My Trip to Willie Nelson's Cut-n-Putt Golf Club

[Splitear]

Last week my wife joined some old Vet School classmates for the AVMA conference in Austin, TX. We hadn't done one of these conferences since before Covid, but it's always been an opportunity for me to enjoy some time with my friend Lee, another Veterinary husband. These conferences are also the only time I ever play golf...

Last Friday we dropped the girls at the Austin Convention Center and rented a Tesla to drive 45 minutes West to Willie Nelson's "Pedernales Golf Club". Reading reviews of the course, I was very excited to experience the very low standards that the reviews outlined. As I told my friend when we left, my this course met or exceeded every low expection I had for it, and it was awesome!

We arrived at the "club house" and were greeted by the course manager. He charged us $15 each for greens fees and cart rental. He said there were 2 carts that were running, but to take #8, because we would be able to walk faster than the other one. We asked if he had any water for sale, and had us check the fridge (just a standard household fridge) which only contained an uncooked steak, a half eaten sandwich and some old Twisted Teas. As he said, they must have forgotten to restock it this week. We then said we needed to rent a couple sets of clubs, to which he took a deep breath and said "I might be able to come up with one". He went to a utility closet that was his club collection. To our surprise, he was able to put together a set of clubs, though the driver had a split right down the end of the shaft. 

We boarded our beast of a golf cart and headed to the 1st tee, when we realized that we didn't have any balls. When we arrived back at the club house, he was putting a sign on the door saying that he was heading to the course and to call him for help, we just caught him. He said there was a bucket full of them in the shed and to take a bunch with us. He also asked that we bring back any that we found (we came back with about twice as many as we left with). We were then able to start our two rounds of 9 holes. 

The only "grass" was on the tee boxes and the greens, and grass is a generous term. In between were weeds, trees, rocks, rocks, and did I mention rocks? I did encounter a pond that I needed to get over. I topped the ball, but fortunatly I hit a large rock right in front of the pond that shot it up about 40' in the air and over the water. The temps were around the 95 degree mark, but it wasn't too bad with a nice breeze. 

Oh, the cart paths. Imagine someone laying blacktop over the rocky ground with no prep work, and then bashing all of the rough spots with a sledge hammer to smooth them out. The golf cart that we had was a beast and handled the hills, gullys and washouts with ease. The off roading was probably the highlight of the whole experience. 

We saw a lot of deer (a doe with twins as well) lots of lizards and 1 angry goose guarding the pond. 

Overall, it was the most fun I have ever had in my limited golf outings. If anyone is ever in the area, I encourage you to go, but take the correct expecations with you

 

Edited June 27, 2024 by Splitear

[Splitear]

I can't forget the cart path video.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2024 by Splitear

[nywaw]

That's wild.  I love that you were excited to go there despite those conditions.  As a golfer, I cringed in my computer chair when I saw the conditions in those pics!

[grampy]

Takes a lot of balls to play golf like I do!!

Looks like my kinda place!

Glad ya had a good time!

[mowin]

Lol, that's fantastic. My type of golfing.  

[Nomad]

The guy across the street from our farm fields drives balls into our fields on a regular basis, I found two today on my walk in to shoot . Perhaps he’s training from that course .

[Robhuntandfish]

I think Willie is playing tomorrow night in Syracuse