Memorial Park Golf Course

What a great place. Lots of pick ups in the parking lot. I was hoping for barbecue sandwiches to be on snack bar menu. Maybe they have them for lunch but it was breakfast time so I went hungry. I did use their restroom and it was very nice.

The golf course is really long. It has real grass and some trees. If you hit shots poorly it’s easy to lose balls.

Throughout The Entire 3rd Round Of Today’s Texas Children’s Open We Sat Through A Very Loud Humming Sound In The Background Of The Forecast Booth. Sounded Like Someone Was Mowing The Lawn, Please Fix It For Tomorrow’s Final Round.. Thanks From All Of Us.

After the '90's remodel this was a stellar course, and a great value. The reviewer who said this course was "haggard" prior to the Tom Doak renovation had never been out here, the course was in excellent shape. Not tour worthy, but a stellar Muni, and I"ve played many.

First off, I hate the remodel. It's a one-trick-pony course at this point. Hit it anywhere off the tee you want, then if you can chip well, you will score like a maniac. If you can't, you'll still have an OK, score. While holes 2, 13, 16 & 17 are definitely improvements on the old design, holes 1, 5, 8 & 15 are sadly lacking in comparison to their original configurations.

Many of the Greens are just "Goofey-Golf" . With the par 3's as a group particularly ridiculous. Watch tournament highlights from #2 and #15. Tour pros making 6's - 9's on par 3's means the design is bad, not tough.

Lastly, the cost for any non-Houston (which is very narrowly defined, btw) resident is outrageous: $140. No way is this course worth that., It's not in the same league with Blackhorse, the Lakes Course at Wildcat, Meadowbrook Farms or The Traditions Course at Cypresswood, all of which have much lower pricetags. I"m not a huge fan of the Tournament Course at the Golf Club of Houston (where the Houston Open was previously held), which has a $100 plus weekend price, but it is a MUCH better course than the new Memorial.

Add to this, when we played this past Friday, the course had just been punched and sanded, and they still charged us $140, and the fairways had ZERO grass on them. It was all sand, and that is no exaggeration. Any ball in the fairway would just plug, and there was nowhere to place the ball on grass. We agreed to push the sand up to a small tee for the ball in the fairway to make it fair. Also, because of this, around the greens, no grass, so impossible to chip the ball correctly, and that is the most important aspect of your game on this course.

If Houston gets to keep the PGA event we currently have, I think they will have to move it again from this tricked up course, or make some significant changes.

A terrible golf experience.

Tom Doak did an admirable job transforming Memorial Park from a haggard muni to the home of the Houston Open. The course’s playability is paramount because of the number of rounds this place gets a year. Yet, the greens and their surrounds are frustrating enough to befuddle Tour players. Dock’s signature folds around the edges of the green are formidable - none more so than the fourth hole’s, which resembles a giant manta ray. Though the property is relatively flat, and the driving corridors are more than ample off the tee, the pushed up greens create interesting approaches and reveal interesting memorable holes.

Great golf courses make you want to go back to the first tee as soon as you've putted out on the 18th. They also make you aspire to play better, no matter what level of golfer you are. Memorial Park does both, all while sitting at the center of a beautiful, vibrant and historic shared space for Houstonians and visitors alike.

Having played the course the two days after the 2021 Houston Open, I was able to see it at just about its best (some thinness of grass on the fringes and green surrounds notwithstanding). Even though some locals grumble about the course looking and playing differently than the Memorial Park they were used to, there is no question that the current course is superior. Rather than the scores of bunkers that were there before, now there are fewer than two dozen, spaced judiciously and used sparingly to create some strategic variety. But the main obstacle on the course is grass, in the form of meandering fairway rolls and considerable contouring on and around the greens, which are a challenge to the best golfers in the world while being manageable for the rest of us.

Tom Doak and his Renaissance Golf teammates did a phenomenal job in elevating an already beloved local golf course to the level of top-100 courses across the country, proving that great golf course architecture is for everyone.

Off-course, an expansive practice facility, First Tee-supported kids' course and one of the best burgers in golf at Beck's Prime round out a great experience.

I've played this course 30+ times since the renovation. Absolutely love the course, but some of the policies and amenities are preventing me from providing a positive review.

First and foremost, there's no water coolers on the course. There's a weak water fountain at hole 5. That's it. It's Texas. It gets incredibly hot. This should be considered a safety hazard.

Second, booking policies are terrible. 96 hour cancellation policy is absurd. Especially for a muni. $15 "advanced reservation fee" is also a money grab.

No hole signs on the course? No ball washers? C'mon. If I paid $140 for an out-of-town rate, I'd be mad. Unless you've played the course multiple times, you don't know the routing, the hole shapes, or the yardages. This should be a no-brainer.

It's been cart-path only for 6 months and the staff acts annoyed when inquiring about this. Even though I'm a walker, cart-path-only slows down play. Especially during the summer when nobody wants to walk and it's also incredibly hot out.

If some of these issues were addressed, Memorial would be hands-down my favorite course is the Houston area, period.

Played this course about a week after greens had been punched and sanded. That didn’t really bother me, but it was not referenced anywhere from booking through paying my greens fees. As an out of town player, the still charged $120 for a Monday morning time. Also not a big issue since they just had a huge renovation by a great course designer. I expected the city of Houston to charge out of town players a ton to play a PGA tour course by a celebrity designer. But after playing the first handful of holes one can tell this course is not managed properly by the city of Houston. The first fact that they did not notify players making tee times that there greens had been recently punched and additionally not offering reduced rates like almost all courses should have been my initial thoughts. But once on the course the issues became even more apparent for a course wanting to charge $120 a round.There were uncontrolled weeds just about everywhere, bare spots on the greens/fairways, and pretty much untended areas all across the course. I understand that this is still a muni course, but when charging elite course rates one expects to have elite on course conditions and experience. For reference, I played in muni in New Braunfels ($60) later in the week that gets around the same amount of play and it was in much better condition than this course which hosts a PGA tour event.....This course relays on notoriety from its recent renovation, but is poorly managed outside of the 2 weeks of the Houston Open.

Bottom line, if you are not a resident of Houston it is not worth playing this course.

This was the 4th time I've played Memorial Park over the past 6 months. Sadly the Texas freeze (in Feb.) hurt the course condition a little bit, but I have faith the grounds crew will have it back to great shape soon.

Hole #2 is closed which was a bummer. It looks like a great short par 3 over the new ravine area. But I do love the new layout and how they used this ravine area that used to be covered by trees.

The course is challenging for high handicappers as most of the greens are elevated or have strong slopes away, but my group of 10-20 handicappers enjoyed the challenge. Can't wait to watch the pros play in Nov.

The putting green, chipping area, and driving range are all fantastic and large.

*I am a Houston Resident so I only paid $48 for this round. Non-Houston Resident fees are around $140*

For my second round in Houston I went to Memorial Park to checkout the recent redesign.

Arriving at the course created a bit more stress than I expected. Sharing a parking lot with the rest of the public park (and having to pay for parking) was an unexpected step in the process. So be prepared. It took a bit to find a spot.

You can tell that they are working hard to upgrade the facilities in advance of hosting the Houston Open. It's not all there yet, but you can tell it's going to be very nice. There is a huge putting green right as enter the property that looks like a lot of fun! It wasn't open on this day. Looked like it might be pretty new.

Like many courses, they've had a high volume of golfers and they are being very strict on being on time... combining that with the parking situation almost doomed our group. So again... be aware.

So onto the course...

Looking at the scorecard the night before I was excited to see an unusual layout with 5 par 5s and 5 par 3s. I was a little surprised that the White to Blue tees jump from 6500 to 7400 yds. Especially with the paltry slope/rating for the White tees I was expecting a cake walk. It wasn't that!

While most of the holes aren't exactly narrow off the tee, there are some interesting offset tees and doglegs that don't make the holes as open as they appear on paper. And believe me... you need to be in the fairway. The bermuda rough was intense. It was difficult to even find your ball once you got a few feet off the fairway. Don't even mention trying to hit it cleanly.

But what's really special about this course are the greens. They are quick and have some serious character. You get some pushed up greens, some canted greens, and all kinds of undulation. They are a lot of fun, but definitely challenging.

On this particular day, a tropical storm was scheduled to roll in about the time we hit the back 9... and sure enough it did. Taking the winds was the low teens into the twenties pretty consistently and lots of rain. Still we soldiered on while getting drenched. In general, I'd say the slope/rating for the course is way too low given the rough and the greens... but definitely with the weather this course was a bit of a bear.

Most of the course is free of water aside from a few small creeks, but as you hit 16 it becomes a major feature for a couple holes. 16 is a really challenging par 5, especially into a strong wind.

I really enjoyed this course and felt it had a lot of interesting holes and features. Unfortunately, my appreciation and recollection of the last 10-12 holes was limited by my quest to stay somewhat dry. But I do think this is a prime example of how good a muni can be if you show it some love. I think this will be a fine host for the Houston Open and a course the city and its residents can brag about. As an Austinite, I'd love to see this kind of renovation happen at Lions. So, if you're in the area... seek this course out! It's wonderful.

Played this course for the first since the renovation. This place is great. Greens are nice and quick. Keep the ball in the fairway, as rough is deep! Highly Recommend!

This is my second time to play the course after the renovation and it’s definitely looking better 7 months later. It’s cart path only probably until the tournament in November which is why I didn’t give it a higher rating for pace of play (took us 5 hours to walk it). I said some negative things about Memorial Park after playing there the first time after the renovation and will be the first to admit that I think I may have been wrong. After playing it for so many years, the changes were initially hard to accept. I was really disappointed that they removed the water on some of the nicer holes like #6 and #15. We ran out of daylight on #16 when we played it that first time so I didn’t really get to see the finishing holes. That all changed today and so did my opinion of the changes. I should’ve known that Tom Doak, Mike Nuzzo, Brooks Koepka and the rest of that design team knew what they were doing. The course is growing in and is in really good shape now. The only changes that I still question are removing “The Shoot” tee shot on #5 (think Augusta #18) and the water on #6, and changing the par 5 #13 into a short, drivable (for the pros) par 4. #6 was a beautiful hole and I don’t like the new layout with mounds and elevated green as much as the old hole. #13 was a beautiful par 5 but apparently the course had to give some of the teeing area to the city to expand the jogging trail. And every tour course pretty much has to have a risk/reward drivable par 4 for the pros, so now it has one. Other than those, I think the changes have been good. The new green complexes are COMPLEX! #2 is the craziest of them all. And I absolutely love the new layout of #17; it may be my new favorite in Houston now. The turtleback fairway on #18 is unusual and it’ll be interesting to see what the pros think of that. I’ve seen turtleback greens before but never a fairway. At least it’s unique in that sense. They’re still working on it and it still has some growing-in to do, but I’m beginning to think it may be able to compete with the GCOH. There was something about it today, some of the holes and the conditions of the course, that actually reminded me of the GCOH. That’s a good sign. I guess only time will tell but I’m beginning to think the pros might actually enjoy it.

The layout is very challenging. Greens are shaped beautifully and will be super tough when they get cut short. Tee times are spaced well and pace is 41/2 hrs or less even on the weekends. This is my NEW home course. It will be fantastic after next year's Houston Open.

The only PGA Tour course you can play for under $50. The course averages 60,000 rounds a year so I imagine at times it will be very crowded, but we played early in the day and had the course to ourselves. The practice greens aren’t huge, but it appears they may be expanding the practice area, and it has a nice double-decker (mats) driving range.

I played Memorial Park 3 weeks after the course was opened after a major renovation, and after a night of heavy rains. The greens weren't quite up to speed yet, and the rough areas that aren't grown in still held a lot of water, but once the grass has a chance to grow in, this will be a great championship course!

There are several different tee-boxes to choose from, and this course will be playable and fair for the beginners, yet should still be a great challenge when tipped out for the pros.

The Scorecard-

Par 3’s- There are FIVE par 3’s, ranging from 110 to 240 yards, so you will use several different clubs. The 9th has almost a road hole style green, and the 15th is a solid redan.

Par 4’s- Another solid mix including some brutal 500+ yarders and a couple that will be driveable for the pros, and filled with strategic bunkering and slopey greens that reward aggressive tee shots to good angles.

Par 5’s- FIVE Par 5’s- 3 of which should be reachable with a good drive, and a couple of beasts that will require 3 good shots to reach.

The Good:

-The Course is relatively flat, with a great routing for easy walking, with wide fairways and open views that will be great for tournament viewing. There are several holes with views of nearby sky-scrapers, several of which can be used as a target for your shot.

-With large greens and vast availability of tees and pin locations, this course can play differently every day of the week.

The Bad:

-It’s in Houston… JK. But seriously, I wish it was closer, and I don’t want to have to experience Houston traffic to play it again.

-The conditions- It’s not there yet, but it will surely get better quickly over the next several months as the grass matures and the rough grows in

The Unusual:

-Pay meter for parking. I have never encountered this before at a golf course, but I guess this helps keep the parking for golfers since it is such a crowded area with tons of joggers.

-There was no standard grill/snack shop at the course, but there is a Beck’s Prime on site, which is apparently a well known Houston Burger bar. The Burgers were tasty, and most of the patrons at were non-golfers.

I've played the old design numerous times and always thought that if they could re-do some of the bones of the golf course that it would serve it well.

Doak and his team hit it out of the park in my opinion. While they removed a lot of the trees, natural brush areas, what they did ultimately was make it, for me anyway, a much more eye catching golf course. Sight lines are tremendous and you are now able to see almost 1/2 the golf course from every tee box or green, which I feel makes for a great visual. The natural ravines throughout the golf course, otherwise hidden, are now front and center. With a pretty aggresive renovation timeline, the course still needs plenty of growth to happen, especially the rough and peripheral areas. That'll happen over time so playing it the next few months may lend to some scratchy lies.

To me the teeth of the golf course are the green complexes. I found the greens rather boring before the reno. Now, most every green has tons of character and movement. Strategic mounding around the greens also has given most every green plenty of character. They are slow now, but that's to be expected, but they roll fine.

Overall, I feel that this is STILL the best municipal golf course in the area and has only been enhanced.

After an extensive renovation from Tom Doak, Brooks Koepka, and Mike Nuzzo Memorial Park is open to the public. I focus most of my reviews on the architectural merits of a course for the average player so keep that mind as you read on. Doak did a fantastic job renovating a local favorite, primarily by utilizing an existing network of ravines that were hidden in the brush. There is good variety of long and short holes (all the par 3s are great IMO) and the greens are fantastic albeit a bit slow right now. Bunkering is a little sparse for my taste, but the course has plenty of defense when the green edges are mowed down allowing the ball to roll away to tight lies. The course has maintained its walkability, and will likely be in better condition around the edges once the course has a chance to mature. The best par 3 is also the best hole IMO: #2. This hole now plays over a ravine to a well defended and tiered green. It’s stunning. The 5th was my favorite par 4, and the par 5 16tb gives both the good and average player plenty to think about on approach shot to the greens guarded by water on three sides. For those familiar with the “Doak Scale” I give it a firm “Doak 6”, and memorial park maintains its place as the city’s best public course.

Memorial Park GC, an in-town, municipally owned and operated layout dating to a 1923 design by Texas legend John Brademus, is open after a year-long renovation. The results are impressive and establish this city classic into national prominence. Credit for it goes to a number of local golf foundations and to architect Tom Doak and design consultant Brooks Koepka. They've rerouted some of the hole marginally, raised the greens, sand-capped the fairways and greatly improved drainage. It's still a bit middy around the edges due to low-lying ground and virtually no elevation change across the site. Tons of short-grass recovery frame greens. A minimum sprinkling bunkers. Wide range of distances on par-3s and of directions and doglegs on par-4s. Great clubhouse, excellent food, a spiffy-two-story driving range teeing ground. And at ridiculously low place. Easily walkable. Hard to get a tee time but that's because it's so good.

Managed a coveted tee time at Memorial Park, and it was worth the effort to get there. A bad forecast seemed to lighten the tee sheet but it turned out to be a solid fall morning. The redesign and construction work by Tom Doak and his team is very impressive. As expected, greens are extremely interesting and you could tell they moved a lot of earth for the sake of both design interest and drainage. Some of the fairways, like the par-5 8th, are surprisingly narrow. The closing stretch is very dramatic, in particular 15-17, and the large pond adds to the drama.

With that out of the way, it is worth mentioning the project had an aggressive 10-month timeline and while fairways and rough have grown in reasonably well, the peripheral areas have a long way to go and there is a lot of loose sod and bare areas. Greens also rolled very slow. Despite rain overnight, staff were still out there handwatering, so it's clear they are still minding the new grass.

Another curious item is that the card has tee boxes at 7,250 and then 6,500. But the backs were set up more like 6,700-6,800 and the whites closer to 6,200. They should just add a 6,900-yard tee and take the pro yardage off the card.

All in all, this is a tremendous gift to Houstonian golfers and really anyone passing through Houston who enjoys interesting architecture at a good price.

I would say you should wait a little while to play it but it's not like Houston is teeming with great public golf so you may as well play it whenever you can get a tee time.

Played the front nine of the newly renovated course last Wednesday and 16 holes today before we ran out of daylight (it’s a real challenge to get an early tee time now). I guess my idea of what makes a course great is not the same as that of the designer, the consulting pro who renovated the course and others who have highly touted it. I played the old Memorial regularly and I’m a high handicapper (23) so that’s my perspective. What I enjoy about golf is the beauty of the course; it’s lakes, ponds, trees, hills, elevation changes (not many here in Houston but plenty elsewhere), etc. The ponds on #1, 6 and #15 are gone. In their place are mounds on #1 and #6 and a creek on #15. Perhaps that was done for better drainage. The beautiful tree lined tee shot on #5 (we called it “the shoot”. Think Augusta #18 tee shot) is gone. The thick brush and trees throughout the course that gave it character have all been cleared out to make a ravine, that was previously not visible, now more visible and in play on several holes like #2. The ravine is not very attractive. A lot more work is needed to clean it out. The par 5 #13 was an awesome hole before. Now it’s an average looking par 4. Personally, I don’t get the changes. In my opinion, the course is now more like Gus Wortham than the majestic Memorial of old. Perhaps my opinion will change once it grows in and matures. If it does, I’ll update my review at that time.