Have You Played Here-Austin Country Club

[Golfspy_CG2]

This weeks, Have You Played Here, is one of my favorite courses to watch all year on Tour.  Austin Country Club provides the backdrop for the Dell MatchPlay Championships.   Let's hope your Dell Brackets do better than your March Madness ones likely did.

So let's here from any of you that have been lucky enough to play here.  I love the challenge and opportunity of the closing stretch of holes, with the river as a backdrop.  

 

[downlowkey]

I’ve been fortunate to play ACC on several occasions and it is a very special place. The membership takes their golf seriously and they have all sorts of neat traditions.

Harvey Penick’s stature as their longtime Pro and resident swing whisperer is memorialized with a bronzed homage behind the first tee. His preferred golf fuel was cold apples and peanut butter slathered graham crackers, so they have several iced barrels of apples on the course and a graham cracker station at the turn.

Instead of rushing you through the day, they encourage everyone to hit as many balls off the first tee as necessary to start the round on a positive note. One of their members would have such a meltdown if he 3-putted the first hole, that they subsequently adopted a local “automatic 2-putt” rule on the first green for all golfers.

The golf itself is a tale of two drastically different outward and inward halves but both decidedly Pete Dye (they actually flip the routing for the Dell Matchplay Championship). The latter with dramatic Texas hill country elevation changes and sweeping dogleg fairways that weave through stands of majestic old oakmonts. The former offers a long string of knee knocking Lake Austin adjacent tee and approach shots that you realize were mostly between your ears upon arriving at generous landing areas. It’s both as playable and penal as you make it... the way golf should be. But best heed Harvey’s advice to “take dead aim”. 

As Ferris Bueller quipped “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it”. Or in my case, keep friends that have the means and always be gracious with your opportunities.

[DiscipleofPenick]

As my name suggests this course is on the bucket list. I would love to walk through the gate and play this course and see this place. It's so fitting that the Match Play is contested here given Harvey's connection to amateur golf. Given how many of his pupils are in the LPGA hall of fame it would be fitting for them to host a women's event as well.

Take Dead Aim