15 WINTER TEXAN TIMES www.wintertexantimes.com FEBRUARY 22, 2023 Elliott’s Custom Golf 712 N 77 Sunshine Strip #20 Harlingen, TX 78550 (877) 428-5448 • elliott@customclubs.net SKYTRACK LAUNCH MONITOR Improve your game and receive instant and real-time 3D shot analysis and ball-flight data. Identify strengths, weaknesses & dispersion • Bag Mapping to select the right clubs on the course • Wedge Matrix to master short game Five Star Customer Ratings - Google Reviews COMPUTERIZED CUSTOM CLUB FITTING who live on the course and from the wide swath of visitors. A course that has no boundaries when it comes to challenges. The water enhances the beauty of the course, and the river has carved the course to precision. The place, at one time a diamond in the rough, lets golfers enjoy everything about it and escape worldly woes. “It is so peaceful. I love to go out the back 9 at dusk,” Garcia said. “It has natural terrain. It’s very different than other courses. It’s fun and always kept in great shape.” South Padre Island Golf Club With the most picturesque sights from the many tees of the Laguna Madre and South Padre Island in the distance, the view at South Padre Island Golf Club is enough to get you to go back time and again. Located at 1 Golf House Road in Laguna Vista, the course can go from a normal to challenging course to extremely difficult when the wind decides to pay a visit. The course rested on its laurels for a long time and the wind, heat and golf traffic wore it out, but new ownership has breathed amazing life into a course that now gets more beautiful to play daily. It definitely needs to be on everyone’s bucket list of things to do/ see if anywhere near it. Like many courses in South Texas, the wind alone is an ample challenge to the 6,800 yard course. When that wind comes out of the north, be prepared to change clubs on your initial thoughts almost all the time. The biggest guessing game here is how many clubs do you go up or down, the wind is that strong. Of course, location, location, location adds to the enticement of this course. You’re just a “stone’s throw away” from a nice relaxing evening at South Padre Island. Long Island Village When Outdoor Resorts decided to build Long Island Village and its golf course, the first thing they did was buy a farm in Bayview to truck over top soil, said Jennie McBride, LI Village golf committee member and newsletter writer. Unfortunately, that topsoil was also saturated with salt. “They wanted to haul in the dirt because Long Island Village is made up of dredging the intercoastal,” she said. “Then a hurricane came, and the saltwater killed all the grass – but they didn’t buy another farm.” LIV Golf Course was built in 1984 and was designed by the same architects that built the golf courses for Disney World Orlando. Only about 50% of the grass on the fairways was successfully established. It was described at that time as “A well designed course with excellent greens and the rest was an eyesore.” On Christmas Eve in 1985, the place got hit hard by a freeze for several hours. The palm trees and shrubs died, and what grass there was, and the greens, turned dark brown. The area, named so simply because it is a true island, and it’s long, was at one time called the Jim Paul Golf Course. McBride says the course is a daily project but a super popular place for golfers, have named it as one of the top three courses in the Valley for several years running. Not only is it unique but it is considered the “toughest little par 3 in Texas,” according to one visitor. The layout is simple – but not a pushover. The wind is Valley wind at its finest, and largest. Golfers have talked often about needing to go up or down two or three clubs for holes that range in distance from 44 to 146 yards, making the longer ones seem closer to the 200 range with swirling gusts. Golfers can purchase their pass, play a round or more, take a break for lunch under the new “gathering area” built in 2019 and go back out for even more golf. It’s yet another appealing aspect of the long island course known as Long Island Village. Brownsville Golf Center The Brownsville Golf Center opened in 1971 and provides everything for every golfer. Not a terribly difficult course, it was built and continues to be at will of golfers at every and all levels. The course was originally built to play 6,144 yards from the blues and the reds are 5,091 yards. To bring in additional golfers, the course offers glow golf, nighttime golf with balls that glow and glow sticks outlining the fairways, greens, and holes. “It’s a pretty short course and that makes it great for walking,” said the pro shop attendant. For years, the belief has been to keep it an inexpensive form of entertainment for newbies, amateurs, and pros alike. River Bend Golf Course. Photo by Henry Miller Long Island Village. Courtesy Photo See GOLF pg. 21
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