Featured Golf Trip: Wild Spring Dunes

Two weeks ago, I set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. and got on the road by 5, en route to explore a place that may soon be Texas’ best golf resort: Wild Spring Dunes.

Although huge, although covered in golf courses, although obsessed with the game, Texas has yet to produce a contained resort experience that’s considered a true must-visit from any corner of the country. There’s ​Lajitas​ way down south, a uniquely Texas experience that borders Mexico but, for all the difficulty in getting there, contains just one course. There are a couple strong options in and around Austin—the hill-country’s ​Omni Barton Creek​ and golf playground ​Horseshoe Bay​. There’s ​Omni PGA Frisco​, home to next year’s PGA Championship host in Fields Ranch East. And there’s the underrated Pine Dunes, a phenomenal 18 holes in East Texas that pairs nicely with a road trip and a weekend in the woods.

​All are worthy options​, to be sure. But it has always felt like this state lacked a real destination, a la Sand Valley or Streamsong or Big Cedar.

With ​Wild Spring Dunes​, it seems to be getting one. It’s nestled into the pines and rolling terrain of East Texas, less than three hours from Dallas and Houston, on land that Tom Doak has likened to Pinehurst and Pine Valley.

But here’s perhaps the strongest evidence that WSD will kill: It’s from Dream Golf Resorts, the same folks who brought you Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley, masters in the art of all-encompassing golf meccas.

The recipe starts with bringing in some of the game’s best golf course architects. Check. We got to play the resort’s first, from Tom Doak, and Coore and Crenshaw have routed course number 2. There have been no specifics about plans beyond those just yet, but there are rumblings that the land could accommodate a handful. Everyone we encountered on property seemed to have their theories—and it was great fun trying to pull rumblings out of bag staff, caddies, starters, and shuttle drivers. Someone along the way floated seven golf courses. Don’t take it as gospel—it’s all still mostly a guess at this point, and certainly there’s a bit of a prove-it period that will happen with these first couple. But what a fun number to dream on.

Ingredient number two: Golf extras. At Bandon, it’s the famous punchbowl putting green and a pair of par 3 courses. None of it feels like an afterthought—the designs are on point and maximize fun. The initial plans at WSD call for a short course and a putting course, as well. Check.

Numbers three, four, and five: Accommodations, food, and drink. All in the works, although for now, your main option for stay is a hotel in nearby Nacogdoches, with which WSD has struck up a partnership.

Much of the construction is either ongoing or yet to begin, but the ingredients are all there. And, at least when it comes to this first golf course, the execution is pitch perfect. Doak’s layout blends seamlessly with the terrain, playing off the natural hills with: a couple very fun tee shots from high-up (Nos. 1 and 5); a short 3 that looks tantalizing but has a putting surface seemingly built around moguls (No. 3); a blind approach into an expansive punchbowl green (No. 4); a short 4 where you pound driver or 3 wood over a massive sandy dune that hides the green and the runout area behind it (No. 7); a reachable 5 where you can skip a low-lofted second through the green and get it to funnel back on a hill fit for sledding (no. 8); a short-ish 4 with a green that falls off so hard you could break your neck (No. 9); and a long 3 that plays over a dead-zone ravine, into which I just barely found the front fringe with a perfectly struck 215-yard club (No. 10).

Those are what sticks out, at least, and that’s from playing just 12 of the holes on property during the course’s last few days of preview play. The full 18 opens to the public in September—put your name in for a tee time ​here​—after a period for founder play this summer. Get a glimpse of what we saw out there ​here​.

Suffice to say we’re pretty jazzed about what this place will become over the next two, three, 10 years. The pricing below takes into account a couple days in East Texas this fall—you won’t be disappointed to be an early mover—but of course things may evolve as more golf an accommodations come online. One way or another, you’re going to want to find your way to East Texas to experience this stunning property.