The Golf Club at Cinco Ranch.

I decided to venture toward the west side of Houston to play what I got the impression was a higher-end daily fee track called The Golf Club at Cinco Ranch. The place reminded me quite a bit of a number of places in Central Florida like Metro West Golf Club in Orlando. Both courses are in large master-planned communities and give you that semi-country-club feel to them, just busier. Braving the hot and humid Texas weather also reminded me of Florida as my assigned playing partner and I teed off short shy of noon.

I played decently, though I felt like I was coming up out of my full shots just a bit early. Somehow I managed to hit 12 out of 14 fairways with the driver so I stayed out of trouble for the most part. I started the round off with a birdie on the short first hole, hitting a wedge to about 10 feet and knocking it in. My putting stroke felt better than it had for about two months, hopefully that keeps up.

With no one in front of us we managed to play the front nine in about 75 minutes, only running into a slow threesome on the 9th green. I doubled that hole, hitting a very poor approach to the green, half-shanking a pitch and then failing to get up and down for bogey. I still managed to shoot 39 on the front despite that clusterfuck at the end. I nearly had two more birdies along the way, narrowly missing both from about 12 feet or so.

Things really slowed down on the back nine. The threesome we ran into let us through on the 10th tee, however and even slower threesome was on the green and they never offered to let us play through them. Those guys were clearly recreational players and the course didn't have a marshall out on the course to help move things along. We eventually joined up with another twosome that caught up to us on the 12th tee, so that helped smooth out the pace a bit but it still took about two-and-a-half hours to play that back nine.

The wind didn't help either. The last four holes were playing pretty long (521, 159, 436 and 397) and that certainly didn't help. I shot 41 on the back but I was 5-over on that closing stretch. I had just birdied the 14th and started this bad stretch with a three-putt bogey on the par-5 15th. On the 18th hole I hit my worst drive of the day, leaving out to the right. The problem was I couldn't find it once we got there. The ball must have nestled down in the grass or something, either that or it went further than I thought it did. While it wasn't a great drive that ball wasn't heading for any serious trouble... or so I thought anyway. Still, closing with a double bogey bummed me out.

I didn't take many pictures but what I did take are here :

The ninth green.

The par-3 16th hole.

The view from the 17th tee.

The course wasn't easy so I'll take an 80 here without much fuss. Considering that the rating was over par (71.2/129 compared to a par 71) and the tees I played measuring 6400 yards I'd say it would be one of my better rounds overall. The wind wasn't too strong until the end but I can't recall more than one or two holes where the wind was helping much, it seemed most of the holes were played in a hurting crosswind for some reason.

Again the elbow held up and after resisting the urge to go out and practice or play between this last Saturday and now I think I'm as ready as I can be for my next little golf trip. This time I'm driving out to Horseshoe Bay Resort to play their three resort-access courses. I'll play four rounds while I'm out there, hopefully I'll remember to take some more pictures while I'm there. Good luck to me.