Well what kinda of experience can one expect out here in the Outback of Texas, for $19? I think the place doubles as a limestone quarry . . . as you can see they have boulders to spare . . . .
What's odd is that there's another stonehenge in Kerrville, actually Ingram, in the same way this course is in Fredericksburg, actually Harper. . . .
I kinda rushed over to the 1st tee, to make sure I beat a couple of other groups onto the course, but I had to pause a minute over the first tee shot . . . 440 yds, uphill, into the wind, and looking kinda "shut-off" if you see what I mean . . . 
I started getting a queasy feeling on the 2nd tee, it looked this cut-off, too . . . I tried to smooth hook it around the 110 degree dogleg and got a double-cross straight ball -- and OMG, that wind, too -- right thru the dogleg . . . I looked a little bit in the fairway beyond the rocky trash outside the dogleg, but I gave it up with a shrug . . . another drop . . . but I was floundering now due to my disgruntledness . . . If I wasn't in a hurry, I woulda liked to go back to one and start over. . . 9 on this bent SOB and I am already fed up with live oaks and blind shots -- but the whole course will be like that.
I shoulda just kept my driver in my bag, used fairway woods, but I got away with it on #3 . . . over the faux dogleg on the left then an expert trouble shot with the magic 5iron upby the green, up-and-down for par . . . the greens were pretty flat, & bermuda, so right away I felt at home.
I'd be surprised if they haven't lost some golfers on #4 after that start. . . long holes, tight fairways with blind shots and trees crowding 'em . . . lotta guys would just throw themselves offn a cliff like this . . . big ole target with a PW, NBD. . . Par for me.
Now back to the frustration . . . I see a little sense in that giveaway par 3 #4 . . . 8^) . . . the rest of the holes on the front 9 are very short, usta be part of the original executive 9 . . . it's no job to get over those live oaks, but still a question about how much to bite off.
so I hadda hit another trouble shot out of the trees, downhill to this sheltered green . . .lotta algebra going on to save bogey.
I like this little hole, #6, but I'd move the green further back up onto that hill a little bit to elevate it . . . then it would really be dynamite . . . look a lot like #17 at the 500 club in SCX . . . same sorta deal . . . 3wood then a wedge up there. 
Course since I had smooth-hooked it short of the trees on the left I hadda pitch out first, then blocked the 9iron right, so I took a 6.
I was a little more comfortable with the tight layout now . . . I mean, I grew up with live oaks so they ought not bother me, but there's some part of the calculation that just says tree, not how big it is . . . if you see what I mean, unless you discount it manually . . .but this hole is so tight the camera couldn't focus on the green, just on the dang trees . . . made it blurry.
So, I just smoothed a 7iron without hooking the holy bejabbers out of it, and stared it down . . . I tho't it would bounce hard, but it stuck hard . . . 8^) . . .
So I was pumped up, rarin' to go, but I couldn't find the #8 tee . . . drove past it twice before I figgered the routing out . . . flummoxed me so I forgot to get a shot up there, on top of that stone-buttressed butte.
another kinda quirky hole, to be kind, with this tree right in front of the green. I tho't I might float a high cut 3wood in on the green, but my line drivish shot caught the tree . . .easy enough to chip a 7iron out past the hole and 2putt back.
So #9 goes back up that same hill #8 comes down . . .the green is dogleg left behind those trees. . . I just tried to cut the corner with a smooth 3wood, but it double-crossed me again -- I don't really know what I'm doing, the empirical evidence shows -- out right of that little tree beyond the opening.
So Lob it up there with some bite. I forgot the bite. 3putted from there. Seem to remember it was really steep back to front, much steeper than most of the greens here.
I gotta say. . .take it FWIW . . . IMVHO, an' all that, but any layout that starts out a 9 with a par 3 is inferior
I was kinda lickin' my chops after the last par3, even tho' this un is much longer, but I pushed it a little over that tree right of the green, but it hit a hump there and bounced straight at the pin . . .
This was makeable, but I didn't.
I tried to cut this corner and let the wind bring it back, but wound up in trouble on the left.
Had no shot, just had to chop it out. In my irritation I didn't even see these two trees till I'd thinned a 7iron over the green. Double Bogey.
I'm still thinking I could reach one of these par 5s in two, so I cut the corner here as much as I dared and didn't smooth it, figgering a little fade don't hurt. Left into the woods again. As strong as I felt starting out I suspect the lay-off is telling on me again, affecting my so-called technique. Well, it wasn't actually the woods, but the fairway is so tight on this par 5 it might as well have been . . . took the 3wood out of my hands. . . just popped up a 5iron to make sure I got over the trees, blocked a 9iron into the woods hard-right upon the green. Had a makeable putt, but missed.
On #13, I'd caught up with a group of regulars, and they let me play thru . . . I hate to play thru, but I was rushing my round, and I'd rather rush than wait, if you know what I mean, but that meant I didn't get photos. I mean, I'd take 'em, but I forgot. That same fence runs down the left side sorta angling into the fairway and I misjudged how close it got to the fairway, my distance, and my not-so-hard-fade. . . I just skipped it, with a wave back at the boys. Phooey.
#14 has an appalling appearance. . . I mean: what are you supposed to do? I finally decided that going between the trees with anything more than a 4iron would be in the water and anything less than a driver would take the green-in-two out, so I just gritted my teeth and hit the 1wood over the trees on the left, and hoped it'd stay out of the water.
well, the lie was just turrible, turrible, and still blocked out, so I kinda pooched a 5iron out to the bottom of the hill where the green is then tried to wedge close . . . went over, and took 3 to get down.
I couldn't challenge this corner, even tho' it's obvious that staying right makes the hole way longer, I just had too much bad luck trying, and that is OB there.
So my 3wood wasn't gonna reach the green, I knew that, but I never figgered for trouble like this. Maybe I'll link this to my review of the book Bad Lies, and vice versa . . . 8^) . . .
I chipped it with a 7iron one handed, my left hand holding the tree like a lady . . . I hadn't practiced that . . . it came out ok, but long, and it took 3 more to get down. Bogey, to make 5 6s in a row. Ouch.
I chipped it with a 7iron one handed, my left hand holding the tree like a lady . . . I hadn't practiced that . . . it came out ok, but long, and it took 3 more to get down. Bogey, to make 5 6s in a row. Ouch.
My teeshot on #16 came off the toe a little bit, but solid, and rode the wind right thru the dogleg. It actually wound up on #17 it was so far . . .near the bottom of the slope between that telephone pole and those trees. . . the fairway is on the other side of those trees . . . 8^D . . . I tailored a low slice under the trees but came up a little short right. bogey. woohoo!
It is the most glaring oddity of this course that the par 3 #17 is longer (230y)than the par 4 #18 (221y). I was wary of hitting driver, even against the wind, so natcherly my first 3wood came up short . . . I kinda smothered it trying to smooth it. Letting loose on the next un pulled it left with a fade that got over the water, but still short . . . shudda hit a half-driver, I guess. Tho't I was thru with 6s, too, but this was another.
#18 is totally closed off. I guess you could reach it if you hit a high one over the trees to the blind green, and I tried to, I mean, WTF, anymore . . . as you can see, I was pin high, but right, behind some trees and a bunker. I hit a brazen little 7iron pitch under the trees, around the trap, and onto the green, 15ft away. Can't complain. Missed the birdie.
SO: fun course, and no pushover despite the short yardage, due to the very narrow, rolling fairways and blind shots . . . some of that would mitigated with familiarity, but the layout is made for old duffers, patient and accurate, rather than the grip-and-rip-it school . . . and once you know how to club those short blind shots, I think the challenge might come out of it. I only count 4 missed birdies out of 5 chances, which irks when I was hitting the ball so solid most of the day, but othello balls (hit well but not wisely). I'd still give a 3 on the SCX Standard.
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