GolfNewsRI

San Antonio is famous for the Alamo – and for golfers, is famous for TPC San Antonio, home of the Texas Valero Open. 

Amy and I made a recent visit to San Antonio for Amy to attend a national legal conference. With laptop in hand and a desk at the hotel, I often attend these types of trips and make these trips a working vacation.

About 30 minutes north of downtown San Antonio is TPC San Antonio which is comprised of two courses~ The Oaks Course and the Canyons Course.  The Oaks Course, the much harder of the two, is the annual host course of the Texas Open.  

Amy and I are members of TPC Boston.  As part of the membership, we have some level of reciprocity of all TPC courses worldwide.  Our goal is to play each course at least once and we are well over 50% there.

We arrived on a Saturday with our first tee time on the Oaks Course the next day.  We took the 30-minute ride to the resort and had a breakfast and a warmup.

They do not get a lot of rain in Texas but when they do, its abundant.  The forecast changed on us 4-5 times and as we drove to the course, it appeared it was going to be an overcast day with little rain.

After the warmup, we headed to the first tee. Renee, our friendly starter, gave us the lay of the land and added that the drop area of the 3^rd hole was to the left of the green.

After our first tee shots, Amy and I agreed that we do not want to use that drop area at all costs.

We found the course extremely hard.  The fairway bunkers are very deep, and the balls tend to drop very low in the wet rough.

I could not envision getting my ball to the green in these bunkers or out of the rough. It required a wedge hack out and another shot and hope to make par or no worse than bogey.  

By the middle of the first hole, we had caught up to a very slow foursome. With an extremely difficult course and no ability to get into a playing rhythm, we struggled on the par-5 second.

The highlight of the round was both hitting the green over a large body of water on 3 and no use of the drop zone!   We each parred the hole and then the skies opened.

It began pouring very hard and our day over golf was over.

Although our golf was over, the Oaks Course had other plans for us to leave the course. Due to the extreme rain, the course was soaked. There was planned construction occurring on the cart paths.

Due to poor signage and even poorer visibility, our cart got stuck in the mud. It was unlike any mud this New Englander has even seen, consisting of a thick, gluelike texture that also had quicksand features.

Once submerged in mud, our cart was careening sideways, like an episode of Dukes of Hazzard. It was stuck.

Somehow, we were able to lift the cart from the quicksand and place it back on the cart path. Driving remained difficult due to inches of quicksand glue mud on the tires. – and our shoes. We fishtailed around the course until we could find a puddle to wash off the tires.

Our golf shoes, have since been retired. We later found out two other carts were submerged in the mud and required a rope tow to free them from the quicksand glue mud.  

Fortunately, we thought ahead and brought a chance of clothes, cleaned up after our adventure and stayed for lunch.

All week we found everyone at the course very welcoming to us.

Because Amy’s conference started on a Tuesday, we played the Canyon Course on Monday.  The Canyon Course is much more like a resort course – not easy but certainty more playable.  I missed a lot of short putts and carded an 82 which made me happy.  

From a scenery standpoint, The Canyon Course is superior to the Oaks Course. The JW Marriot Hotel onsite, is the largest hotel in San Antonio and is the focal point of the entire resort.

Amy’s conference started on Tuesday, so she only saw the first three holes of the Oaks due to the heavy rain on Sunday.

I was able to get back on the Oaks for Tuesday morning to make sure this review was completed.  I joined up with a couple of members and we played from 6,600 yards and I was overmatched.  I was hitting 3 and 5 woods into many par 4s, and the shots were extremely demanding.

Virtually every green was elevated with falloffs on all sides with very deep greenside bunkers.  I didn’t mind the greenside bunkers as much as the very deep rough and very deep fairway bunkers.  If my ball missed a fairway or found a fairway bunker, I wasn’t getting on in regulation.

However, I did find the par 3s long but very playable.

Lost in my frustration, I reached the 18^th hole and suddenly realized that this is the well-known finishing hole of the Texas Valero Open. 

With no real score to play for, I hit a great tee shot, hit a nice 5 wood down the righthand side.  I now was faced with the famous approach on the elevated 18^th green. 

I saw this as an opportunity to save the round. I made my best pass at the ball, watched the ball take a great flight. And then…came up a foot short and rolled back into the penalty area protecting the green!

I took my drop, chipped on and missed a 5-footer for a 7.

I had gone from an 82 to a 95 ~ and I would say that the about the difference in difficulty of the two courses. 

I was stuck by the tremendous course conditions; the very friendly staff and members and we were under the impression that TPC Boston was the hardest TPC course that we have played. 

In our view, it has been replaced by the Oaks Course @ TPC San Antonio. I will always Remember the Alamo.