Northern Hills Golf Club

This course has received some good TLC the past few months. With the recent Covid-19 closure, ACGT has aerated all their courses. Northern is recovering the best from the aerating. In a week or two, the greens are going to be immaculate. It is very walker friendly. This coure is good for players of all skill levels.

Northern Hills surprised me. There was a few inches of rain the day before so the course was wet. Really wet. Surprisingly good though. All ACGT courses are getting better and better. Easy walk. I walked. Open during the coronavirus pandemic. Greens were fast. Fairways were average. Seem to be getting better. The layout was nice with a mixture of long and short par 4s/5s. The par 3s are mostly all beasts of holes. 175+yds from whites. Played behind a 5some on a Sunday afternoon. So, it got a little slow for my twosome on the back 9. Great ACGT course with some different elevations.

Northern Hills Golf Course is part of the Alamo City Golf Trail, the municipal golf courses of San Antonio, Texas. The course is set in the northern part of the city, but there aren’t any real hills on the course, although the terrain does have rolling slopes in some areas. The course has four sets of tees ranging from 6,602 yards to 4,987 yards. The middle men’s tees have slope of 121 and rating of 70.1, so the course is moderately challenging. We played the course the first week of December, and conditions were quite dry, with mostly dormant grass on the fairways and greens and no leaves to speak of on the sparse tree cover. Despite this, the greens were moderately fast and rolled true. The biggest problem for a golfer from the Upper Midwest was making the adjustment to the Bermuda grass that seemed to be everywhere on the course, especially gnarly around the greens and making chipping a real guessing game. The round begins with a real risk-reward par 5, 475 yard dogleg left hole with a pond forming the inside edge of the dogleg. Hit a long shot hugging the right edge of the pond and you’ll have a long iron or fairway wood to reach the green. A shorter, safer tee shot may require a second shot over the pond to the fairway, but you’ll have a good chance of being on the green in three putting for birdie. Subsequent holes have fairly straight or slightly bent fairways to moderate size greens, most of which have at least one or two easily avoided bunkers placed around them. The back nine begins with a dogleg right 494 yard par 5. Staying left on the tee shot is imperative in order to have a decent second shot to set up a short iron or wedge approach. The 343 yard par 4 12th hole requires a decision to either lay up short of a water hazard that lies about 200 yards from the middle men’s tees or to risk carrying the hazard in order to set up a short iron or wedge approach. The long green was one of the more difficult greens on the course. The course is unusual in that both nines end with a long par 3 hole. The 18th is 190 yards from the middle men’s tee. Carry the lone bunker on the front right and you’ll have a good chance of ending your round with a birdie. Northern Hills was established as a private country club, and the course still maintains a country club vibe, especially the clubhouse and pro shop. The course is a good value and we’ll be playing there again when we return next winter.

Overpriced golf course! Pace of play extremely slow. Back 9 under construction.

Was a nice and pretty open track, but the back 9 was under construction. It would've been nice to be notified of these repairs beforehand, either through the booking site or the staff. Won't be going back until all repairs are complete, so maybe next year.

The course is in great shape despite being winter. The greens are super nice, and roll pretty fast. The negative thing is that the course had a lot of muddy areas and little ponds scattered throughout, but it hasn't been raining that much lately in San Antonio. Word of advice, steer away from Northern Hills during rainy season. However, when the weather is nice and dry which is 90% of the time in San Antonio, then Northern Hills is a gem.

Let's start with the customer service, or lack thereof. Simply put: They are not very friendly nor hospitable. I've played this course many, many times - and I've encountered various staff members; they all lack the bare minimum Hospitality/Customer Experience Skillset. (This includes the Starter)

Moving on to the Pace of Play: Ridiculously slow and crowded. Now, most golf courses face the challenge of finding the right balance of scheduling and managing pace of play. I get it, you get it, we all get it. I expect courses to be proactive and at least have a Marshall. As the title suggests, we finished in 5 hours. My recommendation: there are other courses in San Antonio that have better course management - - Sure, they're in a higher price point....but thats a non-issue nowadays, when you have Re-sellers like GolfNow and TeeOff offering great deals --- Play somewhere else.

I don't get why there were bad reviews on this course. Maybe it was in real bad shape a couple of years ago. All I know is that this is one of the top muni's in San Antonio. It was perfectly groomed. The greens were in amazing shape. IMHO, this ranks up there with Willow Springs, Riverside, and Cedar Creek. There are a lot of pro's to this course: it has a driving range, it's pretty wide open and fairly forgiven, real nice elevations all throughout, good confidence builder as it is not extremely difficult, GPS on the carts, and really good food at the 19th hole. Disregard all the bad reviews from the past, this course is a must if you want to get good value for your money.

We play here frequently and this is one of the better run Munys in the area.

The course is usually in good shape despite issues with a recent tornado and flooding from

heavy rains.

The Proshop here has some of the best employees in town. Kieth D has always been helpful

and so has every other person who works here.

The course is laid out so that you are challenged with different shots on every hole.

The #1 hole is a par five that has a lake on the left. Some big hitters can carry the lake and

will wind up with a great chance for a birdie. The rest of us will have to get as close to the lake without going in.

Holes 2, 3, and 4 are easy but the greens are small and very tricky. Holes 6 and 7 are long

and uphill. Hole # 8 is set up to roll left and OB.

Hole #10 is difficult par 5 with a 45 degree fairway to the right and lots of grass bunkers.

Hole 12 is long carry over water on your second shot, or a risky tee shot on the right that

comes close to OB.

Hole 13 is a long uphill into the wind with a small elevated green.

The last hole is an uphill par 3 that plays into the wind at 180 yards.

Northern Hill was a private club until a few years ago. It was the site of the AJGA qualification playoffs for many years.

This is a tricky layout with hidden water hazards

and ninety degree driving holes.

There are a lot of surprises for the first time players.

Number one has a surprise pond if you draw your tee

shot. #4 has hidden pond on the left, #10 has fairway

that dives to the right and requires an iron from the tee,

and hole 12 has a long carry over water or a blind shot

on the right.

The greens are smooth and the fairways are

smooth.

#18 is an uphill par 3 that appears as an afterthought.

Had a very enjoyable experience. Staff was very courteous and went out of their way to be helpful. Greens were in great shape but difficult to read without previous experience on the course. Teed off on time and no waiting all day. Very nice experience.

Given all the rain, the course was in decent shape. Still soggy fairways in many places so it was cart path only. We planned on that, but not the SLOW foursome in front of us. By the time we got to 10, they were more than a hole behind. By 15, they were probably 3 holes behind and wouldn't invite us, a twosome, to play through. A marshal finally got there on 16. He was great. Check-in was terribly slow. Close to 10 minutes to check in one group in front of us. That left us short on warm-up time. Greens are excellent.

Course was in good condition and the greens were quick. Only problem there was a 5 some in front of us. They let us pass on number 8 and the round speed up. Overall good layout enjoyable to play. Thanks

well received at the pro shop. the starter was very helpful. the course is nice and in good shape. we found it strange to see so many 5some play. but the pace was still good. we would play it again

When we arrived there are two staff members trying to figure out something on the computer. They totally ignored me for at least five minutes. When we began playing the threesome in front of us continue to hit at least two balls slowing the pace tremendously. They completely dropped out of play and started playing again on the whole behind us. The threesome in front of us at that point when completing putting would stand on the green and talk rather than move off the green so others could shoot. The entire experience was so bad that we only played nine holes though we paid for 18. We will never play northern hills again.

I have played Northern Hills many times as it is one of my local courses. Previously private, it has recently become a "Muni" or municipal course and that is not an improvement. It has always been a fairly easy course having wide fairways and a course that does not play very long. Since becoming a "Muni" the greens fees have increased and the course has become more crowded. Additionally, they have cut back a lot trees and made an already easier course somewhat pedestrian and boring more tuned to the very high capped weekend golfer. The course has always been maintained decently with less readable undulating greens. I prefer my greens with very large but readable undulations. The carts have been improved slightly now equipped with a yardage identifier. The new club house staff is as friendly, as were the last. The "19th Hole" café is unchanged with the same competent staff.

In short, the new "Muni" Northern Hills course is very average. Previously, I found it more desirable because it was easy on the wallet, less crowded (allowed for play at your pace, fast or slow) and the course was challenging enough. I can no longer recommend it with the current price, crowd and pedestrian course play. Silver Horn, also close by, is a more challenging and prettier course with a better café. Prices and crowd are now comparable.

Best hole on Northern Hills is #17 (Par 5) with a double level green.

Enjoy and Best wishes

The course was in very good shape and as nice of a day it was I was surprised that there wasn't more people than there was. Will play again.

Price thru GolfNow was good. Course is in OK condition.

Nice course that has it challenges for all types of golfers. Fairway was in pretty good shape as well as the greens. However I found the greens extremely difficult to read, resulting in some 3-putts. My co-players experienced the same, so I wasn't alone.
The par 3s were also very long, so almost impossible to hit the green in one shot, if you aren't a really good player.

Northern Hills is a great golf course, very well maintained. The fairways are soft and the ball is floating on the grass, the design is nice with some long par 4, the greens are fast and challenging.
The green fee is fair and the course isn't crowded.
I will be back as soon as I will find another offer.