South Texas Golf - River Bend Golf Club

Review & Rating of River Bend Golf Club in Floresville, TX

South Texas Golf manages two courses about 20 miles south of San Antonio – Pleasanton Country Club in Pleasanton and River Bend Golf Club in Floresville.  We were pleasantly surprised when we played River Bend during a visit to San Antonio.  We were expecting a flat, dry, cow pasture (I don't know why) and we found the course fun to play, with an interesting mix of holes, fair conditions, and very reasonable rates.

The front nine is a links-style layout with wide forgiving fairways and huge receptive greens.  The back nine is more traditional with some tighter fairways, smaller greens, minor elevation changes, lots of Live Oaks to worry about if you spray the ball, and a meandering creek that crosses the fairway on some holes.  

Some of the holes that we liked included:

• #3 is a 557-yard par 5 with a carry over a dry pond, a creek and gully that cuts across the fairway at 200 out, and a slight dog-left to the green
• #7 is a fun  410-yard par 4 with a slight uphill shot off the tee box, then a dog-right around 5 bunkers on the right and one on the left, and a huge green with 2 bunkers guarding it
• #11 is an interesting 511-yard par 5 with a split fairway – the lower fairway is tighter but a little shorter and if you spray the ball left or right you're lost in the trees and dense brush
• #12 is a 421-yard par 4 with a risk-reward shot off the tee box if you think you can carry the creek and trees on this dog left – the creek cuts back across the fairway at 190 yards out

The greens at River Bend are huge, some are guarded, a few are raised, and all are relatively gentle in terms of slope and contour.  When we played they were a tad slow (around an 8 or so), soft, true, and in fair condition.

The River Bend fairways were in rough shape with a mixture of grass, weeds, and dirt.  They are very firm and dry which means we got lots of extra roll.  There are some minor ups and downs – for example, #17 is a 194-yard par 3 with a steep uphill climb that requires you to club up one or two clubs.

The sand in the 25 bunkers was good – fairly deep and soft.  The bunker faces are manageable at 6 to 10 inches tall.  The edges could use some TLC.