Tascosa Golf Club - La Paloma Course

Review of Tascosa Golf Club La Paloma 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 by todays standards at 6538 yards and is a more traditional Parkland style course with tree lined fairways

La Paloma opened as a 9 hole course in 1999 and was originally designed by Robert von Hagge and redesigned by Jeff Blume who also designed the second nine.  We would characterize this course as similar to a link style course with rolling, sloping, and heavily contoured fairways, lots of berms and swales, and plenty of large bunkers. 

The first hole of La Paloma sets the stage for what to expect on this par 35 nine – it's a 431 yard par 4 with an elevated tee shot down a multi-terraced roller coaster fairway lined with mounds plus a huge sprawling bunker, a deep grassy ravine about 150 yards short of the green, and an uphill shot to the green guarded by 3 more big bunkers!  During the rest of this nine you'll find a great risk reward shot, plenty of rolling contoured fairways with big berms and some deep swales, a challenging two tiered dog bone shapped green,  natural areas if you miss the fairways, big bunkers, and some uphill and down hill shots.  Plus a fun 186 yard par 3 that's all carry over a lake to the green.  On this nine you're likely to spot a bobcat or a fox!

We liked the back nine of Tascosa's La Paloma course a little better than the front. It's not in quite as good of condition because the terrain and soil are very different than the front.  Although it's a par 36 its a little shorter than the front, it requires more strategic shot making, has some huge beautiful homes overlooking the fairways, and has some outstanding holes like:

• #11 a 512 yard #2 handicap hole with a slight uphill shot off the tee, sharp dog left, then down and right with a very challenging approach shot to the green thanks to mounding, a huge bunker, and a steep drop off on the right side
• #14 is a short 332 yard par 4 but challenging thanks to a forced carry off the tee box over a marshy area, a big fairway bunker, water along the right side that then crosses the fairway about 80 yards out, and a tough shot over a big facing bunker to the green with little room for error
• #17 will throw a little bit of everything at you to test your game – an uphill blind shot past rock outcroppings, deep grass swales/bunkers, tall mounds, a somewhat tight fairway. and a tough approach to a smallish green with a bunker on the back left and water on the right

When we played in August 2013, the front nine fairways and rough were in very good condition while the back was in good but not great condition.  All of the fairways have some combination of mounding, swales, contour, slope, or ups and downs.  The back nine is lined with huge beautiful homes that could come into play if your really spray the ball.  Portions of some of the roughs are a mixture of bare dirt spots and a variety of grasses. 

The bent greens at Tascosa's La Paloma course were in near perfect condition.  The seem a little smaller than normal, are a wide variety of shapes, and most have some contour, tiers, and slope.  They held the ball well, ran true if you could read them, and ran at a great speed of 10 to 11.  Three putts were not uncommon for us.

The bunkers were also near perfect with great sand.  Most had small lips making it possible, if you came in low, to hit in and roll out.  We weren't playing well but for some reason, we avoided all of the bunkers excluding the three we hit in and rolled out!

Bottom line – La Paloma is an excellent private course with good conditions, a great layout, and some demanding but fair holes.