Dallas TX Golf Weekend
TPC Las Colinas
Golf Digest, 9/10
PGATour.com, 5/10
Golf Magazine, 12/08
My Town: Hunter Mahan
Don't be fooled by his California roots. Big D's many off-course activities suit this Texas 'newcomer' to a 'T'
By Tim Rosaforte, Photo courtesy of TPC Las Colinas, September 6, 2010
With a sense for sports, style and cooking, Hunter Mahan epitomizes the 21st century urban cowboy. Although born in California, Mahan went to high school in the Lone Star State and has bounced around Dallas-Fort Worth since his days at Oklahoma State in the early 2000s and recently found a home with fiancée Kandi Harris in the suburb of Colleyville. "I think I'm more Texan in my personality; the pace suits my lifestyle," Mahan says.
Playing tour guide in Big D is easy for the 28-year-old. He and Kandi had their first date last winter at Cool River Cafe, a popular spot in Irving during the Byron Nelson. "H," as he is known, has season tickets for the Cowboys at the new Cowboys Stadium. That's a necessity since Harris is a former Cowboys cheerleader.
COURSES When I'm in the area playing golf with my friends, I tend to get out to Dallas National GC, a Tom Fazio design. The best thing about it is the landscape. Most of Dallas is flat, but this course has beautiful elevation changes. It's also one of the best-conditioned courses I've played, and it has a real low-key club atmosphere.
For resort golf I'd say the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas. It's a good place for the whole family. It has a nice pool and a good gym -- so Dad can go play golf. Plus the course that hosts the Byron Nelson has recently been renovated.
WHERE TO STAY For the younger crowd, Hotel ZaZa . It's connected to this cool little club called Dragonfly. It's downtown, right off McKinney Ave, a hot spot where everything goes on. For a family place, I'd recommend the Gaylord Texan Resort, a massive hotel and convention center near where I live in Grapevine.
RAINY DAY IDEAS Dallas is a big sports town, so whatever team is in season -- basketball's Mavs, football's Cowboys, baseball's Rangers, hockey's Stars -- it's worth checking out. If it's raining and you still want to play golf, go to TopGolf. It's not quite indoors, but it has a roof on it, and you can hit balls into a wide-open range. You can bring your buddies, have a few drinks, hit a few balls and have a good time. I've been to the Dallas Zoo and Aquarium. It's a great place to bring the kids. There is all sorts of great stuff there. I'd probably recommend checking out the snakes at the reptile exhibit, although it creeped me out. They were so big. I couldn't image being in a cage with one of those things.
Dining: I've got a couple in mind. For sushi I do love Steel -- I highly recommend the sea bass -- the best sea bass you'll ever have...Fearing's is another good place. It's at the Ritz Carlton in Dallas, and I recommend the chicken fried lobster. You can't say no to that. It screams Texas but with a little sophistication...One of Dallas' best pizza places is Fireside Pies. It's kind of a chain, but they have great family style salads and thin-crust pizzas.
Sports bar: There's one in downtown Dallas I really enjoy, and that's Christies Sports Bar and Deli. It's kind of an old-school place, but they have a bunch of TVs and a younger type of crowd. It's always hopping...a good place to mingle.
Destination: Dallas
PGATour.com & Links Magazine, 5/10
Everything is bigger in the Big D, including the experiences for visitors, who can come on their own or for Texas-size events like the state fair, Dallas Cowboys games and the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
WHERE TO PLAY
Cowboys Golf Club: Owned by Jerry Jones, this Jeff Brauer design is both a shrine to "America's Team" and a great test, with water in play on half the holes.
Texas Star Golf Course: This layout is located near DFW Airport, but the elevations changes will make players feel as if they have been transported to the state's Hill Country.
Tribute Golf Club: This homage to the great links courses of Scotland is fitting, considering the wind whipping across the plains north of Dallas.
WHERE TO STAY
Four Seasons Las Colinas: A $60 million renovation to both the hotel and TPC layout has improved the host of the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
Joule: Situated in a 1920s neo-Gothic downtown building, this hip hotel features 129 sleek rooms as well as chef Charlie Palmer's eponymous restaurant.
Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek: This former palace of cotton maven Sheppard King feels like a private residence for both out-of-town guests and locals who come to celebrate special occasions at the restaurant.
WHERE TO EAT
Bob's Steak & Chop House: The original Bob's offers a rich oak-and-leather interior that is sets the perfect atmosphere for enjoying some of the best steaks in Dallas.
Fearing's: Located in the Ritz-Carlton, top chef Dean Fearing serves "elevated American cuisine" in seven individual rooms including the Rattlesnake Bar, Wine Cellar and Dean's Kitchen.
Stephan Pyles: Pyles and his staff are on stage inside the glass-enclosed kitchen as they cook up innovative southwestern fusion dishes.
One destination on three bankrolls: Dallas
Golf Magazine: December 01, 2008
UNDER $600 (PER PERSON)
Three rounds at ...
Buffalo Creek Golf Club
7,018 yds, par 71
Green fees: $46-$65
972-771-4003, www.buffalocreek.americangolf.com
Tenison Park (Tenison Highlands)
7,078 yards, par 72
Green fees: $34-$54
214-670-1402, www.tenisonpark.com
Bear Creek Golf Club (East)
6,670 yards, par 72
Green fees: $50-$69
972-456-3200; www.bearcreek-golf.com
WHERE YOU'LL STAY
Three Nights
Crowne Plaza Suites Arlington
$131 per night
817-394-5000, www.cpsuitesarlington.com
UNDER $925 (PER PERSON)
Three rounds at ...
Texas Star Golf Course
6,936 yards, par 71
Green fees: $57-$77
817-685-7888, www.texasstargolf.com
Westin Stonebriar Resort
7,045 yards, par 72
Green fees: $122
972-668-8000, www.westinstonebriar.com
Tour 18 Dallas
7,033 yards, par 72
Green fees: $55-$95
817-430-2000, www.tour18-dallas.com
WHERE YOU'LL STAY
Three Nights
Westin Stonebriar Resort
$209 per night
972-668-8000, www.westinstonebriar.com
UNDER $1,375 (PER PERSON)
Three rounds at ...
The Tribute Golf Club
7,002 yards, par 72
Green fees: $99-$139
972-370-5465, www.thetributegc.com
Cowboys Golf Club
7,017 yards, par 72
Green fees: $100-$175
817-481-7277, www.cowboysgolfclub.com
TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas
7,166 yards, par 70
Green fees: $195
972-717-0700, www.fourseasons.com/dallas
WHERE YOU'LL STAY
Three Nights
Four Seasons Resort and Club
$285 per night
972-717-0700, www.fourseasons.com/dallas
Best Bar Nearby, Dallas:
Maxim's Great American Bar Search, A Cowboys Night Game Bar Tour (2011):
1 p.m. (local time) Pregame
Bolsa
This former auto shop serves food so fresh they don’t even have a freezer. Heaters will toast your ass on the outdoor patio while you wash down burgers and pulled-pork sammies with anything from a martini to a Michelada. It’s a grown-up start to a day that will soon devolve into a series of booze-fueled head butts.
3 p.m. Warm-Up
Desperados
Monday through Friday, this classic Mexican joint runs a marathon happy hour from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., featuring dirt-cheap $3.50 margos. On Sunday you’ll have to cough up a hefty…$5.50.
7 p.m. Half Time
The Loon
It’s time to get serious. Known for serving the stiffest drinks in Dallas, this dark-and-grimy dive is the kind of place that can make you forget you offered your wife and kids as collateral on the coin toss. Whoops!
9 p.m. Final Down
Louie’s
Athletes refuel with Gatorade, mortals with pizza. Get a late-game boost from Louie’s famous thin-crust pies. Our fave toppings: homemade sausage smothered with a mother lode of green peppers and onions.
12 a.m. Post-game
The Slip Inn
Win or lose, it’s time to throw your hands in the air. This hole-in-the-wall sweatbox is known for cheap drinks and DJs who spin a near-constant hip-hop soundtrack. Shake what yo mama gave you.
Zane Lamprey's Drinking Made Easy Guide To Dallas/Forth Worth (2010):
They say that everything’s bigger in Texas so it’s only fitting that Dallas’ slogan is “Live Large. Think Big.” The ninth-largest city in the US, this metropolis is home to the world’s largest video screen and parking lot, the biggest Ferris wheel in the US and an airport that is larger than the island of Manhattan. It’s also home to major sports teams like the Cowboys, the Mavericks and the Stars. It has been the site of the State Fair of Texas since 1866, and hosted the annual “Red River Rivalry” football game between the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Oklahoma Sooners, since 1900. But with over 7,000 restaurants and its claim as the birthplace of the frozen margarita machine, Dallas has a nightlife that is just as big as its Texas-sized reputation and drinking has never been so easy.
INDULGE
Located in Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth, the Cowtown Diner serves up hearty down home culinary feasts in a comfortable and casual environment. Cowtown holds special significance for proprietor and Forth Worth native Scott Jones, as its menu is strongly influenced by the flavor profile of his mom’s recipes and is located in his hometown. One of their famous dishes is the “Full o Bull,” a 4 lb chicken fried steak, consequently the world’s largest. It comes smothered in cream gravy with a 5 lb side of mashed potatoes and Texas toast and contains more than 10,000 calories. If you can eat the whole thing, you don’t have to pay. But don’t be fooled, no one has ever completed this Texas-sized challenge.
Cowtown Diner | 350 Main Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102 | (817) 332-9555
If you’re up for another type of meat eating challenge, visit Chubby’s Burger Shack in east Forth Worth and take the Chubby Challenge. It’s a 6 patty burger (3 lbs), with 6 pieces of cheese, grilled onions and 2 lbs of fries. If you eat it all, they’ll name it after you.
Or if you prefer mini-burgers, head out of Dallas about 40 miles to Denton and check out the Texas Slider Challenge at Rooster’s Roadhouse. It consists of 18 sliders and an order of bacon cheese fries. If you finish it in under 30 minutes, it’s free.
IMBIBE
With a giant silver tornado protruding from it’s trailer shaped frame, The Double Wide, located just outside of downtown Dallas in Deep Ellem, is hard to miss. Serving up live music and stiff drinks, it’s a trailer that you won’t mind parking yourself in. Kitschy drinks, also known as Mama’s Mixes, include ingredients like YooHoo and Tang. They also offer PBR and other domestic beer in cans.
The Dang (shot)
Combine Southern Comfort, lime and Tang
Twisted Tang
Combine ice, tequila, triple sec and Tang
Mix and serve over ice
HurriTang
Combine Rum, Tang, pineapple juice and grenadine
Mix and serve over ice
YooHoo YeeHaw
Combine vanilla vodka, coffee liquer and YooHoo
Mix and serve over ice
Boone’s Farm Martini
Rim a glass with lime juice and pixi stix sugar
Shake together orange vodka and ice
Add Boone’s Strawberry Hill and gently stir
Strain and serve
Double Wide | 3510 Commerce St. Dallas, TX 75226-1701 | (214) 887-6510
If you’re looking for a more sophisticated beer drinking experience, the selection can’t be beat at The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. Don’t be fooled by the name though –you won’t find any over the top alien-themed décor at this bar. What you will find is beer. A lot of it. With over 80 beers on tap and more than 150 in bottles, this is a beer lover’s paradise.
Some local beers include the Dunkel and Maibock from Franconia Brewing Company, located just north of Dallas in McKinney, TX. With a rich German heritage, Franconia also brews a Bavarian style wheat beer and an Original German style lager. With limited distribution, these brews can only be found in Texas and only on draft.
Anyone frequenting the Flying Saucer on a regular basis can become a “BeerKnurd” and join the U.F.O. Club where once you sample 200 different beers, you’ll receive a “saucer” with your name on it and $100 towards a party for you and your friends. After you sign up, you’ll receive a t-shirt and a personal magnetic card. Beer tracking is done electronically, so each time you try a new beer your card will keep track of it. Of course after you hit 200, there are many other milestones to aim for. With hundreds of thousands of beers available in the world, your goal can be limitless. And if that wasn’t enough you can continue your beer binge at home by purchasing their bottled beer to go.
Flying Saucer | 14999 Monfort Dr. Dallas, TX 75254 | (972) 991-7093
DON’T MISS
Serving up delicious upscale Tex-Mex fare, Mi Cocina can be found in 15 different locations in and around the Dallas area. Their signature drink is the “Mambo Taxi,” a mix of sangria (secret recipe), lime and frozen margarita. Legend has it that it’s name comes from the fact that after consuming three of them, you’ll need a taxi to get home. If you visit the restaurant in West Village, ask for Walter and he’ll share a drink with you.
Mambo Taxi
Squeeze fresh lime into a glass
Add Sangria and frozen margarita
Check out some other fun Sangria recipes.
Mi Cocina West Village | 3699 McKinney Ave. Dallas, TX (469) 533-5663
About 100 miles outside of Dallas, located in Waco, is the Balcones Distilling Co. One of only 10 legal distilleries in Texas, founder and head distiller Chip Tate opened up shop and began distilling whisky in 2009, subsequently becoming the producer of the first legal whisky made in Texas since Prohibition. Using stills and equipment that they built with their own hands, they have created products like the Baby Blue, a Hopi blue corn whisky said to be the only blue corn whisky in the world which recently claimed two prestigious awards at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Their other flagship whisky, Rumble, a 94-proof whisky, is made with local wildflower honey, mission figs and turbinado sugar. Using unique Scottish techniques, they have also created a Single Malt Whisky and a Peated Single Malt Whisky.
Find Balcones Whisky in your area.
STOCKYARDS
Fort Worth, a major suburb just to the west of Dallas, began as an army outpost in 1849. Its location on the Old Chisholm Trail, the dusty path where millions of cattle were driven North to market, helped establish Fort Worth as a trading and cattle center and earned it the nickname “Cowtown.” In 1876 the Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in Fort Worth causing a boom and transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier cattle industry. Cowboys on the move stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped Northward with their cattle and whooped it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to “Hell’s Half Acre,” the biggest collection of bars, dance halls and bawdy houses south of Dodge City, giving Fort Worth the nickname of “The Paris of the Plains.”
Today the Historic Forth Worth Stockyards district brims with entertainment, including restaurants, shopping and Wild West performances. Twice a day, cowhands bring a herd of Texas Longhorns down East Exchange Avenue for a glimpse into the past. Annual events include the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Frontier Forts Days.
Located within the Stockyards District, Hunter Brothers’ H3 Ranch, Live Hickory Wood Grill has been serving up some of the city’s best steaks since 1998. Named after William, Robert and David Hunter, three brothers who immigrated to the US from Scotland in 1844, and ran a livestock commission company at the current site of the Stockyard Hotel during the height of the Cowtown boom, this family business was founded on the rich and lively history of the historic Stockyards District. Known for one of the most popular drinks in the Stockyard, and named after William Hunter’s daughter, Anita, they make a one-of-a-kind “Anita-Rita” margarita with premium tequila, lime juice and secret ingredients like the extract from Jalapeño peppers.
Anita-Rita
Muddle fresh limes
Add Serano pepper infused triple sec and add orange liqueur
Add ice, simple syrup and lime juice
Shake and serve
H3 Ranch | 109 East Exchange Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76164 | (817) 624-1246
Just next door to H3 Ranch is Booger Red’s Saloon, a Stockyards institution since 1984. Named in honor of the legendary Texas bronc-busting champion Samuel Thomas Privett, it features horse saddle bar stools as well as Fort Worth’s most complete selection of tequilas, a vast selection of cigars, wines, beers and spirits.
One of their most unique libations is the popular 16-oz. schooner of Buffalo Butt Beer, an amber lager named for the rear end of the buffalo that’s prominently mounted in the center of the bar. Brewed locally in Fort Worth by Rahr & Sons Brewing Company, it’s said that the Buffalo Butt Beer got its name and inspiration from tales regaled by the Hunter brothers about hunting buffalo with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. On one occasion, William Hunter remarked that an ice-cold beer was the only thing that could make him forget his often viewed sight of a buffalo’s butt. And if you want to broaden your beer horizon, ask for the Blonde Lager, a medium full-bodied traditional Munich-Helles style pale lager, also brewed locally by Rahr & Sons.
Booger Red’s Saloon | 105 East Exchange Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76164 | (817) 642-1246
For more Dallas booze & grub options, see Cowboys GC.