DECEMBER 6, 2023 www.wintertexantimes.com 12 WINTER TEXAN TIMES 956-580-3370 Serving Valleywide for 35 years Sales • Parts • Rentals • Onsite Service Easy Ride Golf Cars Drive Around In Your Brand New Golf Cart Today! Lithium Battery ezridegolfcars@sbcglobal.net www.easyridegolfcars.com 2508 W. Interstate Hwy 2 Mission, TX 78572 Street Legal STOP BY AND SEE OURHOLIDAY SPECIALS pandemic, it has become harder and harder to find hidden gems on the golf course. Now, they’re precious gems. This is the last week of our threepart series covering these hidden gems in the Valley. These hidden gems are recommended by the golf pros, or regulars, at the golf courses. Hidden gems, diamonds in the rough, unexpected surprises — like finding an extra $20 that was forgotten in the pocket of a pair of pants — can have a profound positive effect on one’s day. Similarly, golf courses have some gems of their own. Sure, they have their “signature holes,” usually the most difficult, most scenic, or most unique (most of the times all three) GOLF From pg. 1 hole on the course. But hidden away are those other holes that bring a smile to a golfer’s face (sometimes dread). Some of the courses that often appear on top of Winter Texans’ favorite places to play are no different. And, over the years have made some changes to not only improve the course but also have made some of their gems all “shiny and new again.” Tierra Santa, Weslaco Tierra Santa is somewhat like baseball’s hitting great, Tony Gwynn – it rarely, if ever strikes out, it improves with age and it delivers hit after hit. The only difference, Tierra Santa has more home runs than Gwynn ever hit. A course that has about every shot-making challenge, Tierra Santa is a course that provides one of the best layouts in the Valley, and what was once the overwhelmingly favorite closing hole with No. 18, which ends with a long shot over a lake unless one goes up the left side, keeping the water out of the way. Tierra Santa is all about shot making. Its gems are similar to when you wake up on Easter morning for the infamous egg hunt – little gems everywhere. While you can grip it and rip it off the tee, which is very forgiving, second shots and approaches are the key to getting a good score on this course. It also may have the best breakfast tacos of all the courses (competing with Tierra Del Sol) and the best hamburgers as well (watch out Palmview and Los Lagos). These have only gotten better over the years as owners continue to invest in the course and its buildings. Treasure Hills, Harlingen What makes this course so special is the bulldog-like way that it not only remains open, but how it has risen in popularity with a truly loyal group of golfers. It was almost shut down due to revenue and the fact that the company that owned it was a medical company that had no reason to keep the amazingly designed 18-hole course. Then it sold and with a lot of word of mouth – and even more tender, loving, care – the course immediately returned as a loved one in the mid-Valley. The course that had left the minds of most, has had a sequel better than the original. Easy-looking holes on the scorecard do not translate to reality. The common phrase says 90 percent of trees are air. It’s a lie. The wide openness of some holes leaves you to think it doesn’t matter how you hit off the tee, just hit long. That’s also a lie – go too far left, even if its wide open, and you won’t have an easy shot, or a shot at all and will have to punch it back to the middle. What’s truly precious about this nearly 7,000-yard course is the scenic rolling hills and the amazing difference between holes. It’s almost as if you’re playing several different courses with different styles. ThereTierra Santa Golf Course. Photo by Anastasia Brunson Stuart Place Golf Course. Photo by Anastasia Brunson
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