River Place Country Club

Review and Rating of River Place Country Club in Austin

River Place Country Club is one of our favorite golf courses in Texas.  It's scenic, an excellent layout with each hole different than the others, fair but challenging, typically in very good condition, and the membership fees are reasonable.  River Place Country Club is chiseled out of the Austin hills and valleys which provides lots of ups and downs, cliffs, ravines, elevation changes, sloping and rolling fairways, and more. It's a fun and demanding course to play and just driving the cart up and down with all the twists and turns is a blast! River Place offers stunning views and has some huge beautiful homes perched on the hill sides.  For all of those reasons, we rated River Place one of the Best Private Courses in Austin and one of the Best Golf Courses in Texas.

River Place Country Club spent $2 million in 2012 to update the club house and other facilities.  In 2014 another million was spent resizing and resurfacing the greens and redoing the bunkers.  When we played in 2018 the greens and bunkers were near perfect!

The first hole sets you up for what you are going to experience for the rest of the round. From an elevated tee box, this 402-yard par 4 dogleg left requires an accurate tee shot to stay in the rolling downhill fairway, avoid the bunkers left and right, and not over shoot the fairway and land in the ravine leading to the green. Then the second shot needs a precise shot to miss the trees and bunkers and carry the ravine to a downhill green with a false front with significant slope back down to the ravine. 

The front nine goes along a creek that cuts across 6 holes which adds to the course difficulty. There is a lot of variety with no two holes the same – lots of dog legs, dramatic elevation changes, uphill and downhill shots, rolling contoured fairways, ravines, hill sides, and plenty of blind shots.

The back nine is equally as fun but seems a little easier.  #10 and #18 are great – #10 requires an uphill shot over a ravine and back down to a dog leg left green with a tough approach and #18 is a blind shot down a dog leg left fairway to a tight green with a pond in front plus bunkers.

The first time you play River Place be prepared to be surprised and loose some balls.  This course demands excellent course management and club selection skills if you want to score well.  If you can keep the ball in play and have some course knowledge, you'll have a fun, but challenging round.  Don't bite off more than you can chew because the elevation changes, blind shots, dog legs, ravines, creeks, and narrow fairways will test you.  The course is short by today's standards but requires accuracy over distance – on some holes you're best leaving the big dog in the bag!

Generally, River Place Country Club conditions are very good.  When we played in August 2017 the fairways and first cut were in excellent condition but had some brown spots thanks to lots of 100 degree days.  The fairways range from very tight to let-er-rip but don't miss.  All of the fairways are contoured and rolling making for lots of uneven lies and some surprising extra downhill roll that could take you to trouble. 

The bunkers are strategically placed and range in shape and size with some being very steep and deep.  When we played they were in very good condition with soft thick sand. 

The greens at River Place Country Club were also in very good condition and about average size and lots of different shapes,  Most have some slope and undulation, some are well guarded, and most demand accuracy on the approach.  The greens are soft and hold the ball well, run true, and normally run around a 10.

Bottom line – this is a fantastic course and a must play!  Fun, demanding, scenic, lots of variety, and unique and interesting holes.  River Place Country Club is private but allows public play on Mondays if there are no special events