I’ve been living in Texas now for about a year. While I still miss the Mid-Atlantic I have greatly enjoyed the Texas golf scene! In my year here I’ve managed to play almost fifty different Texas courses and for that special no. 50 I was looking to play one of the nicer public courses in DFW.
Coyote Ridge Golf Club always seems to be favorably ranked among the DFW public courses, usually somewhere in that top 5 to 10 space, depending on which publication you read. I found a twilight rate at 2:30pm for $45 and decided this would be a great place to celebrate my 50th Texas course.
Golf (and life I guess) is weird these days. I pulled into a near vacant parking lot on a warm, but beautiful spring afternoon. I walked over to the clubhouse expecting to find a window open so I could pay the remaining $35 of my online green fee – $10 was paid online.
A sign on the window directed me to the 1st tee at my starting time. It made no mention of a cart (which should have been included according to the booking) nor how to pay. As far as I could tell no staff was on site! I saw a group of walkers head to the 1st tee and followed them. On the 3rd hole I called the proshop and left a detailed message, but never got a call back.
Like a lot of courses within the beltways of DFW, Coyote Ridge is positioned in the middle of town. A landfill sits to one side with homes on the other and ultimately, I felt the homes took away from the front nine. The front felt cramped and lacking for space. The best hole on the front is the mid-length par-3 7th which plays 151 yards from the blue tees. It drops more than a club to a green guarded by water. It certainly isn’t a hole you’d expect in North Texas!
If you stay patient with the design then I think you’ll end up liking the back nine more, like I did. I’ll admit there is some quirk on the back nine (i.e.: the 10th and 11th holes), but it has a more secluded feel since it lies between the landfill and the community, in a wetlands area.
The back nine is filled with cool-looking trees, natural water hazards and holes that are separated from each other. The 14th is another downhill par-3 that was one of my favorites on the back. It drops about a club to a small green that is surrounded by sand. The 15th is an easy par-5 as it is only 456 yards and has plenty of space. It is a great birdie chance!
Coyote Ridge was designed by George B. Williams in 1999. I played the blue tees which are 72.0/135/6344 and like many modern courses there are multiple challenges. The greens are small, fairways are narrow and trouble lurks on most holes. You’ll need some strategy off the tee as it isn’t a place to go hitting driver on every hole – I’m looking at you 10th hole!
The conditions were fantastic with the fairways offering plenty of cushion and the greens rolling well, at a quick pace. The tees were full and the bunkers had quality sand. I read too much break on a lot of putts so keep that in mind if you play here.
I wasn’t impressed with the front nine at Coyote Ridge, but thoroughly enjoyed the back nine. There are other places I’d look to play first because of that front nine, but all things considered Coyote Ridge is a solid DFW course. If you play here just try to avoid paying the $89 weekend morning rate, which is quite steep.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):