God Bless Michael Stranz- He Got it! He left us some real jewels- TR is one of his best!

One of the most unique courses you will ever play. Located just outside the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area only a few minutes drive from the Pinehurst Village and area hotels. While visually intimidating with large sand mounds and seamlessly acres of waste areas the fairways are generous and well conditioned. The greens are generally large however most are undulating and offer lots of pin placements. There are no actual bunkers on the course since all are played as waste areas. With numerous blind shots and dramatic changes in elevation the course is challenging but a great experience. Staff was great and gave free yardage books which are most definitely needed. Based on other courses in the area the rates are fair and most hotels can make a tee time for you if you request it.

This is an enjoyable municipal track in Arlington, a straight shot south from the D/FW airport. I have a lot of fond memories playing this course. The staff is friendly, the price is right, and the golf is not bad, not bad at all.

The city of Arlington has done a pretty good job funding the upkeep of this course...they do regular aerations and sandings, so the course is playable all year. The greens are TifEagle Bermuda, which rolls pretty smooth but does tend to get "grainy."

As for the course itself, it actually has some bite to it. It starts off fairly benign, but when you reach hole #5, you are faced with a tight tee shot and a second shot that must carry a 20-foot-deep valley. Come up short or put too much spin on it, and you're back down in the bottom. Then #6 is a tough par 3 with a carry over another brushy ravine. And #7 is a long par 4, featuring a mid- to long-iron second shot that must draw around encroaching trees on the left to reach the uphill green. #8 is a wide open par 5 that offers some relief, but #9 and #10 are tight driving holes, as are #14, #15, #16 and #18. In short, you'll need to have a good tee game to score well here! There is a lot of challenge to be had for not much money here.

My real gripes are about the conditions off the fairway...if you miss into the trees, many times your ball will be on bare clay and rocks...no grass to speak of. This makes recovery shots difficult and you could damage your clubs. But the argument could be made that that's your punishment for missing the fairway! And really, for 20 bucks you shouldn't be expecting Augusta. But for what you get, this is a great value!

This is a muni golf course located very close to Pasatiempo constructed on very similar topography and has a similar, although not as brilliant, feel. The course is not long and relies on tight fairways and small greens to fend off low scores. The result of the tight layout, however, often translates into long rounds as higher handicappers look for their golf balls in the woods. Great deal for county residents, good deal for others. This is a much better deal than nearby Pasatiempo and an equal challenge. You wont find a better municipal course anywhere.

There is also iconic Disc Course located adjacent.

I have an uncle who was a former public-school coach, and he was one of the first people to take an interest in me playing golf. He liked to play right there at home, and when the Grapevine Municipal Golf Course opened at some point in the ‘80s, he invited me to play what he said was a really nice course. The course was a challenge, so much so that I balked at the chance when I asked him how long it took to play on the weekends -- six hours.

That place was designed by Joe Finger (a friend of Byron Nelson's), and for all the complaining about Rees Jones designing courses that the golfer of average ability can’t handle, I think Finger walked that line back in the ‘80s.

Cedar Creek Golf Course opened in San Antonio in 1989, and Finger’s name is listed on the design credits along with his surviving partners Baxter Spann and Ken Dye (Finger died at nearby Kerrville in 2003). I don’t know how the work was split between the partners (I‘ve been told Mr. Finger did much of the redesign at Memorial Golf Course in Houston), but Cedar Creek walks that same line of being too tough for the average golfer. I played a tournament there recently and it took six hours to finish our round.

Yeah, it’s got some length (7,150 from the tips) while it scores a rather moderate 131 on the slope with a more appropriate 74.1 rating. The course plays longer in spots when you consider that the 435-yard third hole, 410-yard seventh, 455-yard ninth and 435-yard 17th all play uphill (at least on the drives, if not on the entire stretch) and the 455-yard 11th requires an approach over mounds obscuring most of the green.

But it’s the putting surfaces that kills -- and adds minutes to -- your game. At least half the greens have split or tri-level designs, and all of the surfaces have enough undulation that could be considered significant sloping. The superintendent has an annoying habit of cutting pins that are just two or three feet from the start of a fall-off area. The greens are especially slick in the winter when the Bermuda gets dormant.

The outstanding feature of this place is the topography. This is Texas Hill Country terrain; I always think when I’m making the drive out there that I’m going so high up that I'm scraping against the ceiling of the San Antonio city limits. I actually think the design team has made as good of use out of these hillsides as any Hill Country course I’ve played, maybe the best. And this considers a list that includes Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer, who each designed a layout at nearby and highly regarded La Cantera (Weiskopf‘s 18 was the site of the Texas Open until recently).

You get that sense of efficient design incorporating the natural landscape right from the start at Cedar Creek when you tee from a ledge to the first fairway that slants right to left. Any decent drive to the right will roll down center fairway and leave a 9-iron or so from absolute Position A.

There are other holes that are just beauties. The fifth is between 500 and 530 yards of double dogleg from a plateau driving area to a green that’s down hill and blind. The 10th (they flipped the nines at “Cedar” a couple of years back) is really pretty. At less than 400 yards you can swing a 3-metal from an incredibly elevated tee. When I hit it pure I always expect a string to hang from my ball -- like it’s solid core of helium.

This place was the jewel of the city of San Antonio’s municipal course lineup, until the wild hogs started flushing out of the brush and decided they liked to eat dinner through the tee boxes and green fringes, and then when the A.W. Tillinghast-designed Brackenridge Park near downtown was redesigned in 2009. But, now that the city has assigned the management of the courses to the non-profit Alamo City Golf Trail, the hogs aren’t quite as hoggish. Even La Cantera has trouble with the big pigs.

Cedar Creek remains a hot property, and I’m lucky to have this Hill Country golf experience available as a part of my membership in Alamo City Golf Trail. I just always hope the novices aren’t playing when I do.

(Tim Price has more reviews posted on the Secret In The Dirt website. His "Golf Like You're Poor" blog can be read at http://timpricesportsbooks.moonfruit.com/#).

A good value for a round of golf! I've been playing here about once a week for the last year, and it stays in my weekly course rotation. This club is listed as "Private", but Non-members are very welcome. I can't afford a membership, yet I feel like a member here sometimes. The club has a special "service industry" rate that I and my partners qualify for, which makes this club affordable and quite competitive with the municipals around New Orleans. Green fees include a cart and range balls. Also, this course has a full par 72/18 hole track, PLUS an additional executive 9, which also isn't listed in the course details. I often play the executive 9 after the full 18 without paying for it; no one seems to mind.
The course is in great shape year round. Because the course winds through a neighborhood, there is a good about of OB. If you're used to playing you're 2nd shot from the next fairway over, this course will challenge you. Hazards are well maintained and marked. The tees and fairways are well maintained and recover well. The greens here can be a little finicky. Best advice is to be aware of how the greens drain. The uphill side of a green can be fast and dry, yet the low side can be slow and damp. I suppose that goes for any putting green, but these greens need that assessment for every putt. Oh, and the whole course is Bermuda, another factor when putting here.

This course used to be phenomenal, great greens, great fairways. Granted it did get hit with nemotodes last year, but the greens are terrible, even a 12" can get scary. Fairways splotchy. The surrounds of the greens had the best grass of the course. I would bypass this and hope maybe by summer it has healed up

No clubhouse. Fairways are dormant this time of year. Get a lot of roll out if you hit low-medium ball flight. Bunkers are not consistant, fairways have a lot of divots, coots leave a lot of grease like crap all over.Too many ropes along the fairways. The driving range has mats and grass, but bad targets to aim at. Practice green and chipping areas are large. Since they fired the marshals, ball marks on greens, divots, trash and bunkers does not get kept up during the day. Staff is very friendly and will accommodate you. This course is ideal in the spring and summer with the ocean breeze and wildlife.