Kissing Tree Golf Course

Review of Kissing Tree Golf Club in San Marcos, Texas

Kissing Tree Golf Club is one of the outstanding amenities at the upscale Kissing Tree 55+ active adult community in San Marcos.  Kissing Tree Golf Club opened in October 2018 and its the only semi-private course to be built in Texas since 2012.  Kissing Tree Golf Club is currently managed by one of the best in the industry, Troon Golf.

The course was designed by Nationally-recognized golf course architect and local Texan, Gary Stephenson with a goal of leveraging and preserving the natural landscape and incorporating the rolling hills, elevation changes, trees, and slope and contour into the fairways.  He did a superb job of achieving that goal and Kissing Tree Golf Club is now part of the Audubon International program which preserves and highlights the native Hill Country environment.

Some of what makes this a course worth playing include:

• the course has 4 sets of tees and is short by today's standards, 4998 to 6572, which makes it suitable for all levels of play
• the layout takes you on a scenic ride through some beautiful Hill Country scenery just outside of San Marcos
• wide sweeping fairways, big greens, relatively few hazards, some short par 3s and a couple par 4s that are reachable from the tee box all contribute to creating an enjoyable round and an opportunity to post a low scoring round
• elevated tee boxes provide several beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding country side, the University, and the city of San Maros 
• new carts with soft leather comfortable seats plus  a good GPS and several choices for music (60's to the 90's, rock, country, and more)

Some of the holes that we really enjoyed included:

• #5 is a 555-yard par 5 (#1 handicap) with an elevated tee box and a fantastic view plus a wide straight slightly downhill fairway that terminates at a bunker and then takes a sharp 90-degree turn right and across a rock-lined dry creek to a big raised green
• #17 is a fun 505-yard par 5 with water from a pond on the right crossing the fairway at 185 yards out from the green and then a slight uphill shot to a green, three-quarters of which is surrounded by a multi-fingered bunker
• #18 is one of those holes where you jump for joy because you drove the 214 to 287 yards needed to stuff it on the green – it's risky if you go for it thanks to a left and a right side bunker and a pond on both sides of the fairway

The fairways at Kissing Tree are wide and sweeping with a wide playable, but dense, first cut.  The natural terrain creates lots of uphill as well as downhill shots plus plenty of slope and contour.  The fairways were still maturing when we played and had some rough spots.  They were firm creating lots of extra roll that you need to manage.  Miss the fairway and you're in native brush or under the mesquite trees and most likely lost.  A handful of homes are on a couple of holes.  We saw lots more deer than homes!

The Kissing Tree Golf Club greens are also huge.  Most of the greens are slightly raised (but bump and runs still work well) and the greens have some mix of slope and contour, but nothing dramatic.  They ran true with subtle breaks and they were running around an 8+ or so when played.  Like the fairways, the greens are still maturing and recovering from a tough winter, but it won't be long before they could be some of the best putting surfaces around.

There aren't a lot of bunkers and we found them fairly easy to avoid.  They range in size from small to some huge nasty multi-fingered monsters that you need to avoid. The sand is perfect – soft, thick, and fluffy!

Bottom line – Kissing Tree Golf Club was not in the best condition ( but still very playable) thanks to a tough winter and because the greens and fairways were less than five months old and still maturing.  Troon Golf is a master of course maintenance and upkeep, so it won't be long before the conditions at Kissing Tree are superb.  Don't let the conditions stop you from playing this course – you'll love it because it's scenic, fun, reasonably priced, and affords an opportunity to turn in a great score.  The pictures we took don't do the course justice – the lighting was bad, the grass was dormant, and it was a little hazy.