Falconhead Golf Club

Course was in good shape for late November.
Pace of play was excellent.

Fun and challenging layout, typically in good to great condition. Early morning rounds are slower than I’d expect. Seems like a few older guys have recurring tee times and they play brutally slow, but they are nice and let me play through. Love the course but the worst part is the aging golf carts. I’ve had them die in the middle of the ninth fairway on me, ruining the round, and others have seemed to sputter the entire round. Management needs to fix or replace these with electric asap. Can’t be charging their rates with this basic amenity issue.

Got the very first tee time of the day. 2 guys 2 girls, guys walking. After the first 9th, a guy from a group of 3 behind us asked to pass us by himself so we let him. After a while Marshall approaches us saying that there shouldn't be a 4 hole gap in between players and asked us to pick up the pace. Where is the common sense here? There is NO WAY we can catch up to a single with 4 people, let alone the guy seemed pretty good as well. I know folks at falconhead emphasize pace of play a lot but that is nonsense.

Course is in good condition and the layout is great. Staff was very friendly and pace of play was exactly 4 hrs. If you haven’t been you should go play it. If it’s been a while; go play it. Lots of elevation change, greens rolled fantastic and about a 10. Challenging par 4’s and getable Par 5’s and 3’s id your irons are on. Enjoy some great holes

Little wind adds to good challenge, interesting angles on this up and down course. Greens in very good shape.

Had to wait 40 minutes for cart, could not hit many range balls, tee off 20 minutes later than scheduled time, therefore only could play 15 holes b4 dark.

Had 2:36 tee time teed off at 3. Only had daylight for 9 holes.

After a 3 HOUR front nine i left. Never saw a Marshall. Had some 3rd rate tournament that day that completely clogged the course, but that didn't stop them from booking tee times right after. Horrible experience!

$75 for rental clubs is absurd. The rental set was more than the round of golf! Clubs were very nice, but only 12 of them and missing wedges. Staff was friendly and course was nice, but the cost of a rental set is outrageous.

If you are looking to play a nice course this is the one, but you better plan to be out there all day. At one point we had to wait for two seperate groups to tee off before our group was able to tee off. There was no tee box where we were able to finish on the prior green and continue to next hole without waiting. It was a very nice course but the fact we had to wait every hole was a huge downer. I would recommend this course, but just prepare to be there for at least five hours.

The course itself is great with wide, forgiving fairways and challenging greens.

First, I got there and they ran out of carts. While at the range, my cart got stolen. My tee time was overbooked and I got pushed to the next one. Constantly had to wait to take shots, sometimes over 20 minutes between each one. My round took 5.5 hours and we barely beat the sunset after starting at 1:25. They need to force people to share carts and ask players to pick up their ball after hitting the limit.

Staff was super friendly: nice driving range
Course was in great shape especially the greens
Traps we well manicured

I don't want you to get the wrong (negative) idea from my review below. I point out things but try to be at least a little funny/entertaining. *Are you not entertained!?* So, I'll put this here and again at the bottom:
*** I highly recommend playing this course! It's a great track and has never disappointed me. ***

First off, shout out to the starter. I don't think I'm allowed to say his name but it rhymes with lob (wedge). He just comes across as a great guy -- always in a good mood when I've come out here. And given enough time, you can have a nice chat with him -- stories, jokes, life, whatever. Anyway, this is a great course to play. I've always really enjoyed the rolling hill country and natural setting. If someone were to come to the Austin area and ask for some of my preferred courses (for various reasons), this one would certainly make the list. Today's round was not perfect of course. My 'job' as a reviewer isn't to just put up a short comment of "course was in good shape, shot well, will be back." What does that do for you as a reader of such reviews!? So I have some good and not so good to point out in my honest and detailed review. I'll start with the things that are particular to this course and today's round and then hit the basics of Tee Boxes, Fairways, Hazards, and Greens. And if you're so inclined after reading this lengthy tale, then feel free to click the Helpful button or leave me a comment. Rarely does anyone do that. But at least then I'll know folks are looking. Thanks!

What are the chances we can get them to put a high net along the right side of the driving range to protect the #9 fairway from being littered with balls by all of you slicers? :) Seriously, the berm isn't cutting it; never has. I shouldn't have to play up the left side just to avoid spending 5-10 minutes looking for my ball while hitting 20-30 range balls back over the hill. The driving range has added an improvement (literally .. a structure) since I last visited the course. They've added covered hitting bays with mats and couch seating [picture attached]. There are four (4) seats per bay along with a coffee table. From what I can tell, this is part of Toptracer Range -- something a few courses in the area are adding. And from what I've read elsewhere, you may be able to play famous golf courses and/or compete against friends. So I guess this will be available at certain times for family fun? Something extra to give the members because they don't want to drive to TopGolf and deal with the drunks, the music, the crowds, the parking, and the cost? Oh, yeah, I can see that as a draw (no pun intended) for having a membership. But it's a really small draw ... even for a golfing family including kids, I see this as a bit kitschy; I don't see it being used more than a few times by anyone. I wonder if it'll last. Otherwise, I guess it'll give folks a way to stay dry while hitting balls on a misty/rainy day. Now past all of that, the Falconhead web site mentions the Toptracer app in order to track data on your various shots. Is this built into all of their range balls; are they all chipped? No pun intended. Or do we need to get special balls from them? Is it available all of the time? Can we hit these from the normal range grass? Does it cost anything? I obviously have questions and no answers at this time. This ... this could be useful for a lot of folks looking to figure out their distances, work on tweaks, etc. And I'm sure it'll be useful for those receiving personal ($) instruction/lessons. Perhaps they'll add more detailed information on the web site soon-ish. (hint hint)

While the vast majority of the course was in *fantastic* shape, I definitely noticed (more so on the front 9) a significant number of areas along the cart path with just hard dirt and rock (often roped off accordingly). I hope they're looking to repair them somehow as it's not a good look. Perhaps the course should pour some of those short cart path turnoffs to show golfers where to enter and exit the fairway. Then I'd put up a more permanent form of decent looking barrier (e.g. short moveable fence sections made of cedar) to stop carts from exiting the path from every possible entry point in a span of 100-200 yards. And while I'm on the pseudo topic of accessibility, I *really* think steps/stairs are needed to get up/down from the #10 green. It's always been just a bit too steep. Anytime I see every age of golfer having to be extra careful walking up and down, that means someone's going to slip, blow out a knee, etc. Steps towards the back part of the green (after the bunker) where the vast majority of golfers walk would be very welcome. Are you listening Falconhead? Thanks for listening.

Are there any kind of yardage markers on this course other than the hole signage by the tee box? I know they don't have red-white-blue-yellow painted cart paths markers. They don't have 150 yard polls. I think I remember them in the past ... maybe. And I don't recall seeing sprinkler head markers (but I wasn't exactly looking). Many of us are now using apps for yardage. And they can work quite well. So are courses going to start letting go of yardage markings altogether? I'm okay with that if they put GPS in the carts but that's likely proved too pricey for many courses with subscriptions, updates, maintenance, etc. Otherwise, I think some form of yardage markers need to stay.

There are two (2) bathrooms on the course away from the clubhouse. They look nice from the outside and I can only assume that they're air conditioned. The drink machines, however, could use a little adjustment. The one by #5/6 apparently only takes single $1 bills and nothing else -- no credit cards either. My partner didn't have singles. So, he bought one at the clubhouse for $3.25. Wait, the drinks are $3 in the machine but $0.25 more in the clubhouse ... for the exact same plastic bottle of Dr Pepper!? :) The machine by #13 wouldn't even take my partner's newly acquired $1 bills. So he had to go without his caffeine fix. I did see a number of water jugs on the course. I'm glad to see courses putting these back out after the past 18 months of COVID-19. I'm cautious in general, but I'm fine with having the water back.

Tee boxes ... were alright but many were a bit overplayed. I can't really fault the course much though. This semi-private (because they have membership) course is in a nice neighborhood and the folks are a little more comfortable financially than a lot of the surrounding metro area. So they're apparently able to come over way too often while 'working' from home. :) I did notice that hole # 4 has two (2) sets of tee boxes. I swear that I've never seen that in my previous rounds at this course over the past 17 years (since I first played it). Anyway, the set we were on was likely on its last day of play (I hope) -- dry and beat the heck.

Fairways ... were really all in excellent shape. Green, lush, rolling, and nicely cut. And the rough was forgiving more or less. There's a lot of natural plant life in the rough etc. They likely didn't have to bring in much of anything to complete the 'landscaping' of this course. For that reason, you can get a mixture of tall grasses, trees with spreading roots, broadleaf weeds and clover, as well as just good hard dirt (under some of the trees). It can test you in more ways than one.

Hazards -- mostly just bunkers with only a minimal amount of water. The bunkers were all in fine shape for the most part. Of the ones I found, one was a bit hard and compact. But the others had nice soft sand. Sometimes that's good; sometimes not. It just depends on your style of play and what you're used to finding. As for water, #2 has a barely wet crick below the green due to recent rains or a busted sprinkler head. #8 has the pond below the par-3 of course. It's the only real water you have to worry about on the course. And #15 has a pond to one side of the fairway before you get to the green but it's certainly not a carry; it even disappears off to where it'd be OB +/-.

Greens ... only one or two with a small-ish burned up spot today. Otherwise, these were all rolling very consistently. On occasion, the uneven terrain surrounding a particular hole can trick you into seeing a break that is or isn't there ... or just throw you off completely. Not complaining -- just pointing it out.

*** I highly recommend playing this course! It's a great track and has never disappointed me. ***