Cary,

They are all fine and fun. I find Fazio Canyons to be the best. Check out the "Dellionaires" homes up in the hills above the course....

Austin Golf Club (ben Crenshaw) is private, but awesome.

Weather should be spectacular then. Try the barbeque at The County Line in town, or the Salt Lick 20 minutes away.

Cary, that is a great time to go if the greens on the course have not been overseeded. If so then you might run into some transition issues. I was in San Antonio last weekend and it seems a number of the daily fee/resort courses are overseeding the greens. I like all the courses but feel the palmer course is the weakest of the bunch. There is plenty of good to very good golf in the area. The golf is great, the music better and the girls better yet. Texas has its strong points. The only place better is here in the land of the LSU Tigers

Barton Creek is a very nice facility.  I have only played the Crenshaw course, which I thought was wonderful.

If you are staying at Barton Creek, it is not too far to Circle C, which is my favorite public course in the area.  To that same end, almost all of the City of Austin Munies have some interesting history behind them.  So, even if the courses are not outstanding, they are nevertheless interesting.

Weather: will be great.

Course conditions: not sure of the schedule in Austin, but many courses punch the greens in early April.  Accordingly, I would suggest asking before making a tee time.

Food/drink/etc.: For BBQ, Salt Lick and County Line are acceptable.  But, if you want truly transcendent BBQ, make a trip out east of Austin to either Lockhart (Smitty's, Kreuz's, Black's) or Luling (City Market).  Closer in to Austin, I think the mexican food is better than the BBQ.  For a mexican breakfast in an institution, Las Manitas on Congress.  For a mexican lunch or dinner, hit Maudie's or Guerro's (Austinites will tell you to skip Guerro's, but it is a good scene with good - not great - food).  If you go out at night, skip 6th street and go to 4th instead. [P.S. I realize this goes beyond your original inquiry, but I think Austin is the best city in Texas - no I don't live there - so I wanted to give you some suggestions]

Enjoy your trip.

Austin Country Club is nice also.  I liked that more than Barton Creek Fazio course.

Cary -

the accomodations there are spectacular too so your bride will enjoy that. The golf is excellent and I am sure you will be able to find your way onto Austin CC.

Jim

Cary;
If you do come to our fair city of Austin, please do look me up for food or golf.

On the golfing front, 3 courses at Barton, but strangely, I like the C&C course the best. Very rough around the edges compared to recent work, but very enjoyable.

As for BBQ, here's my reccomendations:
Rudy's - Best "moist" brisket
County Line - Best beef ribs
Salt Lick - Best pork ribs & sausage

Afraid my wife eating habits may not correspondence with Austin's best . I will look you up.

Funny that most have panned the Coore and Crenshaw course and based on that, I haven't put it in my roatation. Mistake???

Cary

You are welcome to join us, playing BC 22-24, ditto the Quarry in SA, I like almost every quarry type course I've played, they tend to get quirky and I like quirk.

Funny that most have panned the Coore and Crenshaw course and based on that, I haven't put it in my roatation. Mistake???

Panned?

I gave the Crenshaw a 6 which means very good / worth a game if in town.
Sam gave it a wonderful.
Steve gave them all fine & fun.

Cheers

Cary,

When you play the Quarry in SA.., the 9 actually inside the quarry.. do believe the "Beware of Snakes" signs... when/if looking for balls off on some sides..

Did you learn the hard way?

The Coore/Crenshaw course is a lot of fun. I think you should play for its interest — and one other aspect...when you get back to your computer you can enlighten those on GCA that even C&C use catch basins!  

I don't have a whole lot to add except that the one time we went was at the end of April and there were severe thunderstorms all three afternoons. So be prepared for the possiblility of stormy weather.

I was commenting on one of the numerous oversize houses over looking the resort. They told me that it cost about $4 million dollars and was 30,000 square feet. Doing the quick math it was pretty reasonably priced on a square foot basis. If I could only figure out what to do with 30,000 square feet.

The resort was better than most. Dinner at Flemmings in Downtown Austin and then out to the bars. Lunch at County Line on the departure day was worthwhile. My buddy had a hole in one on the C&C course and ended up buying the wine at Flemmings.

We didn't make it out to the Palmer course but the three courses at the resort was plenty.

Bill

I was at Barton Creek a couple of weeks ago and had a good time playing couples fourball games.  I prefer the C&C course based on several rounds there - great big sprawling greens just laid over the natural terrain, about half falling away.  Good use of some rolling terrain, and pretty walkable.  The Fazio Canyons course #2 for me, it's on very good terrain, but most of the greens built up in back, lots of apparent shaping. Fazio Foothills #3, its pretty overshaped in a couple of places, crumpled potato chip stuff.  The site gets pretty tight in a couple of places but there are good holes along the western escarpment above Barton Creek.

Palmer course is too big a drive to justify playing, it's #4 without a bullet.

Las Manitas closing?  

A really good side trip is a visit to the LBJ Library at University of Texas.  

County Line BBQ is dry dry dry.  

Tommy,

So what are you saying, either CC or FR uses catch basins on high spots, rather than in the traditional low areas?  Or that they put them in "grate side down" so they are there, but really don't catch water?

I suspect that they use them just like other gca's - to catch water where it needs to be caught.  As to style, I think it nearly elimnates grass bunkers from the CC repitrore.  IMHO, their style might use that, if they ever decide to emulate classic courses built in the 1920's, but as they existed in the 1930's, after eliminating "unnecessary" sand bunkers to reduce maintenance costs.

It may be just me, having grown up playing a lot of courses with those grass indentions, but I think that's a cool look.