You're given a hearty welcome whether you're a visiting software salesman or an old ranch hand. The woman behind the counter's so nice you want your parents to adopt her as your sister. She tells you to be sure to come back on your birthday for a free round.
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If Houston National Golf Club relied on distance alone it would just be an obnoxious bully. Instead this Texas-sized course gives you opportunities to try all kinds of gutsy shots, testing your nerve as much as your driver.
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Houston National Golf Club gives you 27 holes of mostly links style golf. It's very unique compared to other Texas golf courses that rely on trees to frame hole. At this Von Hagge, Smelek & Baril design, golfers will be battling some rolling hills and often stiff winds. It's only been open since 2000 and it's quickly gained notice as something that's a little different in Texas golf.
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"We come to Houston because I want to shop at The Galleria," Jordan Capers says, smiling sweetly. "It's part of the bargain I made with him. If he wants to go on some trip where all he does is golf and ignore me, well, I get to pick the destination."
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Memorial Park Golf Course brings the woods to downtown Houston. Smack dab in the middle of an industrial area, near the skyscrapers, an old course that traces its history back into the 1920s draws Texas duffers today. This is a muni where people enter a lottery to get prime tee times and it looks like no other course in the Houston area.
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Gleannloch Farms is a 27-hole golf facility in the north Houston area. It received 3 and 1/2 stars in the latest Golf Digest "Best Places to Play." However, TravelGolf.com's visit found anything but a 3 1/2-star course. The greens were burnt out, downright black in places. And despite assurances from the clubhouse that they were fine to putt on, they were anything but.
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High Meadow Ranch Golf is a little off the beaten path. It's about 40 minutes from downtown Houston, but many golfers have found it's worth the trip. Located in an area that's transitioning betweeen a bustling suburb and its old farm roots. There aren't a ton of houses lining High Meadow's fairways, but there are some. Mostly, you get Texas trees and lots of them.
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Replica golf courses have become par for the course. But Tour 18 near Houston started it all and still is one of the best. The first full replica course (all 18 holes) in the U.S. opened 13 years ago and boasts an Amen Corner that Bobby Jones could recognize (no Hootie Johnson supersizing here). It is also close to George Bush airport making it a quick getaway for visiting executives.
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The gigantic billowing oak trees with moss hanging heavy from their branches look like something from the South. Heck, they could have been lifted straight from the set of "Gone With The Wind." This isn't isn't Georgia, Miami or Chicaco, however. It's about the last place you'd expect for this contrasting assembly. It's Houston, Texas, on the most unique golf course in this town that has many others. Welcome to Memorial Park Golf Course.
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Tour 18 in Houston is a long way from Amen Corner but it's as close as many average folks, and even some outrageously rich ones, will get to Hootie Johnson's Georgia treasure. You're in Texas, playing the replica course that gave birth to the genre.
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