Timber Creek GC
Friendswood, TX (just off the SE corner of the Sam Houston Beltway)
Fat Guy Review, Pines/Creekside, 2011: I had a blast playing this course. Maybe it was because the high Texas winds kept the low 90's late-May heat bearable. Maybe it was because it hadn't rained in 5 months and the cement-hard (but still green) fairways let your drives run out like an airport runway. Maybe it was because I was hitting their King Cobra rental clubs better than my own set. Or maybe it was just because the Miller Lites go down so easy on a sunny SE Texas afternoon.
Timber Creek has 3 nines: The Pines, a fun, very playable 9 with subtle doglegs and water in play on just 3 holes. Flat terrain, but with some mounding and they did move a little bit of earth here. My local playing partner told me the course's surrounding loblolly pines are rare southeast of Houston, making this some unique vegitation for the area. Good conditions and true greens, it's a great warm-up 9 if your game's a little rusty, or it should make you feel pretty good about how you're playing if you're in mid-season form. The Creekside is shorter but a step up in difficulty, with the property's deep creek ravine criss-crossing the routing in a few spots. Some of the creek views were rustically pretty enough to remind me a little of Disneyworld's African Safari, so much so that I found myself scanning the creek for gators (not that big a stretch per my local hosts). Creekside has a couple fun risk/reward short par-4's, a reachable par-5, and one short par-3 that make this 9 play short, but beware running through the doglegs, especially when it's dry. We didn't play the Timber Creek 9, but my local host said it's definitely the toughest of the three, upwards of 400 yards longer than the Creekside, while crossing the creek 8 times in 9 holes. High and mid-handicappers should play the Pines/Creekside combo, while lower handicappers and those in mid-season form will enjoy the challenge of the Creekside/Timber Creek pairing. Conditions were good, especially considering the 5-month drought when I played, plus a great pace of play for our Tuesday mid-afternoon round (3-1/2 hours), and great drink cart service too. For $62 prime time greens fees, or especially the $46 weekday rate we paid, I'd call it a good value. Fat Guy Rating: 8.0
Where To Booze & Grub Nearby: The clubhouse's Legends Grill has a nice outdoor patio, or walls of windows to watch groups play in from the cool confines of the air conditioning, with plasmas over the bar, and good Happy Hour specials. Or try nearby Nutty Bar (10943A Scarsdale Blvd).
For some legit Texas BBQ, my local hosts recommend Red River BBQ one town over in League City (www.redriverbbq.com, 1911 E Main, League City).
Where To Booze & Grub, Houston: See Wildcat GC or Fat Guy's Houston TX Golf Weekend