The Golf Club of Texas Concan

Review of the Club at ConCan Golf Course

Wow, what a pleasant surprise and a blast to play.  Sitting in a valley close to the beautiful Frio River and surrounded by some of the prettiest Texas Hill Country,  The Club at ConCan is a real treasure.  It's fun, challenging, very pleasing to the eye, and a good shot makers course. 

The first hole sets you up for the rest of the course – it's a 413 yard down hill par 4 with strategically placed fairway bunkers and a tough shot across a dry ravine to a well protected green.  Most of the holes are named and give you a good idea of the hole, for example:

• Wow – this hole will evoke a couple of them
• Easy Does It – be accurate on the drive or you've got a problem
• It's A Dandy and Awesome  – a good description of both of these holes
• Ker Plunk – the tightest fairway and the only water hole requires an accurate drive and a precise second shot to stay dry
• What Was Roy Bechtol Thinking – a very challenging 177 yard par three over a natural area to a small green with three bunkers and a deep dry gulch three quarters around the green

A round of golf at The Club at ConCan is peaceful and quiet –  no road noise, barking dogs, kids playing in back yards, police sirens, airplanes, or horns honking – just wind whistling through the trees, an occasional "moo" from the grazing cattle, birds chirping, and the ricocheting of my ball off the trees.  Speaking of the trees, don't miss the fairways or you'll be lost in the trees and natural areas.  Most of the landing zones off the tee box are more than ample and the first cut is playable, but then it's "good bye ball!" 

If you can keep it in the fairway, avoid most of the bunkers, and manage the approach shots and elevation changes, and putt (all of that is easy to say, extremely difficult to implement) you'll have a good round.  You need to deploy some good course management and club selection skills to score well.  The Club at ConCan is very demanding but very fair and with five sets of tee boxes and yardage ranging from 5187 to 7333 yards, you can play a set of tee boxes that fits your game. 

When we played in June the tree lined fairways were in very good condition but very dry.  We played in early August, the temperature was over 100, and it turns out that the Club was have electrical problems with their watering systems!  Normally, the fairways were be a lot softer and greener but we didn't mind because the dryness gave us a lot of extra yards thanks to some good roll.  Most of the fairways have some slope, gentle mounds, and plenty of contouring.  You'll encounter several dog legs as well as elevation changes. 

In 2010, new management took over The Club at ConCan and they were making excellent progress on improving the course conditions.  Apparently, the greens had been neglected over the last year and were now improving but still not up to the new owners standards.  In fact, some had some mole and weather damage and most were a little bumpy thanks to a recent sanding. 

A majority of the greens are elevated, they vary in size and shape, and have plenty of slope, contour, and multiple tiers.  They were running about a 10 or so and very challenging for us to read. 

The bunkers can also cause havoc on your score – there are quite a few of them, most are steep and deep, and the sand was a little gritty.  Plus the rough was cut very think around most of the bunkers – so if you missed the bunker, you still had a challenging shot out of the deep rough.  A majority of the bunkers didn't look like they had been groomed before the round started – there were several animal holes and tracks as well as foot prints and divots that hadn't been raked.  You need to do what you can to avoid the bunkers if you want to have a good round.   

The clubhouse is also home to the Spa At Mountain Valley, so stop in a get a massage after your round – doesn't get much better than that!

Bottom line, our foursome loved this course, thought it was very pretty, fair but challenging, and a blast to play.   And we had a hard time leaving the cool patio, cold beer, and excellent view.  Can't wait to get back and play this course again.