We chose to decompress from the excitement of Colonial yesterday by playing a local favorite north of Dallas, Turtle Hill G.C., seven miles from the Texas-Oklahoma border. Muenster isn’t a cheese nor, a horror-thrmed sitcom. It’s a town of 1,500 thirteen miles from the nearest town of any size and an hour from Dallas. The course is in the middle of nowhere, so it has plenty of room. The owner is an airline pilot who flew overhead one day in a helicopter, and got the idea to buy it, rout the course, and build it.
After playing the first two holes you are cursing the friend who burned you for recommending this goat ranch, but from third tee you start to see dramatic hole after dramatic hole. The shaping is eminently natural, it’s completely minimalist. There are even at least two holes with no bunkers. The terrain rolls and tumbles over deep, long swales, and ridges. There is even a great quarry hole, the par-3 11th. There is a great mix of short and long holes, uphill and downhill approaches. At only 6,500 from the tips, 6,000 from the regulars, it’s anything but short. Dick Murphy, the designer frequently played into the teeth of the most severe property, sometimes directly uphill.
At $40 rack rate, $28 reduced the price is a steal.
I’ll have more on this course, as well Cowboys and Colonial shortly.
