|
Review:
Robson Ranch has 18 holes finished for play right now (although they are the front nine of the two planned Wildhorse and Mustang golf courses). This doesn’t bother play--although the course as it lays out right now is very spread out, making gas golf carts a good plus. These greens don’t have the poor durability that bent grass green do, so if you find the other courses in the area with bent are getting beat up in the hot summer months, you might turn to this track for a change of pace. I played Colonial only one month after my first trip to Robson and the greens were in terrible shape, so I fully appreciated Robson's nice putting surfaces. The two times I played Wildhorse in February 2004, the greens were quite fast although not nearly the 14 on the stemp meter the guy in the pro shop was touting. The greens were not overseeded for the 03-04 winter so they should green up and be in great shape earlier than some other courses. This practice of overseeding makes for a lot of the problems that Cowboys has suffered over the last three years and even though they are not as pretty to look at, they roll truer and take the public course beating a little better.
We are playing there 5.2.2004 rain or shine and I expect to be really pleased with the greens with all the good warm weather we have had. Water will come in play with any errant shots on holes 4,5,6,7,8,9 & 15 with an abundant number of sand traps on all but hole 11. This is a course that you can score on, but the area is wide open and on a bluff so the wind can make your day longer. There is and will be a tremendous amount of new housing construction for the next three or four years, so it can be loud on weekdays with the roofers and such. The total length is 6859 (short by today’s standards) but the four par fives all are in excess of 550 yards, making reaching in two a good feat.
The staff is friendly but still being early in the area's development--and geared to retirees--the restaurant and drink service keep odd hours. You do need to look out for a local crazy lunatic that verbally attacked my group, accusing us of stealing extra holes. He was lucky none of us freaked out on him and showed him the business side of the nine iron. I nicknamed him Santa Clause due to his silver grey white hair and beard--I guess he spent too much time with crazy little people and needed to blow off some steam. Regardless of the good laugh Santa gave us, we had a great time both trips North, playing 36 each visit and scoring well. I hope you get a chance to play Robson and we all look forward to the second course opening in a year or so. Until then, hit them straight and keep an eye out for Santa.
--Patrick Grissom
|
Golf Course Review: Robson Ranch
