Texas Golf: Dallas, Austin, Houston, and the Hill Country
Texas is the most golf-dense state in the South and operates the largest collection of private golf clubs in the country outside the Northeast corridor. Its range of terrain — from the coastal marshland around Houston to the limestone canyons of the Hill Country to the piney east Texas forests — produces genuinely different golf experiences across a state so large that playing Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio in sequence requires more distance than traveling from New York to Chicago. This is the guide to Texas golf for serious players who want to know which courses are worth the effort.
Memorial Park: Houston's Public Masterpiece
Memorial Park Golf Course in central Houston completed a Tom Doak renovation in 2020 funded by Astros owner Jim Crane that transformed a standard municipal course into one of the most critically acclaimed public designs in the country. Doak applied his minimalist philosophy — native grasses, ground game emphasis, minimal earthmoving — to a flat urban site and produced a course that ranks nationally by every credible metric while charging green fees accessible to any Houston golfer.
The Houston Open returned to Memorial Park in 2020, giving the renovated course immediate PGA Tour exposure. The combination of public accessibility, tournament pedigree, and Doak's design quality makes Memorial Park the single most important golf development in Texas in a generation.
Dallas: Colonial and the Metroplex Privates
Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is the most celebrated tournament course in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, home of the Charles Schwab Challenge and the course that Ben Hogan dominated to the degree that it was nicknamed "Hogan's Alley." The challenging layout has hosted the event annually since 1946 and provides a design quality that professional golfers consistently rank among their favorites on the Tour calendar.
Preston Trail Golf Club in Dallas is the metroplex's most exclusive private experience, a member-only institution with no resort connection and a membership that includes significant figures from Texas business and sports. The Tribute Golf Links in The Colony north of Dallas provides the best public links-style experience in the area.
Austin: Hill Country Golf
Barton Creek Resort west of Austin operates four courses on Hill Country terrain, with the Fazio Canyons course as the standout — a design that uses the dramatic limestone canyon landscape with genuine strategic intelligence and conditions maintained to resort standards year-round. The combination of golf with Austin's restaurant and live music culture makes Barton Creek a strong destination for groups where not everyone prioritizes the golf above all else.
The Austin Country Club on Lake Austin is the city's most prestigious private club, with a setting and membership profile that makes it one of the more sought-after private golf experiences in the state for those with access.
San Antonio: Heritage and Hill Country Scenery
TPC San Antonio's Canyons course, designed by Pete Dye and Greg Norman, hosts the Valero Texas Open each spring and provides the most accessible quality golf in the city. La Cantera Golf Club's Palmer Course offers Hill Country scenery at accessible resort prices north of downtown.
The Hill Country: Golf Among the Live Oaks
The Texas Hill Country west of Austin and San Antonio has developed a golf corridor along Highway 16 between Kerrville and Fredericksburg that provides some of the most scenically distinctive golf in the state. Quicksand Golf Course in San Angelo, Boot Ranch Golf Club near Fredericksburg, and the various resort developments around Horseshoe Bay combine limestone terrain, live oak trees, and Hill Country views in a setting that feels entirely unlike anywhere else in Texas golf.
East Texas: The Pine Forest Courses
East Texas around Lufkin, Nacogdoches, and Tyler operates golf on piney forest terrain that more closely resembles Louisiana and Mississippi than the rest of Texas. The Pinecrest Country Club and the Crown Colony Golf and Country Club in Lufkin are the best of the regional private clubs, serving a golf community that is serious about the game in an area that national golf media rarely covers.
FAQs About Texas Golf
What is the best public golf course in Texas? Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, redesigned by Tom Doak, is the current critical consensus choice for best public golf in Texas.
When is the best time to golf in Texas? October through April for most of the state. The Hill Country is often good year-round. Summer heat above 100 degrees makes afternoon golf impractical from June through August.
Is there links golf in Texas? The Tribute Golf Links in The Colony north of Dallas is the most deliberate attempt at links-style golf in the state, designed around recreations of famous Scottish holes on Texas terrain.