Riverside Golf Club

Riverside Golf Club is appropriately named. The course sits in a floodplain along the Trinity River with water in play on seemingly every hole. This is a combination links-style/traditional layout that is surprisingly difficult for a municipal course. Great holes abound on the Roger Packard layout, which requires the rare combination of length and accuracy when playing from the tips.

Holes 4-6 offer one of the better stretches of golf, starting with a 462-yard par 4 that is cut in the landing area by pesky fairway bunkers, and features a long approach into an elevated green that is surrounded by water and slopes back-to-front. Club down on no. 4 because leaving it short still offers the chance for an up-and-down. No. 5 is a good par 3, especially from the middle tees where it generally plays as a short iron. Watch for the front pin placement, which can leave you with a long downhill putt if the tee shot is too long. Water looms to the right but it takes a bad shank to dunk it in the drink. No. 6 goes 543 yards, doglegging left along the Trinity with water fronting the green. The tee shot must be long and straight, and anything too far right leaves a precarious second shot around the bend.

The back side is the more fun of the two, taking you through good combinations of holes that offer excellent birdie opportunities if you’re on your game. You'll need those birds when you come down the home stretch.