Featured Golf Trip: Horseshoe Bay

Certainly, we’re a bit tilted toward Texas golf around here. It is where we call home, after all, and so there’s a reason we’ve hit several of the top resort experiences in this state. But one missing from the record has been Horseshoe Bay, an hour west of Austin, a contained and massive resort experience that got a $100 million facelift in 2020.

We’ll get to the golf, but the extras here are just as much a part of the story. It has a ​putting course​ like none other, a Bermuda greens track with—and this is meant as a compliment—the flair and creativity of a turfed putt-putt. There are waterfalls and ponds and bunkers and elevated tiers, but there are also slopes that read like, y’know, real greens. It’s lit up at night and smack-dab in the middle of the action, and it makes a perfect little tack-on addition to a long day of real golf.

To be sure, Horseshoe Bay is sort of everything many modern golf resorts are not. It isn’t understated. It does not show restraint in its presentation. There’s nothing particularly intimate about the feel of the place. But it is wildly convenient and built to maximize options for fun, from the handful of restaurants on-site to the aqua park to a floating pool. You can walk from your room to dinner to golf to the putting course without ever hopping in a car, and if you feel like spending a day on the water, Lake LBJ is right there, as well. Nothing feels overly scripted, and the resort works for everything from a family getaway to a couples weekend to a big buddy trip.

When it comes to the golf, there are three course to choose from, each designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr.:

• ​Ram Rock​: The headliner and the one with serious teeth. It’s known as “The Challenger” for a reason—tight and dramatic, with boulder outcroppings and forced carries and an island-green par 3. It’s a bit polarizing but never boring.
• Apple Rock​: It rides up into Texas Hill Country and back down toward the lake, delivering wide views and a more forgiving layout. The most scenic of the three.
• ​Slick Rock​: Quite playable and, therefore, quite fun. It has rolling fairways and gentle elevation change, and it’s home to the resort’s signature “million-dollar hole,” where you drive your cart over the water, between two waterfalls.

Stack them together and you can fill a long weekend without repeating. Add in the putting course, the lake, the resort, and the convenience, and you’ve got a well-rounded trip worthy of your consideration. If it’s good enough for ​Big Break​, it’s good enough for us.

Pricing details

Overall range (golf + lodging): $1,200 – $2,250
• Assumes three days, three nights

Golf + Stay: $1,200 – $2,250
• ~$750/night for stay and unlimited play
• ~$400/night for stay and one-round per day

Travel considerations
• You’re a touch over an hour from Austin-Bergstrom International.

—

This piece originally ran in the GTG newsletter. Subscribe here for free and get pricing details alongside the weekly featured stop—plus news on openings, redesigns, and more—in your inbox each Thursday afternoon.