Tascosa Country Club - Tascosa Course

Review of Tascosa Golf Club Tascosa Course

Tascosa Golf Club in northwestern Amarillo is the premier residential and golf community in the Panhandle and its home to some huge beautiful homes, a resort style clubhouse, pool complex, tennis center, and two outstanding private 18 hole golf courses – La Paloma and Tascosa. Each of two courses are a little different and each has it's own unique personality and characteristics:

• La Paloma was redesigned by Jeff Blume has a links style feel to it and is the longer of the two courses with lots of mounding and contoured fairways – it's rated a little tougher than Tascosa and provides a better opportunity to turn in a higher score and loose more golf balls
• Tascosa is short and is a more traditional Parkland style course with tree lined fairways

Tascosa Golf Club’s Tascosa Course was built in the 1950’s and is typical of most older courses – it’s short at 6538 yards and very traditional and straight forward with generous tree lined fairways, no surprises, 21 bunkers most of which guard the greens, and several dog legs.  What defines Tascosa is good service, very good conditions, and excellent fast greens with subtle breaks.

Some of the holes that we enjoyed included:

• #1 is a 480 yard par 4 with a wide slightly sloping tree lined fairway that turns right and heads downhill to a green with a pond about 60 yards out on both the left and right as well as a left and right side bunker protecting the front of the green
• #6 is a fun 402 yard par 4 that requires some good shots to par – you’ll need a very accurate drive to stay in the narrow fairway and be in a position to see the pin for your approach shot
• #8 is a downhill tee shot followed by a carry over a ditch fronting a sloping green
• The par 3’s are long and challenging at 192, 204, 179, and 232 yards
• You'll need to manage the water that crosses the fairway about 120 out on the 540 yard par 5 17^th
• 18 is a good finishing hole which is uphill and turns right close to three large side by side fairway bunkers plus another bunker guarding the green

The fairways at Tascosa Golf Course are lined by tall mature trees – a surprise for us and not expected in the dry Panhandle Plains – and some huge beautiful homes on the back nine, which shouldn’t come into play unless you really spray the ball. The fairways, with a couple of exceptions, are generous from tee to pin and were in very good condition when we played.  As you might expect during the Texas drought, the rough had a few bare spots and it was cut thin and playable.  Position off the tee box on all of the dog legs is critical for a par.

The Tascosa greens were near perfect – smooth as velvet, excellent condition, soft, and fast at around 10 to 11.  All have some very subtle breaks as well as some not so subtle slope – to score well on Tascosa you’ll need to master these challenging greens.  The greens are average to large and all shapes and sizes and all of them have a 2’ to 4’ puttable fringe.

There aren’t a lot of bunkers to contend with and we found it relatively easy to avoid them.  The vast majority of the bunkers are guarding the greens.  The sand is soft and deep and fun to hit out of. 

Bottom line – the Tascosa 18 is a good playable 18 that offers an opportunity to turn in a good score if you can putt.