Sonora Golf Club

 Review and Rating of Sonora Golf Club in Sonora, Texas

Sonora Golf Club is owned by the City of Sonora and it opened for play in 1968. The terrain sits on the edge of the hill country but the course fairways are flat and tree lined.  Sonora Golf Club is an excellent course for beginners and high handicappers thanks to few hazards and fairly wide fairways and playable roughs.  Most of the holes are straight ahead and you can see what you're up against.  

That said Sonora Golf Club has a couple of dog legs, water on 4 holes, two bunkers guarding the greens, a couple forced carries, and some trees in the middle of several fairways that can cause a problem. Some of the holes that we liked include:

• #1 is a 515-yard par 5 that dog legs left around a cluster of trees plus it has two trees in the middle of the fairway at 175 yards out and a small pond on the left front of a turtleback green
• #3 is 353 yards with a challenging carry over a big field of wildflowers and a line of trees to a fairway that turns right  and has a tree in the middle of the fairway at 90 yards that can block your shot to a turtleback green
• #6 was our favorite – a 486-yard par  with a very challenging approach shot thanks to two trees that you need to fly or thread a narrow slot to get to the green plus you need to avoid the pond on the left front and entire left side of the green

The fairways at Sonora Golf Club are ample, flat, and tree-lined and the rough is wide – miss both and you're under trees (typically fairly easy to get to the fairway) or lost in the native areas with lots of colorful red, white, yellow, and purple wildflowers.  When we played the fairways ranged from a variety of weeds, grass, and dandelions and a few ant piles to grass and in pretty good condition.  The course is cart path only but there are cart paths on both sides of the fairway and a crossing usually halfway to the hole that takes you to the other side.  

The greens at Sonora Golf Club are relatively small, some are raised, some are turtleback, and most have a small false front.  The slope can be challenging but the green are smooth, soft, roll a little slow, and hold the ball well.  Generally speaking, they were in very good shape, as were the tee boxes.  

  The sand in the Sonora Golf Club bunkers was soft, fairly fluffy, and thick.  The lips facing the green are tall but sides are low and you might get lucky and roll out.  

We were pleasantly surprised with the conditions for a country course, with few members, low rates, and limited staff and resources.