The Wilderness Golf Club, Lake Jackson, TX

[Sam Morrow]

  My girlfriend left me home alone with 2 requests. Don't drink to much and don't play to much golf. Well I screwed up on both accounts. I made the trek to The Wilderness down near the coast, a design by our own Jeff Brauer. Lake Jackson is 45 minutes or so from downtown Houston and is best known for being the home of our next President, Ron Paul. It's about 75 or 80 minutes from my home way out in the northwest burbs but well worth the drive.
  Building a course on the gulf coast you must be creative (see Wolf Point pics) as there is not much to the land. It seems like at The Wilderness Jeff was given a swamp to build a course out of. Well he did okay, the land is flat as can be but has some of the most entertaining green complexes I've seen in this part of Texas. The greens really are crazy and the golf course is in awesome shape when you take into account the $25 I payed today for cart and range balls. In a lot of ways it reminded me of a lesser Whispering Pines.
  I have no doubt in my mind it's one of the best public options in all of Greater Houston and well worth the drive. Kudos to Jeff on great work.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Sam,

Glad you enjoyed it and good to hear its in great shape. They tell me play remains strong and I know Kemper does a great job there.

With a few exceptions (7 and 16) I wouldn't call the greens crazy, but I was just talking to the shaper we used the other day, and we did go round and round about the exact amount of contour in those greens.  They sure look better and we tried to push them to the edge without being crazy, but if they are faster in winter than summer (typical) then you probably caught them at their toughest.

[Sam Morrow]

Sam,

Glad you enjoyed it and good to hear its in great shape. They tell me play remains strong and I know Kemper does a great job there.

With a few exceptions (7 and 16) I wouldn't call the greens crazy, but I was just talking to the shaper we used the other day, and we did go round and round about the exact amount of contour in those greens.  They sure look better and we tried to push them to the edge without being crazy, but if they are faster in winter than summer (typical) then you probably caught them at their toughest.

They weren't overly fast, rolled at a very good pace. Kemper does seem to be doing well down there, I think they have lots of member or very regular play. I got a lot of dirty looks yesterday from the regulars since they didn't know me.

[Bill_McBride]

Son David and I drove down there a couple of Aprils ago and had a great time.  Loved the half pipe green on the short par 4 and the biarritz green on the par 3.  I think David and I were the only walkers that year.  Too bad, it's a very nice stroll due to the generally flat nature Sam notes, and a nice compact routing by Jeff.

[Sam Morrow]

Son David and I drove down there a couple of Aprils ago and had a great time.  Loved the half pipe green on the short par 4 and the biarritz green on the par 3.  I think David and I were the only walkers that year.  Too bad, it's a very nice stroll due to the generally flat nature Sam notes, and a nice compact routing by Jeff.

Saw several walkers yesterday, I rode since I didn't get down there until around 3:30 and I had driven 70 miles or something. Of course that will change since FedEx just dropped off my True Linkswear.

[Don_Mahaffey]

They host quite a few junior events and my son has played the course many times. He likes it a lot. He played there two weeks ago during our unusually cold weather. It was 40 degrees and blowing out of the north at about 25mph. I think the greens were frozen as they were wicked fast. Ryan hit 13 greens and shot 80 because he had 38 putts! He thinks the greens are a little crazy but after playing wolf point for the last three years, he usually does well on greens with some movement. I think his problem that day was he couldn’t feel his fingers.

[Sam Morrow]

They host quite a few junior events and my son has played the course many times. He likes it a lot. He played there two weeks ago during our unusually cold weather. It was 40 degrees and blowing out of the north at about 25mph. I think the greens were frozen as they were wicked fast. Ryan hit 13 greens and shot 80 because he had 38 putts! He thinks the greens are a little crazy but after playing wolf point for the last three years, he usually does well on greens with some movement. I think his problem that day was he couldn’t feel his fingers.

The wind was strong yesterday too, I hit a good drive and 3 wood and didn't even reach number one.

[Steve Lang]

The Southern Point of the Brauer Trail?

Hey Sam, did you happen to notice whether they still had the electrified fences to keep the wild hogs out??

[Sam Morrow]

The Southern Point of the Brauer Trail?

Hey Sam, did you happen to notice whether they still had the electrified fences to keep the wild hogs out??

Tierra Santa holds that cliam, sorry. Yup the fences were up and saw some traps around the property, also had camo carts!

[Bill_McBride]

Wild hog glut?  My favorite Italian dish is the Tuscan treat, pappardelle con cinghale (flat noodles with wild boar sauce). Are the Italian restaurants in Texas serving it?