San Antonio Courses

[texasdave]

Quick glimpse of some of the work at Cedar Creek...this is a pic of the 17th "green" and you can see they are digging into the slope/hill on the right hand side.....also i can't see it fully but it looks like they are putting a sand trap to the right of #10 green.

[texasdave]

Just a heads up on Olmos...played today and the greens are just terrible. 

 

Everything on the front side is basically dead or the grass is so splotchy you can't keep a putt on line. 

 

The back side is slightly better but still they are bad...there was a sign today that the 15th green was closed (they had a temp green that was honestly better than a lot of the regular greens) due to vandalism but when i looked at it i didn't so much see vandalism as it was just a dead green. 

 

Overall ,whoever is in charge of them should be embarrassed. 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2024 by texasdave

[texasdave]

Cedar creek update....lokks  like they are grading out the little mounds on the right side of the 18th fairway...don't know how that will help keep balls from going into 10 and speeding up play but we'll see.

[J_Birdie]

On 4/3/2024 at 2:52 PM, texasdave said:

Cedar creek update....lokks  like they are grading out the little mounds on the right side of the 18th fairway...don't know how that will help keep balls from going into 10 and speeding up play but we'll see.

They’re widening and flattening that fairway out. I’m told there will be a ledge around the fairway 

[texasdave]

9 hours ago, J_Birdie said:

They’re widening and flattening that fairway out. I’m told there will be a ledge around the fairway 

hmmm....i wonder if they'll be widening beyond the cart path or just within the footprint of the mounds they removed?

[texasdave]

Has anyone played Olmos in the last month, have the greens gotten any better?

 

I played Brack Saturday and I hate to say that some of those greens are starting to get bad as well. 

[J_Birdie]

Olmos has 3 horrendous greens, 2 now on temps and #6. The rest are ok. Fairways good. 

[Lobby]

I wonder what’s so hard about keeping the greens in good shape?

 

it’s been several months since I played Olmos and even back then they had a temp green

[texasdave]

The last i heard they were saying it was algae....even if true whoever is responsible for the upkeep should be embarrassed.

[J_Birdie]

The issue is the use effluent water for sure. I bet the chemistry on it changes weekly and water testing costs so much

 

The only course on effluent water that I know to be in ok shape is riverside 

[texasdave]

that's the best explanation i've heard so far...played there last week and except for 2, 6 & 15 the rest of the greens were pretty decent for the most part with some roughness in the edges. 

 

i did see ACGT put out a notice that they hired a new greens keeper for Olmos so hopefully there are some improvements coming.

[texasdave]

Also a brief update on what i can see at Cedar....

 

the 10th fairway has been completely gouged out so probably going to resod the whole thing. 

 

also on the 10th green you can see a small portion of a new bunker they added to the right of the green in this pic.

 

haven't seen much changes in the 18th since they leveled out the moguls on the right side of the fairway. 

[texasdave]

Played Brack today teeing off on the back side and got in 7 holes before the rain hit but I hate to say that the greens are starting to look a lot like Olmos.

 

If it's the effluent water like JBirdie said i guess it's going to keep happening at all the courses. 

[asommers1441]

On 5/31/2024 at 6:47 PM, texasdave said:

Played Brack today teeing off on the back side and got in 7 holes before the rain hit but I hate to say that the greens are starting to look a lot like Olmos.

 

If it's the effluent water like JBirdie said i guess it's going to keep happening at all the courses. 

The greens at Brack have been bad for a year or so. Tough to give them my money with poor greens

[MerryTex]

Does anyone have any insight into how Canyon Springs is playing?

[texasdave]

With word that Cedar Creek will be open in a few weeks just wanted to give a peak at the 18th fairway. Looks like they are going to grow the grass on the slope between the upper and lower level of the fairway; this will definitely keep the balls from rolling down the right side of the fairway and into the trees but I can also see it hanging up there and leaving some long and tough second shots as well. 

[J_Birdie]

Cedar, Olympia, and Quarry all back open. Tee time crunch should subside a bit now 

[texasdave]

3 hours ago, J_Birdie said:

Cedar, Olympia, and Quarry all back open. Tee time crunch should subside a bit now 

i sure hope so, it's been tough the last few months finding and relatively early times these last few months. 

[texasdave]

Anyone play Cedar yesterday?? What did your think??

[texasdave]

Got a chance to play 12 holes at Cedar yesterday starting on the backside and here's a couple quick observations for you guys...

 

they made some really good changes that I think were made with the intention of making the course play a little easier and hopefully a little faster although that wasn't the case yesterday.. any hole I don't mention, had no real significant changes to it

 

#10 they got rid of the bunker short and right of green but added one to the right of the green, about the center of the green. 

 

#11 they moved the cart path from in front of the green to behind the green and there is a strip a fairway connecting the old fairway up to the green and the ditch at the end of the old favorite on the left and the right is filled with stones. Also instead of multiple bunkers in front of the green is a single bunker now... They also cut down the tree at the very end of the right side of the fairway opening up that shot a lot more.  first pick is from behind the green where you can see the strip of fairway and the rocks in the ditch… Second pic is from the second shot where you can see the single fairway bunker on the left of the green.

 

#12 they took out the three grass bowl bunkers in the middle of fairway and replaced them with one small bunker so you have a lot more room for teeshot..if you  expand the picture, you can see the single bunker in the fairway it also seemed like they slightly leveled out the slope on the right side of the  fairway to keep the ball from rolling down into the trees by the car path

 

#18 they raised and leveled out the right side of fairway so balls won't roll into the trees as easily...
 

#2 they took out that big grass hill that blocked the front left of the green so you can now run the ball up a lot easier.. in this picture the flag is in the center of the green and you can see that the left side is completely flat and wide open now

 

finally i didn't play it but on the par 5 9th...they moved the bunkers on the right side of the green more to the right and closer to the cart path..this gives you a good 10yds of grass between the bunkers and the green so you just have a lot  more room to play your second or third shot into the green between the water and the left and the bunkers on the right, andif I remember correctly also instead of four bunkers, it's just two and they start further up into the green versus blocking out the front of it. 

 

overall, the changes that I saw I really liked. I think it will speed up play. alsoI don't know if this is gonna be permanent but some of the tee markers were a good 15 yards shorter than usual but the original tee boxes are still there. Finally, don't count on your ball rolling down,to the fairway. If you hit on the slopes, they have grown the rough up around a lot of the side slopes and if your tee shot starts there, it may end up staying in there.

Edited October 25, 2024 by texasdave

[SBH9458]

Will be in San Antonio for work in March… likely have time for one round.  Any recommendations on top two or three to shoot for a tee time on as a single?  Thanks for the knowledge and advice!

[Other Barry]

On 1/29/2025 at 6:47 PM, SBH9458 said:

Will be in San Antonio for work in March… likely have time for one round.  Any recommendations on top two or three to shoot for a tee time on as a single?  Thanks for the knowledge and advice!

I'm in the same boat.  Mid March could really use a rec as well. 

[texasdave]

i'd send a dm to j_birdie from earlier in the string. he usually has the best up to date course info. 

[SBH9458]

Thanks for the tip @texasdave   I shot him a message.  

[J_Birdie]

Depends when in March. Early mid March TPC will be in prime tournament shape. 
 

Near DT your best bet for public access is Brack / Quarry. 
 

If you have hookups, Oak Hills will be prime. 

[Other Barry]

12 hours ago, J_Birdie said:

Depends when in March. Early mid March TPC will be in prime tournament shape. 
 

Near DT your best bet for public access is Brack / Quarry. 
 

If you have hookups, Oak Hills will be prime. 

If you had to choose between The Bandit and Canyon Springs, which would you pick? Trying to get two rounds in a day, but it might be hard to do. 

[J_Birdie]

Canyon Springs. I don't like The Bandit overall, so thats where I would go. 

[ATXGolferGuy]

How is Hyatt Hill Country?  Oldest son played a tournament there last summer and the conditions were just terrible.

[snagy2000]

2 hours ago, ATXGolferGuy said:

How is Hyatt Hill Country?  Oldest son played a tournament there last summer and the conditions were just terrible.

Buddy played it today and gave up after 9. Apparently they were shooting off groups from on all three courses and when they went to make the turn they were 5 groups deep. Said course was average condition. 

[snagy2000]

Played Canyon Springs today and it was in pretty decent shape. Bunkers are a muddy clay/sand substance but easy to get out of. Balls sat up nicely on fairways. Greens were nice, but a little long and on slower side.  

Edited May 25 by snagy2000