birdies & bogeys: guided by old adages
By Russ Pate
”Remember the Alamo” is the phrase most closely
associated with the city of San Antonio, uttered in homage to the brave souls
who stood up to Gen. Santa Anna and his onrushing Mexican army during Texas’
fight for independence in 1836.
Canyon Springs Golf Club, one of San Antonio’s premier golf facilities, has a memorable phrase of its own: Remember to stay below the hole. Golfers who allow approach shots to stray above the pin at Canyon Springs will suffer a fate as inevitable as the one shared by Col. William B. Travis, Davy Crockett, Col. Jim Bowie, and other members of the heroic Texas garrison.
They’re doomed.
With its natural elevation changes, rock outcroppings, creeks and streams, live oak and mountain cedar trees, weeping love grass, and foraging deer, Canyon Springs provides no shortage of visual appeal. A towering waterfall behind the 18th green, for example, makes golfers stop in appreciation. So do the elevated tees at No. 10 and No. 15, from where players can scan the breathtaking countryside.
In short, Canyon Springs captures the true Texas Hill Country golf experience in form and texture. Observes John Lewis, head golf professional: “Even though we’re backing up to the city limits of San Antonio, the minute you pull into Canyon Springs you feel like you’re 15 miles out in the country.”
Splendid scenery notwithstanding, the principal feature at Canyon Springs, built in 1997 by Thomas Walker, a top hand for Gary Player’s golf course company before embarking on his solo design career, is the putting surface. The FloraDwarf Bermuda grass greens at Canyon Springs are large, undulating, multileveled, canted, and typically play at a pace more commonly associated with Olympic sprinters.
Although course superintendent Steven Dennis strives to keep greens at roughly 8.5 or 9.0 on the stimpmeter, they can become quicker than a hiccup. That’s why assistant golf pro Robert Kent, summarizing the keys to posting a good score at Canyon Springs, succinctly states, “Don’t three-putt and keep your ball underneath the hole.” Those scoring factors aren’t mutually exclusive, either. Just as night follows day and ducklings follow their mothers, at Canyon Springs, three-putts follow having to putt downhill.
While the course places a premium on a player’s short game and decision-making skills, it’s not without several tests of testosterone. The top two holes for handicap purposes — No. 8 and No. 12 on the card, co-number ones in intimidation — are par-4s of Texas-size scale and proportion. To reach those greens in regulation basically requires back-to-back metal woods accompanied by a huge gust of wind. Or an answered prayer.
The 8th hole stretches a stout 480 yards from the back tee. A creek bisecting the fairway dictates strategy, demanding a carry of 250-plus yards to reach its far side. Mortals, therefore, must lay up short of the creek, then play approach shots upward of 180 yards to an elevated green.
The 12th hole spans a staggering 496 yards and the tee shot plays to a slight uphill fairway, which limits the ball’s roll. Strategy for the second shot is simple: Hit everything you’ve got. Awaiting far on the horizon is a putting surface roughly the size of Rhode Island. It’s fully 60 yards from back to front, some 10,500 square feet, meaning those stout souls able to reach the green with two mighty blasts could conceivably face a putt in the 100-foot range.
Canyon Springs provides the option of five sets of tees, with the tips (typically reserved for tournament play) measuring 7,077 yards and forward tees spanning 5,234 yards. In between are the championship tees (6,677 yards), men’s (6,210 yards), and a set of tees earmarked for senior men and low-handicap women (5,853 yards). Par is 72. “You can make the round as difficult or as easy as you like,” Lewis notes.
“[Canyon Springs] is the one course out of 40 in my career where I wouldn’t change much there,” Walker observes, “except maybe soften the greens. It’s probably the easiest course I’ve ever routed, just because the holes fit the land so naturally.”
Not only does the Canyon Springs layout have flow and rhythm, conditioning is sublime. Tons of silica sand hauled in during the construction phase to cover the rocky limestone soil have allowed the 419 Tifway grass to develop a deep root structure. The results are fairways so lush and immaculate they produce better lies than a fisherman.
INNOCUOUS BEGINNING
Canyon Springs starts out innocently enough, serving
up consecutively a short par-4 with a sharp dogleg right, a reachable par-5 with
a water well that serves as a directional aid set in the middle of the fairway,
and a receptive par-3 requiring no more than a mid-iron. Players can ease into
their rounds, in other words, without having to trot out the “A” game from
the get-go.
The degree of difficulty ratchets up at the 4th, a long par-4 that doglegs left to a terraced green, and the par-5 5th, a three-shotter with one of the fastest, slickest, nastiest greens on the entire course. Four-putts aren’t unprecedented here and players who wind up above the hole have been known unwittingly to roll their ball off the green. Ouch.
Another standout on the front side is the par-4 No. 6, which features a double fairway. Either take the high road to the left, or the low road to the right, but at all costs avoid the barranca straight ahead. Those with local knowledge say the pin location should dictate strategy: If the hole is cut on the right side of the green, use the right fairway; if it’s on the left, use the left fairway.
The back nine at Canyon Springs clearly is the more difficult side. Assistant pro Kent says the back plays “at least” two shots tougher than the front — and that’s before taking into account consumption of liquid refreshments or pressure associated with automatic one-down or two-down presses.
Among the best holes, besides the brutal No. 12, are the closing trio. No. 16 is a splendid par-4 of nearly 400 yards, protected by a lake down the entire left side and in front of the green. The par-3 17th, which measures 212 yards from the back, features a kidney-shaped green guarded by a deep bunker in front. “If you get in that bunker, where everything is running away from you on the second shot,” Lewis says, “you’re toast.”
No. 18 is a shortish (400 yards) par-4 that can be attacked with a good drive. But a push or slice into the creek on the right can be fatal, and a pull or hook into the fairway waste bunker on the left leaves a player on life support. The green, as its predecessors, is large, sloping, and fast.
Since its debut in 1998, Canyon Springs has garnered praise the way Meryl Streep collects Academy Award nominations. Golf Digest ranked Canyon Springs eighth best in Texas, and Gulf Coast Golfer recently ranked it in its top five public-access courses in the state.
As testimony to its stature, Canyon Springs will be the site this fall for the third time for the first stage of Senior PGA Tour qualifying. Robert Landers, the Texas farmer-turned-golfer who created a buzz by earning his Senior PGA Tour card from 1995 to 1997, failed to advance beyond Canyon Springs qualifiers in 1998 and 1999 but, nevertheless, praises the layout. “With the clubhouse and those other stone buildings, it’s just a beautiful setting,” Landers says. “The golf course is one you need to play several times to learn where not to hit the ball. But it’s a treat to play there, simply because everything is so natural. All you can see is the Hill Country.”
CHANGES AFOOT
Canyon Springs represents a work in progress. Coming
onstream this fall is a party pavilion that can accommodate groups of 350 and
more, and future plans for the property call for a teaching academy with
requisite bells and whistles, the creation of a resort hotel, and, ultimately,
the addition of 18 more holes.
According to Lewis, out-of-towners account for roughly 60 percent of the rounds played at Canyon Springs. Many are convention goers — San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk attracts meetings and conventions the way a honeysuckle vine pulls in bees. Guiding guests around the course is a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) system that provides precise yardages in color graphics and also monitors the pace of play; golfers who fall behind schedule during a round receive no further information until they admit to dawdling.
With its arresting topography and favorable climate, San Antonio has emerged in recent years as the new golf capital of Texas. The Alamo City area offers an array of outstanding options for traveling golfers, among them Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, the Quarry Golf Club, the Westin La Cantera Resort, Pecan Valley Golf Club, Golf Club of Texas, and, in nearby New Braunfels, the Bandit. Associate Clubs in the area include Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club, a 36-hole championship course at the foot of the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio, and the Plaza Club, a business club boasting a panoramic view of downtown.
Canyon Springs rates high on the list of San Antonio’s must-play courses. To paraphrase country-and-western legend Charley Pride, a member of Brookhaven Country Club near Dallas, if any golfer’s going to San Antone, he’d better swing by Canyon Springs.
Despite encountering Canyon Springs greens that had been punched, sanded, and slowed appreciably, intrepid golf writer Russ Pate managed to three-putt six times.
CANYON SPRINGS GOLF CLUB
Location:
24400 Canyon Golf Road, San Antonio, Texas.
Club
Manager:
Terry Olivarri.
Head
Golf Professional: John Lewis.
Amenities:
18-hole golf course; clubhouse with informal grill.
Benefits:
Associate Gold members do not pay green fees at this upscale, daily-fee course
(50-mile radius restriction applies). Play restricted to twice each 30 days.
Cart fees are additional.