Are Greywalls and Rawls Course vastly underrated ?

[Lou_Duran]

Mike,

You are probably right, but not by much.  Having the proximity of a good airport is a very important factor in my future relocation.

Matt,

The first couple of holes are a bit weak with the predominant wind much of the year, and are not as representative of the rest of the course as I might like.  For some reason, the 10th hole didn't fit my eye.  I don't know if it is the pond that bothered me or the shape of the green.

[Matt_Ward]

Lou:

I actually liked the 10th -- when I played it I encountered a stiff 20 mph NE wind and it was a full 5-iron from the tips to access back right pin. Clearly, the hole plays very differently with the prevailing SW wind.

As I said before -- the par-3rd is a real neat hole -- especially when the pin is flush left as far as they go. Playing downwind as I did may be even more demanding than facing the prevailing headwind.

I also liked the par-4 15th and the par-3 16th. Very good holes going in different diections.

[Lou_Duran]

Matt,

I played Rawls on back to back days, late afternoon, early morning.  Day 1 sunny, wind S, SW 35+ mph, 80*+.  Day 2 cloudy, dreary, wind N, NE 20-25+ mph, 45*-50*.  Two totally different courses, with Day 2 more difficult.

The stretch from 12 - 16 is some fine, challenging golf.  The yardages by hole are largely irrelevant due to the wind.  Some guy told me one of the kids on the golf team hit a short iron 2nd into #17 (600 yards +/-) a few days earlier.  Day 1 I didn't get my drive within 50 yards of the water on #18.  Day 2 it was still humming along when it bounced in.  Posting a medal score in such heavy winds must be daunting.  I haven't seen tournament results, though I heard young Andrew Brauer didn't fare too well there while he was having his way with other courses in the D/FW area.  I can see how Rawls might be an acquired taste.  In many ways, it departs from the norm.   

[Mike Nuzzo]

I thought Rawls was excellent.

The 3rd, 7th & 12th were my favorite holes - !!
Lou on the 12th I hit from the left side - blind - and when I got to the opening started clapping when I saw my ball near the hole.
I recall the green not being severe.

13 & 16 were my next tier of favorites - !.
I ran up a long shot off the ramp on 16.
I used the dell on 13

I liked 1 & 2 quite a bit because I wasn't expecting the fairways to be so well done and undulated.

4, 5, 6, 8, 14 - were middle of the course for me.

10 - nice green, 17 & 18 - were my one up from the bottom tier

9, 11 & 15 were my least favorite.
9 was a little dull and the approach to 15 had a lot of cart path behind the green - although it played pretty good.

If it were in Houston it would be my home course.

[Matt_Ward]

Lou:

Amen on what you said.

Wind speeds determine a great deal -- the posted card yardages don't mean much when you must shape shots through high wind speeds.

Frankly, if you can handle Rawls at those varied wind velocities then your overall game will be much better for it.

No doubt the back-to-back par-5 holes at the end will feature some wind issue since they are in different directions. A neat added touch by Doak and company.