The best public golf courses in Texas

The East Course at the Omni PGA Frisco is one of two courses to open at the new Fields Ranch Golf Club. Alongside the Beau Welling-designed West course is the East, built by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, which measures over 7,800 yards from the championship tees and puts a greater emphasis on driving than the West, demanding length, accuracy and the courage to take on cross-bunkers and central hazards. The greens, perched above bunkers and chipping runoffs, are smaller and require controlled approaches, and the holes of the second nine prowl the basin of Panther Creek. Both courses opened in May 2023, and the East has already hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. It is set to host a number of other prestigious events, including the PGA Championship (2027, 2034), the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (2025, 2031) and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship again in 2029.

Beau Welling, the lead architect for Tiger Woods’ design company, was instrumental in building Bluejack National, ranked third in the state. He returned to Texas with his own design of Fields Ranch West Course at the new Omni PGA Frisco, headquarters of the PGA of America, a course designed to be a swashbuckling, playable alter-ego to the more tournament-oriented East Course. Welling accentuated the site’s gradual elevations to create a number of downhill drives to go along with large, roller coaster greens and fairways that stretch 50 to 90 yards across. As one of our course ranking panelists put it, “America definitely needs more courses like the West—fun to play, tough to lose balls, and good birdie opportunities with well executed shots.”

TPC San Antonio’s Oaks course has hosted the Valero Texas Open since 2010. Playing through the dry outlands north of the city, the Greg Norman design is one of the most strategically compelling courses on tour with aggressive bunkering, some wonderful short par 4s and several uniquely demanding par 5s, including the 18th, one of the most underrated and frustrating closing holes the professionals play. --Derek Duncan, architecture editor

One of Texas' best golf resorts is the Omni Barton Creek, located just 25 minutes outside of Austin. The resort features four 18-hole designs, and the highest-ranked layout is the Fazio Canyons design, a former Golf Digest America's 100 Greatest Public winner. This signature Tom Fazio design, which offers scenic views of Austin’s Hill Country, recently underwent an extensive renovation.

Host of the Texas State Open on multiple occasions, this Hill Country course is a demanding test—so much so it used to be called “Challenger.” Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., the par 72 is built in a counter-clockwise circle, causing several of the doglegs to favor a right-to-left-shape. Rugged rock outcroppings throughout the course, as well as an island green on the par-3 fourth, make Ram Rock a memorable place to play at Horseshoe Bay Resort, which features four 18-hole courses.

Fazio Foothills is another former member of America's 100 Greatest Public, and the favorite among many at the Omni Barton Creek, though the Canyons course ranks slightly higher in our scoring criteria. The Foothills course, which used to host a PGA Tour Champions event and hosted the 2003 U.S. Senior Women's Amateur, underwent an update in 2017 to the layout, which tumbles and undulates down the rolling hills and around and over creeks.

Formerly known as Redstone Golf Club, the Golf Club of Houston hosted the PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open from 2002 through 2018 until the tournament moved to the municipal Memorial Park. The 7,425-yard layout, just minutes away from downtown, was designed by Rees Jones and David Toms and features multi-tiered green complexes and a number of water hazards.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: A story about the late country music superstar Waylon Jennings comes to mind—when he was asked once to watch a tribute artist’s performance. The young singer looked like Waylon, sang like Waylon, had Waylon's mannerisms and stage presence. After the show, the kid asked the legend what he thought. You’re good, Waylon told him, but you’ll always be one hit behind.
 

So it is with The Tribute Golf Links, a Tripp Davis design on the eastern shore of Lake Lewisville, north of Dallas. It’s one of the best replica courses in the country, replicating 18 of Great Britain’s most iconic golf holes, as good a links experience as one could expect on Bermuda turf.
 

Some holes are more homage than duplicates. The par-3 fifth is Royal Troon’s Postage Stamp, and while architect Davis nailed the topography, the green is far bigger than the original, a grudging concession, I suppose, to the demands of public golf. Conspicuously absent from The Tribute is North Berwick’s par-3 Redan hole.
 

Read Whitten's complete review here.

Booking overnight accommodations at Traditions Club allows the public access to this 7,146-yard Jack Nicklaus design with views of Texas A&M's Kyle Field and the university in the distance. Emphasis here is on accuracy instead of distance with water on 11 holes, forced carries on 16 of them and plentiful native vegetation throughout.

Built along the Rio Grande with stunning views of Big Bend National Park, Black Jack’s Crossing is the perfect combination of excellent golf, beautiful aesthetics and history. The course was named after a U.S. Army general, and its pro shop served as a trading post for cowboys and miners in the 1800s. As you play over ravines and navigate your way through rocky cliffs, don’t forget to stop and appreciate the story behind this unique piece of land.

Ranked Golf Digest’s Best New Public Course of 1995, La Cantera Golf Club is a beautiful Texas Hill Country course located on one of the highest points in the area. As you navigate the frequent elevation changes and tricky false fronts on this 7,001-yard par-72, look out at impressive views of the Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park.

Just 20 miles east of Austin, Wolfdancer Golf Club feels like two courses in one: The first 12 holes weave through the rolling prairie hills, while the last six are down in the river valley. With contoured greens and ample shot variety, this Arthur Hills design provides a memorable challenge.

Located about 100 miles outside Dallas, Pine Dunes is a hidden gem in a secluded part of East Texas. For less than $100 during peak season, golfers can experience this unique Jay Morrish layout—our Architecture Editor Emeritus Ron Whitten said “there’s nothing else like it in Texas.” Sandy waste areas with pines transport you to the Pinehurst area, and the design doesn’t feature many forced carries or water hazards, making it playable for all levels.

A significant renovation was completed by Tom Doak (in collaboration with Brooks Koepka) to transform the old municipal course at Memorial Park—which hosted the first Houston Open in 1947 and then again from 1951 through 1965—into a layout worthy of being a PGA Tour venue. Originally built in 1912 at a hospital near Camp Logan for recovering soldiers to use, architect John Bredemus redesigned the course in 1935 and added a second nine. Now with signature Doak green complexes and tour-level conditioning, Memorial Park is once again a must-play in the state and averages 60,000 rounds a year.

This par-70 resort course hosted the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson for 35 years. Aesthetics are very high with several uses of very natural-looking water hazards/creeks that blend in seamlessly to holes. The Four Seasons feel is evident all around, especially with consistently good conditioning. Large green complexes put a premium on approach shots, and if the wind is up, this can turn into a difficult test.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: A decade after golf architect Tripp Davis created one of the finest replica courses in the country, The Tribute Golf Club on the shoreline of Lake Lewisville north of Dallas, he returned and built another 18 adjacent to it called Old American Golf Club.

 

The two have same architect, the same owner, a shared clubhouse and a shared shoreline, but they differ in many respects. The Tribute, a compact core layout with returning nines, duplicates famous British golf holes. Old American, a residential development course laid out in loop design—nine holes out and nine holes back, to maximize holes along the lakefront—was inspired by National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills, so it also looks linkslike, with some scattered trees. But there are no template holes on this 18. Old American is a Tripp Davis original.

 

As befits a design by one of the more talented golfers among the golf architecture community, it features options and bunkers galore and holes that demand oodles of local knowledge. When it opened in 2010, Tripp told a reporter that Old American was, "the most strategic course I've done." Now over a decade later, I suspect he still feels that way.

 

Read Whitten's complete review here.

This Pete Dye design is the sister course to the Valero Texas Open’s TPC San Antonio Oaks course. The 7,106-yard par-72 is a tournament course in its own right: It hosted a PGA Tour Champions event from 2011-15. Experience expansive views of a beautiful 700-acre nature preserve as you’re tested by the Canyons’ hilly terrain and signature Dye bunkering.

The first NFL-themed course, Cowboys Golf Club features Dallas Cowboys lore all over the property. Super Bowl trophies, rings and Cowboys memorabilia line the clubhouse, while the course features stone markers with facts about the team’s history. The Jeff Brauer design winds through Grapevine Lake Spillway, about 20 miles from AT&T Stadium, boasting undulating greens and hilly terrain.

Crenshaw Cliffside, completed in 1991, was just the second course Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw completed and represents the last project they'd work on in relative obscurity: soon after they began piecing together Sand Hills, no. 8 on America's 100 Greatest Courses, creating a wave of minimalism and big natural courses that has yet to abate. Though not on property particularly suited to good golf, Crenshaw Cliffside has all the hallmarks of what has made the architects' courses at once revolutionary and nuanced: large, heavily contoured greens that feel subtle; bunkers that have some of the most detailed edging in the game; a sense of elegance and restraint in the construction; and the discipline to take what the land gives, yeilding unconventional sequences like huge back-to-back par 5s along the edge of a river ravine followed by a pitch-shot par 3 into a shallow thumbnail green. Golfers tend to think more highly of Omni Barton Creek's two Tom Fazio-designed courses, Fazio Canyons and Fazio Foothills, and gravitate toward the flash and aesthetics of those designs. Each are listed among the top 40 in Texas's Best in State ranking, while Crenshaw Cliffside is not. Those who enjoy the work of Coore and Crenshaw, on the other hand, appreciate that the architecture takes the opportunities that were presented and works with them, creating a tight, connected layout that's different than it's peers but rhythmic and riveting in its own way.

Designed by Keith Foster in 1993, this par 71 is defined by its fascinating history. The rock formations throughout the golf course date back to 1908 when the piece of land was home to the Alamo Quarry. Along with its unique story, the San Antonio course boasts dramatic cliffs with abrupt elevation changes.

This was Tom Doak's first project after completing Pacfiic Dunes at Bandon Dunes Resort. The Red Raider course was created from a flat, rectangular cotton field, but Doak's team transformed the land by moving 1.3 million yards of topsoil to create a stunning setting with incredible movement and natural-looking features. The result is a surprising amount of elevation changes for West Texas with wide fairways, factoring in the often-present wind, but deep bunkers and complicated green complexes, providing a challenge to better players while being playable for all levels.

Home to the very first Texas Open in 1922, Brackenridge Park is a tree-lined city-park course with tee times starting at only $53. In 2008, a restoration and rerouting brought the municipal track back to its original 1916 A.W. Tillinghast style. Located just north of downtown San Antonio, Brackenridge is now the site of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame.

A major transformation turned the former site of Southern Hills Golf Club into a new premier East Texas semi-private course accessible to the public. Architect Jeff Brauer kept the same corridors of the course, carved into huge pines on gently rolling land, but rebuilt green complexes in unique shapes.

From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: Stevens Park Golf Course, a municipal operation in a revitalized area of Oak Cliff just southwest of downtown Dallas, isn’t exactly a preservation of the past, but a celebration of it. The original design was by a pair of club pros, Jack Burke, father of 1955 Masters champ Jack Burke Jr., and Syd Cooper, father of Lighthorse Harry Cooper, one of those “best players never to have won a major.”
 

The course was built on land donated by Walter A. Stevens and his sister Annie Laurie in memory of their parents, Dr. and Mrs. John H. Stevens. In the early days, Stevens Park was a fun but funky affair, crisscrossed by so many hills, creeks, gullies, trees and city streets that one par 4 required a snap hook off the tee and three others demanded snap-slices.
 

In 2010, Metroplex course architect John Colligan and his then-associate Trey Kemp reconfigured the course, straightening holes and eliminating blind spots. They kept several original corridors, reversed the direction of seven holes and created eight fully new holes, increasing the length from 5,700 yards to about 6,300, a par 70. 
 

Read Whitten's complete review of Stevens Park here.