Point Venture Golf Club

Review & Rating of Point Venture Golf Club

Playing on a peninsula that juts into Lake Travis, Point Venture Golf Club is a true Hill Country Golf Course that was designed by  3-time Masters Champion Jimmy Demaret in 1972.  Jimmy designed a course with 6 sets of tee boxes that is playable by beginners and high handicappers yet challenging from the tips. 

The course was carved out of the rocks and cedar trees and leverages the rolling hills to create several uphill and downhill shots. The rolling hills and doglegs make the course play longer than the yardages on the scorecard and doglegs left and right offer some risk reward opportunities for long hitters to go for the green.  The very small greens put a premium of the approach shots.  Couple all of that with the peace and quiet, a 4 hour pace of play, a friendly staff, the scenic beauty including views of Lake Travis on 4 of 9 holes, the plentiful non-timid deer (one of which pranced up to our cart and with big sad eyes seemed to say "hey man, can you spare any food?"), good conditions, and the very reasonable rates and it's not surprising that over the years Point Venture Golf Club has been named "one of the best 9-hole courses in Texas" by the Dallas Morning News and "Best of Golf Courses in Austin" by the Austin Business Journal! The course also made our list of the Best Nine Hole Courses in Texas.

A couple of the holes that we really liked included:

• #2 is a fun hole that requires an accurate shot off the tee on this sharp dog left 389 yard par 4 and the second shot is  downhill to a small oval green with Lake Travis glistening in the background
• #7 is the signature hole and it's a beauty – a 385 yard par 4 with an elevated tee box with a great view of Lake Travis, a downhill drive to a dog left tight tree lined fairway, and an approach shot to a very small green
• #9 may be the toughest hole on the course – a 535 year par 5 that horseshoes around a hill with trees to a small green with a ridge across the middle – if you hit it too long and left off the tee you may be OB and too far right and you'll be on the hill, in the trees, or have a blind shot to the green

Point Venture Golf Club puts a premium on hitting the small sloping greens surrounded by some combination of mounds, a small puttable fringe, trees, or a deep rough.  The greens are a variety of shapes, all are small, and most have some pretty significant slope.  They were running around an 8 which is plenty fast with the slope and they were soft and ran true.  We found some damage from all the recent rain but it didn't impact our putting.

Most of the fairways are a tad tight and if you miss them you'll be in the rough, under the trees, or OB in a back yard.  Most of the holes have some homes set back off the fairway.  When we played the fairways were in fair condition – again all the recent rain had impacted the conditions.  The rough on the first few holes was really thick and challenging but then we caught up with the maintenance crew who was cutting them shorter and more playable – rain had prevented recent mowing.

No bunkers to worry about and it's first time I've gone home with no sand in my hair, shoes, and pants!

Bottom line – a must play!  Fun, inexpensive, scenic, and pretty good conditions.