Austin, TX - Early April

[FatSlice]

Where to play?

I am heading out for a quick trip and have 2 days to play. I figure 36 on day 1, and 18 on day 2. I'll be staying downtown.

Just internet surfing I have the following courses under consideration: shadowglen, avery ranch, grey rock, falconhead. For day 2 I will need 2 courses really close to one another.

Where are some good places to play? Also any ideas on food or nightlife?

Thanks!

[Marrrk]

allow me to give one giant recommendation for Wolfdancer, which is one of my favorite courses on earth. Did a buddies trip a couple years ago, played falconhead, avery/star ranch, and others and found Wolfdancer to be the best by a lot. looking forward to getting back down there to play it again, along with Barton Creek.

[mctrees02]

Food is easy...bbq!

Franklin BBQ is the best in America. If you go, you need to be there by 10AM to get inside shortly after they open at 11AM. If you get there much after 10, it is highly unlikely that you'll be in line less than 2 hours and there's a good chance that you won't be guaranteed food (they do a head count before they open so people don't wait in line for orders they cant fill).

If you don't want to wait as long, check out J Mueller BBQ (Aaron Franklin's mentor) or Stiles Switch (owner was a pitmaster at Louie Mueller's in Taylor before opening his own place).

If the weather is good, a leisurely dinner at a place like Hula Hut is great for the girl watching.

Barton Creek is a great destination for golf. Either of the 2 Fazio courses are worth the rates IMO. I haven't had much success finding other public courses in town other than Avery Ranch that I really enjoy. If I'm in Austin and not playing Barton Creek, I usually just go for one of the munis near downtown (Lions, Jimmy Clay, Williams is closed for renovations).

[Northside Matt]

Play Barton Creek. I was lucky enough to play both Fazio courses last year. One round was on my girlfriend's company's dime. Great courses. Tough, but fair.

[jsanatx]

Falconhead and Wolfdancer would be my recommnedations.

For your 2nd day, i'd recommend JImmy Clay and Kizer, both munis in the same track.

For food, head on down to Lockhart for some awesome BBQ

[T Shaf]

Barton Creek is fantastic...both Fazio's, then Crenshaw-Coore - check out the Austin Golf Trail and they can set you up...great guy's - Chip used to be a head pro at Barton Creek.. www.austingolftrail.com

[FatSlice]

Thanks for all the good advice!

I wasn't sure how to get on the Barton courses without staying at the resort. I definitely would like to hit up Fazio #2.

And BBQ, yes, will be brisket-powered around the courses!

[longhornmike]

I think if you are going for BBQ, you need to head to the Saltlick. They catered the masters dinner when Crenshaw won, cant go wrong here. Stay away from Shadowglen, course is goofy. If you need 2 close to eachother, i agree with Kizer/Clay as they are at the same place. Never know what you will get with the greens but 2 completely different layouts.

Wolfdancer is a great course, also Lakeside at Barton Creek is fun although its about 25 miles from dtown. For nightlife, head to west 6th Street, that is where most of the young professional crowd hangs out. You can head to east 6th if you want to party with the underage TX students with fake ID's!

[jeffreyl]

2nd Saltlick....my son lives there and it is great IMO


[quote name='longhornmike' timestamp='1332267605' post='4544118']
I think if you are going for BBQ, you need to head to the Saltlick. They catered the masters dinner when Crenshaw won, cant go wrong here. Stay away from Shadowglen, course is goofy. If you need 2 close to eachother, i agree with Kizer/Clay as they are at the same place. Never know what you will get with the greens but 2 completely different layouts.

Wolfdancer is a great course, also Lakeside at Barton Creek is fun although its about 25 miles from dtown. For nightlife, head to west 6th Street, that is where most of the young professional crowd hangs out. You can head to east 6th if you want to party with the underage TX students with fake ID's!
[/quote]

[FatSlice]

[quote name='jsanatx' timestamp='1330469206' post='4397933']
Falconhead and Wolfdancer would be my recommnedations.

For your 2nd day, i'd recommend JImmy Clay and Kizer, both munis in the same track.

For food, head on down to Lockhart for some awesome BBQ
[/quote]

OK so it's funny, but....we ended up doing everything you suggested (more or less).

Update:

Flew in to Austin, touched down 2:30. Grabbed a rental car, headed down to Jimmy Clay. They put us on w/ a cart for $41...for both of us! We were able to finish 18 but were probably the last group to do that. It was OK, and a bargain. We headed downtown to eat but a lot of places were closing (Sunday)...but then we found Lockhart's. How do I say this...the BBQ was not awesome! Maybe an off night? One appetizer was really good, though, and the service and jazz upstairs were good.

Monday had a crap hotel breakfast then headed to Falconhead. The people were nice, the course has a great layout and it in pretty good shape. A couple of fairways and greens are in 'recovery' mode and that sort of knocked it down a notch, but it was fun track. We had a sandwich and beer after 18, putted a little, then went around again. I'd play this course again, but would want to try out some other courses first. Ate dinner at the Brazilian BBQ place...my friend insisted. Those places are OK, I would have much rather had something local.

Tuesday, head out to Wolfdancer. Very helpful people there! The greens had been cut and sanded that morning (oh well) but they still rolled true and weren't bumpy at all...just slower. The approach shots weren't holding very well so I took something off them and it helped. The course was in great condition - lush with smooth fairways. It's a beautiful track with wildflowers and butterflies, rolling green vistas, and dramatic use of water on at least one hole. We got a prepaid coupon from texasgolfon.com and played for $69...that was a deal. The course has a superb driving range, practice area, and two putting greens. After your round, take the scorecard into the bar and they will charge you $0.01 a stroke for your first beer. It's a little out of the way (?) but I'd play this course again for sure.

I really liked Austin - glad I took a chance.

[schwollo]

Question for you . When you say Lockharts do you mean the restaurant or Lockhart the city ? Two very different Things since Lockhart the city wouldn't have jazz or appetizers just BBQ .
Been to franklins myself and It was good but I prefer Lockhart BBQ still

Falcon head is my favorite place to play in Austin since it isn't expensive nor crowded. It's a poor mans Barton in my opinion. I would have picked kizer over clay if given the choice .

[FatSlice]

I went to Lockhart's the BBQ place downtown. I also tried Salt Lick @ the airport and it was just so so. I read about Franklin's but they are open for lunch only and we were on the course!

[schwollo]

Ah yes that's the wrong Lockhart . And salt lick at the airport isn't the same either . Franklins is Good but you would hace to get in line at 10 am wait 1.5 hrs then eat lol Lockhart BBQ tops them all fwiw