Houston National Golf Club

Course was great except for the bunkers. After heavy days of rain, these were in bad shape.

The closure of the driving range right as I arrived at 11 am on a Sunday was annoying. Evidently their tractor broke down. Course needs to invest in reliable equipment or a backup. There were numerous bunkers throughout the course that had become small ponds from recent rain but so much so that balls were lost green side by my playing partner. Bunker had 3+ feet deep water in it. Don't these bunkers drain? One fairway on the back 9 had a lake in the middle of it and a flock of ducks there in 2 feet deep water. Crazy! Poor drainage. Cart path only when course was not that wet except where this lake was. All in all it was a good day on a tough course, made more difficult with cart path only and with no warm up because of closed range. The free hot dog/hamburger with round is very nice and great hot dog!

Let me just list them out.

Greens - Terrible. Bald and like off-road terrain

Bunkers - standing water with green algae or hard as rock if dried

Fairways - bad. Bare spots all over

I will never play there again.

Great potential at this course. Greens were in great shape and the tee boxes you could tell had been scalped and reseeded. However, fairways and off the fairway were solid weeds. Most lies were horrible sitting against weed bushels. First hole was an absolute concrete dirt pack.

The course was in great shape and greens were fast

The price that this course charges you would think it is a top quality course, but that was far from what reality was. It’s pretty obvious that the private course and members of the club are the priority. That course looked immaculate whereas National course was poorly maintained. The staff offered no guidance on where to go get a cart or where starting tee was, I ended up on the private course because it was first time here and I am visiting from out of state. They also charged 70 dollars to rent clubs which is outrageous considering they were terribly beat up clubs and weren’t even clean. No starter or course marshall so the groupings were erratic and bottlenecked frequently. I will never return to Houston National golf club nor would recommend it, there are plenty of other places to play at that price range that I am sure are better maintained and have better customer experience.

Overall the course needs maintenance. 98% of the bunkers are unplayable. They need actual sand in them. The fairways were very hit or miss. The tee boxes were slopped, bumpy, and patchy with grass. The greens were okay, could use some maintenance in certain areas. This course is not worth the greens fees, even with the burger and beer.

My son and I we are in Houston for a meeting and we decided to play some golf while in Houston.

We selected Houston National and made a tee time for the morning of April 7th.

Unfortunately the course was in poor state. In many places there was no grass period. You couldn't tell if you were on fairway or the rough; it was all weeds!

I was expecting a lot more for that money!

The course was in good shape. They are doing a better job of minimizing the volume of range balls that wind up on the golf course. However, the pace has been very slow that last few time's I've played at this course.

Houston National is a decent course but I feel like the value is starting to slip. It was close to $100 for a weekday round (that's with a small bucket of range balls). Important to note that they do include a lunch with that cost so that helps some but it wasn't that long ago that this same deal was in the $60-70 range for a weekday round. The front nine moved fine. We played it in exactly two hours. And then we pulled up to hole 10 and there were three groups waiting on the tee box. We proceeded to wait on every hole on the back. Not sure what happened there but it was pretty disappointing. I've played this course plenty and I'm sure I'll be back but it may be a little while before I return.

There are two courses there. One is a private club with a pristine, beautiful course. The other is Houston National, which is more like a typical public course. Challenging layouts on several holes. Fairways were fair. There were children playing on one hole and a man fishing off one of the greens. No marshals around and no refreshment carts. At least there was water and ball washers.

After some very heavy rain the night before the course was still in great condition. Obviously cart path only, and the range being closed were detractors, but what a nice afternoon at the course. Greens were incredibly fast and the fairways were soft, but still very playable. Lunch and a drink included was a bonus.

The course was not in good condition and the bathrooms were in bad shape.

The only con to my round at HN was the pace of play. Flew through the front 9 in under 2 hours, then spent 3+ on the back after getting stuck behind multiple groups.