Moody Gardens

It was chilly and windy so yes the conditions were very difficult, but the course was just great.

Enjoyable course amongst some homes. Water comes into play on many holes. Not as windy as normal when we played.

Like the course

It’s 1:45 minutes drive

Wind can be brutal

Keeps the mosquitoes away

Bring your own spray

Love the course

Last hole is great or nightmare

Course looks green and awesome conditions. While fairways are brown everywhere else because of the recent freeze, you don’t see any signs of it here at Moody.

Greens were in very good shape…..bunkers hardpacked…. Tee boxes need care. Still a good layout but not in as good shape as prior years……

Challenging course that is in great condition. Back 9 has a lot of difficult tee shots that reward a good drive.

Played with the usual 15mph SE wind making the first 4 holes on the back nine challenging, greens are perfect, fairways are very good and bunkers are very playable. Pace of play was excellent and the usual variety of birds was present. Plenty of water and brush to lose a ball in and some tough forced carries into greens make solid contact a must or the wind will make you come up short. Just an excellent experience, a great course to walk as it is a flat layout. Staff is excellent. Great practice facility with chipping green and bunker.

This was my first time at MGGC. Because we were running late, I didn't get to check out the clubhouse etc. It appeared to be an older building left over from the former Galveston Muny. It's elevated such that the main floor is on the 2nd floor. I could see that the bar on one end of the building was surrounded by windows and had the usual sports on TVs. So that's a plus.

Two marshals were hanging around the driving range and handling starter duties. They were super friendly ... some good ol' boys. We enjoyed chatting with them for a bit before they sent us off as a 2-some. I was fully in favor of that. I'm not a big fan of playing with strangers. That, and there was a good chance I'd have a poor scoring round; I did. We saw one of the marshals on the course later on but he was likely handling something rather than checking on players. He did have his radio volume up which (luckily) went off just *after* my partner's tee shot. He might want to turn the radio down or use an earpiece while out on the course.

Water, water, water ... it's everywhere on this course. Take a look at satellite imagery and/or your golf app in order to figure out your safe shots. And you can't hit near the water because that area is often marshy. Oh, and it'll be full of huge, hungry mosquitos. So when you find a Titleist Velocity with a blue dot bottom right of the logo ... that's mine. I left them all over that course! :)

Trees ... what trees? There are a lot of palm trees on the course and it looks like the freeze we had last winter killed half of them. Too bad. Past that, this course won't have any trees for you to worry about. You're either in grass (short/rough) or you're in the water. Well, you could end up in the bunkers; I did more than once. I can't really speak to their general condition because they'd been flooded +/- by the recent rains. Some had puddles and some were just soaked and hardening on top. I imagine the course would have to wait another day or so before they could turn them over and/or fluff them up ... if that's something they actively do. The course is flat -- no elevation changes whatsoever. As for the grounds, I didn't notice any real problems. The tee boxes, fairways, and greens were all in really nice shape. The greens were fast though. I don't know if that's normal or if they'd been cut (shorter) recently. But a putt that should've rolled 10ft was going about 14ft.

As for our particular day of play, it was WET. We'd had a day or two of overnight rain so the course was a little sloshy in spots. It seemed to drain fairly well though. Of course, the cart paths had numerous spots where it remained covered in big puddles. It's not a big deal, but is something that could possibly be added to the maintenance to-do list for a (... wait for it ...) rainy day. Speaking of the cart paths, I really wish every single course would use the red-white-blue-yellow paint striping. They do have the various/multiple distance markers on sprinkler heads ... so that's good. But I'm a fan of 'path paint' as it's so helpful to so many. During this COVID time, this is a rare course (that I've seen) that actually has coolers of water available. With COVID still messing with various things in our respective lives, most courses have not yet gone back to putting out water.

With the airport next door, we were treated to a loud single engine plane that was doing touch-n-go's with a quick vertical accent upon takeoff. It was fun to watch. Speaking of noise, I wasn't used to playing on a course that has streets bordering the course such that you get a somewhat steady stream of cars driving in/out of the course as well as the neighborhood next door. I did not care for that ... mostly because I'm just not used to it.

Well maintained course, with no elevation changes. Wind and water chances on most holes are the challenge. If you hit straight you can score. Slice and u r dead.. A few firced carries, but can be managed.

Greens are very well maintained, BUT… …. Few players repair ball marks and marshalling to enforce is not done at all.

Fairways are green and often best south of Houston.

Need to upgrade sand quality/ quantity in traps.

Need some trees ON COURSE for asthetics and to penalize weak shots…. Left side cart path on 18, left side of 3, shirt left on 14… as a few suggestions.

Practice greens are super..

Moody Gardens is a challenging course with the best greens south of Houston

Let me preface this…….it was cart path only on a Friday. I had a1:30 T time, which I know was wishful thinking for me to finish. We were a two some. We mage the turn in 2 hours. We get to 10, there is a foursome a head of us. We first thought they just cut and started on 10. After talking to them they had a 12:45 T time. They were backing up the whole course. The marshal had them stop and let two groups go ahead of them. This put them ahead of us. We waited on 10 t box got 20 minutes.

What happened to skip a hole if your are not keeping up with pace of play.. Got thru 14 holes by 5, returned cart.