Wedgewood Golf Course

Wedgewood Golf Course is our kind of course – every hole is different, it’s very challenging with a slope of 130, it has some very fun holes, it throws a little of everything at you, and it’s a fantastic value at $40 and even better at $28 for 3:00 twilight. Wedgewood has been voted the number one course in the Brazos Valley, listed in Golf Digest’s “Places to Play” and voted by the “Dallas Morning News” as one of the Top 25 Public Courses in Texas. This course has the potential for a 9.8 Texas Outside rating if the condition continues to improve.

New management took over Wedgewood in late 2008 when the course was on the verge of bankruptcy and the conditions had deteriorated significantly – the greens and fairways hadn’t been groomed or fertilized in over a year and repairs from two hurricanes were badly needed. The new management has made significant progress in making repairs, manicuring the roughs and fairways, fixing the ponds and waterfalls, restoring the traps, and bringing the greens back. If they continue on the present course Wedgewood could be in our top five favorite Texas courses. We replayed the course in October 2009 and noted significant improvement from playing in March 2009. The greens were still a little rough and bumpy but better, the fairway condition had improved, and the bunkers were near perfect with soft thick white sand. Management recognizes the problems with the greens and is aggressively working on getting the greens in much better shape. As such, we upgraded the condition rating from a 6 to a 7.5 – some TLC is still needed and management remains committed to continued improvements.

The first hole sets the stage for what you can expect during your round at Wedgewood. As the #1 handicap, this 401 yard par 4 requires a precise tee shot off an elevated tee box to carry a ravine, stop in a narrow landing zone avoiding the trees, small pond encroaching into the fairway, and multiple berms and mounds. The drive also needs to be long enough to give you a shot at hitting the dog leg left green. On the rest of this nine you’ll find lots more dog legs, plenty of rolling hills and ups and downs, a couple risk reward shots including a split fairway, sloping fairways with berms and mounds, and plenty of trees. Although it is very challenging, it’s fair, fun, scenic, and playable for all levels – a couple of our foursome had very good rounds.

The first few holes on the back nine are excellent, but this nine seems boring compared to the front – until you get to the 16th. The back nine seems more forgiving, more open, and a little easier – but it must be deceivingly tough because all four of us had better scores on the front nine. The last three holes are fantastic. #16 is a 525 yard par 5 (#6 handicap) dog leg left where you can smack it off the tee box – but don’t spray the ball, miss it short, or carry long into the trees. Long drives are rewarded on the 16th hole, but shorter drives will have trouble with the next couple hits – your second shot is downhill to a narrow fairway then back uphill to a small protected green. #17 is a short 153 yard downhill shot to a small green with a big trap and waste area in front and trees in back. And #18 will make you want to come back and play Wedgewood again. In fact, Wedgewood’s 18th hole was included in a list of the city’s “Toughest 18 Holes to Play”.

Current management is aggressively working on fixing some of the hurricane damage and bringing the course condition back to where it should be. Bottom line, as is, this is a very playable and fantastic 18 holes of golf.