Howling Trails Golf Course - Holes 19 to 27

Martin Valley Ranch Golf Course opened in 1984 and is home to three nine hole courses, appropriately named 1 to 9,10 to 18, and 19 to 27. Common to all of the nines are reasonable rates, traditional and straightforward layouts, fair conditions, bermuda greens, and fairways lined by Live Oak, Mesquite and Palm trees.

We played in January 2012 and the conditions were fair at best but the course, like most other courses in Texas had suffered through a harsh winter, severe drought, and record heat. As such the fairways were a tad dry (good for a lot of extra roll), the roughs were pretty rough with a lot of dirt hardpan (again good for a lot of extra roll), a couple of the lakes were dry, and the greens still had some damage. Regardless, the conditions are still good enough to have a fun and enjoyable round.  This is the only nine that where a cart is required.

Martin Valley Ranch's holes 19 to 27 has mostly straightforward wide and flat fairways that lead to some very challenging greens to hit.  The greens are all raised, maybe 4 to 6 feet, making bump and runs hard and if you come in high, the ball is going to stop dead and may even roll backwards.  But once you're on the green they are relatively flat, easy to read, and one or two putts for us were common.  The greens were a tad bumpy but true and rolling at about an 8 to 8.5.  

This nine has a canal that crosses two holes and two lakes, but both were dry thanks to the drought!  A good thing for me – I was able to find my ball.  The fairways are lined with a scattering of small trees and lots of tall Palms – sure was glad that they were tall and skinny because they blocked several of my shots but easy to miss.   

Most of the fairways are straight and you can see the pin, but a couple like #26 and #27 are more like horseshoes and offer some good risk reward shots.  This nine at Martin Valley Ranch is the longest but we scored much better on this nine than we did on 1 through 9.  I think the flatter greens on this nine made the difference.  The scorecard shows playing 10 to 27 is the hardest 18.  

The fairways are all ample and you can bring out the big dog and let it rip.  If you really spray it, on most holes you'll end up on the other fairway and have a shot back toward or onto the green.  The rough is wide and rough thanks to the lack of rain – there are a lot of weeds and dirt hardpan – which means extra roll.  

The greens were still showing some weather damage around the fringe but were generally in pretty good condition.  The challenge is hitting them and the elevation makes that much tougher – thinking back on it, I should have clubbed up and gone for the middle to back side.  Once on, three putts were rare! 

There are no bunkers to contend with on this nine.   

Bottom line – for us this was our opportunity to relax and have an enjoyable and low scoring round – which we did!  

The slope and rating are based on playing holes 1 to 9 and 19 to 27.