Course Review: Whitestone Golf Club, Benbrook Texas

[Prodigal Duffer]

I played Whitestone Golf Club in Benbrook, Texas today. The course has a reputation for being a good and challenging course, and is frequently a regional host for the Texas Amateur tournament. I had also heard that it has serious pace of play problems. Both the good and bad turned out to be correct.

The good:

Check-in is easy and the green fee includes a small bag of range balls. Weekend green fee was $62 with cart.

The course is in pretty good shape considering it is early in the season and the last few years we have had a drought. The course is hilly, with several holes cutting between slopes. This makes the course feel far more isolated than its location would otherwise suggests:

This is a view from the first green looking back.

The holes were fairly interesting and, generally, fit the land rather than being forced into their location.

Greens are very challenging, with lots of undulation that (to my poor putter’s eye) is difficult to read. Based on the greens alone, I can see why this course hosts the Texas Am regional.

There are relief houses on the front nine. I don’t recall seeing any on the back nine.

The bad:

Pace of play was downright pathetic. I was in a twosome and it took us over five hours to play. We were frequently one or two groups deep waiting on a tee box.

Here, there is a group in front of me on the tee box, a group in the fairway, and a group on the green. The starter came by after we hit our tee shots and asked us how pace of play was. He was genuinely surprised when we told him it was awful, and then blamed the starter. I have heard that this course double-books several of the tee times. I can’t confirm that this is the case, but it would not surprise me.

The other primary negative is that this is definitely not a walkable course. The back nine is very isolated from the front, and it took almost 5 minutes of driving the cart to get from hole 10 to hole 11.

Clubhouse restaurant is okay, reasonably priced.

Bottom line: challenging course with significant pace issues. I would suggest avoiding it on weekends.