This course was doing well before COVID-19, making the most of a primelocation in one of the state’s fastest grow-ing cities and leveraging a stem-to-stern $7 million renovation completed in 2013 by the noted Houston-based golf architecture firm of Finger, Dye, Spann that turned a tired and dated facility into a vibrant and pertinent course that’s an asset to the New Braunfels golf community and the city as a whole. Quint Alexander, the course’s PGA head professional, leads a teamat Landa Park GC that is both golf savvy and customer centric. It helps that the people that playthe course under standswhat they have and make visitors feel welcome.“The most important thing we canoffer our players is the sense that they are our focus from the time they arrive to thetime they leave,” Alexander said. “Part ofthat is having our golf course in the best shape we can – and our staff has done a consistent job of keeping the course in great condition despite challenges of the weather and the day-to-day wear and tear any course endures from the amount of play we have.“The other part is listening to them as to how we can make things better and then acting – as much as we can – on those requests. We take great pride in the amount of regular golfers and return play we receive at Landa Park Golf Course and we don’t take that for granted.”
Landa Park Golf Course has a unique routing near the banks of the Comal River, playing at 6,205 yards from its back tees and to a par of 71. The course will not beat up golfers who are just learning the game but there’s more than enough length and challenge to keep even the best players’ attention After a pair of short par 4s to start the round, Landa Park GC’s routing turns back into the wind for the par 5, 529-yard third. That hole begins perhaps the most challenging stretch at the track – it’s followed by the 571-yard par 5 fourth (which is the longest hole on the course), the 403-yard par 4 fifth that plays into the breeze, the 349-yard par 4 sixth with a tough putting surface that moves from front to back, and (on the other side of the street) the 196-yard par 3 seventh, the toughest one shotter at Landa Park GC.The front nine, which plays to a par of 37, ends with a short par 4 and then (back on the other side if the street) the reachable par 4 ninth.
The back nine (which plays to a par of 34) starts off with a deceivingly tough uphill 157-yard par 3 on which a small lake must be traversed; it’s the first of three par 3s on the back. Scoring op-portunities are available on the short par 13th, the 312-yard par 414th (which is a severe right to left and well protected in its green surrounds), and the 345-yard par 4 16th. The hardest hole on the course awaits at the long (434-yard) par 4 17th, which is straight away but protected by a huge tree on the left of the landing zone and a demanding putting surface. You cross the street for a final time to reach the closing hole – a drivable downhill 315-yard par 4 whose back-right pin placement on a ridge is one of the toughest to get to at Landa Park GC. The greens at Landa Park Golf Course are well-guarded, with slope, undulation, tiers, ridges, and/or swales on just about every putting surface
The course is scenic with trees and native areas and ponds plus the clear water of the Comal River, which comes into play on some holes. There are spots here where golfers can watch tubers riding the rap-ids; on the back nine, you’ll hear a lot of whooping and hollering at Schlitterbahn. Part of the experience at Landa Park Golf Course is the fauna (ducks, egrets, and more) and all of the deer grazing in the rough and in the shade. All those aspects have helped produced a membership of about 250 play-ers and a handful of leagues and options to get out and enjoy the game. The staff at Landa Park GC continue to add aesthetic additions and tweaks to the facility. There have been about 80 trees planted in over the past two years to better help to define the course’s fairways, especially on holes 11, 13, 14 and 17 where the corridors run parallel to each other. Creating that definition is also the purpose of the dry creek bed between the eighth tee box and 13th fairway. Alexander said the newest addition to facility will be a deck on the backside of the course’s clubhouse that will allow for open air celebra-tions and hearty recaps of rounds. Expect the deck to be completed by the Banquet Facility spring of 2025.
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