In January of 2019, I moved from San Diego, California to Austin, Texas. Having lived in San Diego my whole life, I had no idea what it is like to move to a new city. In that regard, the last 20 or so months, has been very educational for me.
When you move to a new city, you are basically starting from scratch. This hit me the very first Sunday in Austin, when I realized I couldn’t just run over to RB Donuts and grad a dozen donuts and a few donut holes.
When you are in a new town, everything is brand new. You don’t have you “go-to” spots anymore and that includes golf.
In today’s post, I want to share what I have a learned about the Austin Golf Scene and what I hope changes over the years to come.
Let’s dive in.
The Good
There are a couple things that stick out to me on the positive side of the Austin Golf Scene.
First and foremost is the variety of golf that you can play.
The public golf options in Austin are pretty good. If you are willing to drive a bit, there are several high quality public golf courses all throughout the city.
On the West side of town, I play the majority of my rounds at Falconhead Golf Club. It take it for granted sometimes, but Falconhead Golf Club is fantastic public golf course, just 15 minutes from where I live.
The course is challenging and has a great practice facility. For the numbers of rounds it sees, it is always in really good shape.
On the east side of town, I really enjoy ShadowGlen Golf Club. It has a slightly quirky layout, but I have had a couple nice rounds on the course and I did make my only ever hole in one there a in March. It is somewhat in the middle of nowhere, but I like the course and I am willing to make the drive from time to time.
The other positive I am seeing to the golf scene in Austin is it is ready to boom. By that I mean, since COVID started, the driving range at the Falconhead is completely jam packed on a nightly basis. The last several times I have been there, every single spot on the range was occupied and there were also a handful of people on the practice green as well.
You love to see it.
Having more people in Austin playing golf, is a huge positive for me. My hope is, that this will translate to more golf facilities being opened. Namely, more public driving ranges. Which leads me to the bad.
The Bad
When I lived in San Diego there was a public driving range that was open at night, about 10-15 minutes from my house.
One of my favorite things to do in golf, is to hit balls at night under the lights. Standing in the sun and beating balls can get tiring real quick. But, at night, with a cool breeze, I could hit balls for hours on end.
In Austin, I haven’t found a quality range that will allow me to do that. The closest driving with lights is 45 minutes from my house.
BUZZ KILL.
With demand for golf in Austin growing, I am really hoping a few more driving ranges are opened closer to where I live. It would nice to be able to hit a few balls without having to stand in the sun baking. If I could change one thing about Austin golf, it would be to add more public driving ranges, that allowed people to hit balls once it got dark.
The Ugly
This one is hard for me because I have truly enjoyed all that Austin Golf has to offer. However, my one complaint is pace of play.
Listen, pace of play is always going to be an issue at public golf courses. And, I don’t think this issue is unique to Austin. In order for public golf facilities to survive, they need to maximize the number of rounds played per day.
With that being said, a round of golf should not take 7 hours out of my day. With a wife and kid at home, I need to golf to take about 5 hours tops. I need to be able to go play in the morning and be done by lunch, or I need to be able to go play in the afternoon and be home by dinner.
A round of golf needs to be a half day exercise. When it takes 7 hours, my day is completely shot.
All in All
I have been very pleased with the Austin Golf scene. At some point in the future, I am sure I will want to join a private club, but for now I am enjoying my time exploring the public golf landscape. There are a ton of options to choose from and I am enjoying the variety of courses that you can play.
In the future I hope that Austin public golf continues to grow and expand. I would love to see a few more driving ranges and a few more short courses opened up. Who knows maybe I’ll open up a short course like Harris Park (The Future of Golf) with a sweet driving range…
Until next time,
Enjoy the chase!
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