Tour 18 Golf Course Ready for Liftoff

By Seth Goldfogel
Rockiesgolf.com Regional Course Reviewer

June 21, 1999

HOUSTON - While Rockies Golf Daily is a web page dedicated primarily to reviewing local Colorado courses, for those of you readers who have the opportunity to travel outside of the state to play golf, it might be nice to know something about courses in the city to which you are traveling.

I recently ventured to Houston on vacation, where I was fortunate enough to find a course unlike any other course that I have ever heard of. The name of this course is Tour 18. Neighboring Houston's Hobby Airport, Tour 18 creatively chose the best and most memorable eighteen holes from PGA courses around America and recreated them on their property.

Having done this, and because the track is open to the public, as amateurs we are able to get a better idea as to what the pros face week in and week out. The following is a summary of my findings from my day of golf in Houston.

Upon arriving to Tour 18, we were greeted by the staff who loaded our bags on carts and directed us to the clubhouse. The pro shop was filled with name brand products and souvenirs, while neighboring a grill that more than adequately satisfies the need for a restaurant.

The course itself covers over six thousand three hundred yards from the middle tees, although I found that the holes were all fairly easily reachable in regulation.

Overall, I was impressed at how green the course was. There were towering trees on every hole, and the fairways and rough were lush but well maintained.

The first hole is the most difficult hole on the course, covering four hundred and forty yards, and surrounded by wetlands. The tee shot is a fairly intimidating invitation to the course, as my first taste of the track had me looking at a narrow fairway heavily protected by the woods and wetlands. However, once off the tee, aside from being long, this hole is manageable.

The second hole is a par five designed as a replica of Bay Hill's sixth hole. This par five is a dogleg left over a huge lake that begs the player to try and cut the corner. Every shot is accompanied by a nice view of the water to your left, so the hazard is never out of mind. Keep it right and this five hundred-yard hole could yield low scores. Hole three mirrors the third hole from Pinehurst, while the fourth hole is designed to look like the finishing hole at Inverness.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh holes are replicas of Augusta's eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth respectively, while the eighth hole is designed to look like La Costa's fourth.

All of these holes were beautiful, but the most memorable hole on the front side was the ninth. This short par three designed to look like the seventeenth at the TPC Sawgrass is an island hole. Although it only plays one hundred and twenty one yards from the middle tees, aggressive shots at the pin often wind up over the green and in the drink. I remember watching countless pros put their tee shots in the water on this hole, often more than once, over the past few years.

Like those pros, I managed to find the water on my tee shot also. Unlike the tour, though, when hitting your shot in the water on the ninth at Tour 18, the player is instructed to proceed to the drop zone on the back of the green rather than re-hitting. This free drop allowed me to get up and down and thus salvage a four where I didn't really deserve one.

I would have much preferred the opportunity to hit another tee shot on this hole, although I do see its potential for slowing the pace of play on the course. At any rate, the hole is beautiful and challenging to any level player. Six of the first nine holes have water accompanying them, making the opening nine at Tour 18 an adventure.

Moving on to the back nine, the tenth hole is designed to look like Desert Inn's tenth hole, while the eleventh (a par three) comes from the sixth hole at Disney. The twelfth hole, a hard dogleg left, is a replica of Colonial's third hole, and the thirteenth hole is a copy of Pebble Beach's fourteenth.

The fourteenth hole at Tour 18 looks like Oakmont's third hole, as the massive fairway bunker on the left is adorned with grass islands across it. The fifteenth hole mirrors Shinnecock Hills' eighth hole, as this soft dog leg right is also protected by multiple fairway bunkers.

Buyer beware though, the green on this hole was absolutely impossible. It sloped heavily towards the front of the green with a tier in the middle and a bunker in the front. Now I don't have a brilliant short game, but on this hole, a three put was quite the compromise.

Moving on, the sixteenth is a copy of Merion's eleventh with a river that bisects it as well as covering the green. The seventeenth is made to look like Oak Tree's eighth with water on the left. This par three is manageable so long as the player keeps their shot right of the hazard.

Finally, the eighteenth hole is a four hundred-yard par four that is taken from the eighteenth at Doral. Keeping the ball right on this hole is crucial, especially on the approach shot. What I thought was a great shot wound up finding the water as I played a five iron into the green from the fairway. Playing the approach conservatively to the right of the green is the prudent choice on this closing hole.

So now that I have offered a brief summary on the course, I want to highlight the strengths and weaknesses that the course possesses. Looking at strengths first, obviously, the layout of the holes is quite appealing. It was truly fun to be able to play "the same" holes that the pros play. The maintenance of Tour 18 was superb, as the greens were true and the course was lush.

Upon making my tee time, I was warned that some spots would be brown, as the maintenance crew had just re-seeded course. That being the case, I did not find the re-seeding to be much of a limitation, as the course was fairly true and consistent. The sand traps were full with fairly light sand that allows players to control their shots from the bunkers.

Unlike some of Colorado's courses, Tour 18 was not a particularly windy course. It was truly a relief to be able to play a course without having to worry about clubbing up two clubs in order to account for the wind. That being said, don't forget that Houston is at sea level, so the ball just doesn't go as far.

I found that I generally needed to club up one club to account for this difference in altitude.

Having highlighted the strengths of this course, I want to emphasize that I really didn't find many weaknesses to speak of. Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of this round was that there clearly was not as much challenge to the course as one would find on the actual PGA tracks. I don't suspect Tour 18 could realistically make each hole as long or difficult as the PGA courses do, as I found their course to be fairly manageable on the whole.

Even with the heavy tree cover, I was able to find my ball most times on errant shots. Most of my approach shots were with middle to low irons, although the difficulty of the greens made up for the ease of approaches. Another weakness that us Colorado folk aren't used to was the heat. Maybe you can't blame the staff at Tour 18 for this, but it still should be mentioned that the heat mixed with the humidity is less than ideal.

Accordingly, I suggest playing Tour 18 early, both to avoid the hottest hours of the day, and also to ensure that you play the holes before they dry up later in the day. Oh yeah, it also poured rain on the eighteenth hole, forcing us to call it a day exactly one half of a hole early. Disappointing? Yes, but not devastating.

As is evidenced by the meager shortcomings that I have cited, this course is most definitely an enjoyable round of golf. At less than seventy dollars, the price is quite reasonable considering the layout of the holes.

Unless you are willing to spend a lot more money for resort courses in the area, Tour 18 is a good choice for any player, tourist or local, who is looking for a fun round of golf. Bring a few extra golf balls, and don't forget your camera, as this is a round of golf unlike most.