this course produces if you don’t take yourself too seriously. You can make a snowman in the blink of an eye!
My wife, an 18 handicapper, played from the Jade tees and had a great experience. They play 4940 yards and are rated at 67.1. If we both had good drives we were pretty much next to each other. Don’t expect to play ‘bump and run’ at this course. It isn’t going to happen. The greens are well protected in every way imaginable and the small openings almost never line up with the fairways.
The golf facilities are first class all around from the pro shop, to the practice facilities to the 19th hole. The staff went out of their way to be nice and helpful. Surprisingly the pace of play was excellent for the most part. My one complaint would be the music played on the practice tee, but I understand that this isn’t uncommon in Texas. I gladly go back to La Cantera in a heartbeat.
Related posts:
- Hitting The Texas Golf Trail
- Ram Rock Course at Horseshoe Bay, Austin
- Tour 18 Houston, Lakeside CC Reviews
- Hazeltine National Golf Club Facts
- Final Word On Playing Better Golf
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[...] which is no surprise if you’ve been to Texas Hill Country. This course is not as steep as the La Cantera Golf Club, but it would be a workout to walk. Ram Rock has some of the most interesting trap layouts [...]