Sammons Park Golf Course

Sammons Park is built around historic Lake Polk, which was originally formed way back in 1892 when the Santa Fe Railroad Co. dammed Bird’s Creek to create a water supply for the area. The Lake Polk Association emerged, offering a private facility for boating, hunting, and fishing, and eventually morphed the Lake Polk Golf and Country Club, with a 9-hole course that opened for play in 1922.

Those holes survived and were added to in the 1950s, when the facility was renamed the Temple Country Club. Another 30 years or so went by before the city took over and ran the course for a few years before selling out to golf course management company Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited. Evergreen brought in John Sammons to redesign the layout, and his course is still in place today, with the exception of some minor changes and a new location across the lake for the clubhouse.

Now it’s a pesky 6,000-yard course with water on 15 of 18 holes, which is fairly prominent on the front, but especially dominating on the back side. Holes 10 and 11 are back-to-back par 3s that play entirely over water, and rival each other as the signature holes on the course. No. 12 has water, and No. 13 offers a brief respite before the lake comes into play on holes 14 and 15. And it doesn’t let up from there, as ponds dot the landscape on the final three holes. S do tributaries of the main lake, finishing off what must be one of the wettest 9 holes in the state.

Getting there : From I-35 south take Exit 300 and turn right on 49th Street. 49th turns into W Ave. D, and you’ll see the course on the left side of the road.