What once was the best kept golf secret in the Rio Grande Valley, a diamond in the rough, has turned into a dynasty and is once again the Winter Texans favorite golf course not just in the mid-Valley but across the entire Rio Grande Valley. The course has now captured the top spot four times in the past five years.
However, for those who have played and visited the course, it’s not just the quaint course that’s challenging, but forgiving, peaceful yet haunting and plays with all your senses until you get to the clubhouse, it has that certain “it,” that immeasurable feeling that the course gives itself to you, a complete and fun experience.
Its golfers are the utmost loyalists and want to make sure that it is recognized for all that is good. Over the years, Stuart Place has won other honors such as favorite hole (No. 9), favorite pro shop, favorite 19th hole, favorite putting green and favorite amenities – the popcorn and the people. A place everybody seems to know everybody’s name. The course is located at 155 Highland Dr. in Harlingen.
Llano Grande tied for second place in the mid-Valley along with Tony Butler and Tierra Santa.
Hidden from plain view, Llano Grande Resort and Country Club is an 18-hole championship golf course with a beautiful layout that is both challenging and varied with its terrain.
You can play nine or 18 holes, and you will be glad you found this quiet gem of a course, located at 2215 East West Boulevard in Mercedes. In fact, this course has way more to offer than golf – it offers living in a peaceful manner with pools, tennis courts and the Double Bogey Grill
Here’s a little tip – you may want to play here as quickly as you can – it’s not a secret anymore, and it used to hold the best chili-cooking competition maybe across the entire Valley.
Tony Butler is new and history-laden at the same time. Named after the famous golfer, the city has invested so much that you may not recognize it. The challenges are different, the beauty has increased, and the course truly has a new face. This 27-hole course has always been a popular municipal course, but now its bursting at the seams with golfers who want to see if they can master it – good luck with that. The course is located at 2640 Golf Course Dr. in Harlingen.
Tierra Santa Golf Course in Weslaco gives golfers all the positives of a wonderful lifestyle, from the clubhouse to the grill and pro shop – and maybe the most spectacular and challenging course in South Texas – it’s just that beautiful.
Every hole is a different challenge, every green you hit makes you feel like a champion. Tierra Santa is located at 1901 Club de Amistad in Weslaco. Put this course on your bucket list – go play it and put it back on that bucket list.
Winter Texans’ favorite Upper Valley Course is Champion Lakes, 2701 S. Ware Rd., in McAllen, formerly known as Palm View. Tierra del Sol and Ebony Hills were selected as second and third respectively.
Champion Lakes is one of the most illustrious municipal courses anywhere, never resting on its laurels. It seems to always have some type of project going on to make it part of the community. Recently it built lockers for the University of Texas-RGV golf teams, it added maybe the longest and best lighted driving range in the Valley, it holds the Valley’s most prestigious golf tournament – the McAllen City Amateur where golfers come from all over the state and Winter Texans make it happen with all of their volunteer hours.
But that’s how McAllen Director of Golf Carlos Espinosa runs his course – his concern is for those who play there and he’s always gathering input from local golfers and has been known to go to Winter Texan parks to see what they are interested in.
It’s a beautiful course and the South Texas wind also calls it home – so be ready for that as well.
With all the issues Tierra del Sol (700 E. Hall Acres Rd., Pharr) once had, the city breathed new life into it not once, but twice and the course is in the best condition it has been in years.
Several of its holes are wide open – feel free to grip it and rip it. Don't get too carried away however, because some require an assassin’s aim. There are plenty of shortcuts on this course that will bring golfers mega rewards. But there are also risks.
Its clubhouse is quaint and friendly – and has the best breakfast tacos around – just those make it a must play (or at least must eat) course.
Ebony Hills remains open – is a survivor – and thriving. It has a simple layout with very few obstacles in your way, making it a dream course for any level of golfer to attack the greens aggressively and practice shots one wouldn’t dare try on a tougher layout with all sorts of hazards. One reminder though, like its sister golf course Los Lagos, the wind can do dastardly deeds to your golf ball, and your round.
The 9-hole par-35 course is located at 300 W. Palm Dr. in Edinburg. It’s the course you play if you want to just clear your mind and have a good time.
River Bend Golf Course took first place in the Lower Valley with Brownsville Golf Center, Long Island Village, and Valley International all tying for second place.
River Bend Golf Course and Country Club (4541 US-281, Brownsville) was once the best kept secret golf course in the Rio Grande Valley.
Since then, however, ownership has not only marketed the course to Winter Texans inside and out of the country club, but they’ve also added a touch to make the challenging, but fun course, a more memorable event.
In the past few years, the course has removed trees and cleaned out the holes that run along the Rio Grande, providing golfers with a view that is enough to bring them back to the course.
River Bend opened as a nine-hole course in 1983 and quickly expanded to 18 holes just two years later. Thirty years later, in 2015, the Barnard family, owners of Coastal Realty and long-time Brownsville residents, bought River Bend and the new strategic marketing plan was put in place. That strategy included improvements for residents and letting golfers know that River Bend golf course was no longer a secret place – its doors opened widely and welcomed all.
No. 5 ranks as one of the most scenic holes in the entire Valley. From there one can see the entire river and take a deep breath to enjoy their surroundings.
Long Island Village golf course (33840 S. Garcia St., Port Isabel), an 18-hole par-3 course where most holes are less than 100 yards, seems at first like a quick pit stop on the way to the Island.
It’s much more than that. One thing is guaranteed, you won’t be too many holes in before you realize that this could be the most challenging course you’ve ever played.
Those little half-swing 100-yard holes sometimes take a 200-yard swing to get them just to the green as the infamous South Texas wind takes its anger out on anyone with a golf club.
Golfers have claimed that the wind is a knock-down wind; others say they’ve seen it blow in two different directions, all within the time a ball is hit from tee to green.
Golf has a long history in the Rio Grande Valley and very few courses have had a greater impact than that of Valley International Country Club, 301 McFadden, in Brownsville. Great names blazed a path on this course and not just the best from the Valley, which include Al Escalante and Tony Butler, but also Jimmy Demaret and Hall-of-Famer Ben Hogan.
The championship course is demanding but tries to offset that with four sets of tees to ensure beginners can enjoy their round. The short course allows golfers to work on their short game and have a quicker round.
Its signature – and No. 1 handicap hole – is a 421-yard par-4 dogleg right. The fairway is tight so you can make or break your score right from the tee box. You also have to hit it far enough to make sure the pine tree forest is cut off from being in the way for your approach shot. Anything but perfection and you might need a calculator to keep track of your score – or an eraser on the end of your pencil.
Brownsville Golf Center, located at 1800 W. San Marcelo Blvd., is a simple – not necessarily easier – course, but you still have to survive it.
Even after a great round in the blistering sun and hair-dryer-like heat, you still have to persevere with the massive 580-yard par-5 No.18 that awaits you before you can be set free.
You’ll not only need to be physically capable of getting to the green in three (maybe two depending on whether or not the wind is blowing in your face – isn’t it always?) but you also need your mental toughness.
The hole is a dogleg left and the key is to draw around the dogleg and cut off a few yards.
Hit your tee shot too long and straight, and the hole is longer. Draw it nicely and you could leave yourself 250 yards out for a long, but possible second shot onto the green. There’s water on the left, houses on the right so do the “simple” thing, go long and straight down the middle.
