After a tasty dinner on Saturday night and then breakfast on Sunday, my friend and I were ready for more golf. My friend usually lets me handle the tee times and after some conversation, I picked Cypress Lakes Golf Club for our Sunday round. I had Cypress Lakes pegged as a mid-tier course and after finding an online deal for $60, decided to give it a try.
Assuming that I stay in Texas long enough my eventual goal is to play as many courses throughout the state as I can, so I have no problem mixing in mid or low-tier courses on a golf weekend. Truthfully, my game has deteriorated over the years and I have reached a point where I struggle dropping a lot of cash for a round, just to play like crap. For $60 I enjoyed Cypress Lakes, but I don’t think it is worth the rack rate of $80.
Cypress Lakes is in the city of Cypress, on the far northwest side of Houston. We stayed in Spring and it took us about a half hour to get to the course. We teed off on time, joined with a single and finished the round right at four hours. Overall, I thought the pace of play on a weekend was great!
Compared to Saturday’s difficult course (Walden on Lake Conroe), Cypress Lakes was a breath of fresh air for playability. Although no golf course is easy, Cypress Lakes was fair, allowing me to play my own game and not forcing me to try any low-percentage shots. The course has a comfortable feel about it, with large driving areas and allows for multiple styles of play.
The course was designed by Jim Fazio and opened in 1999. For those that may not know, Jim is the brother of Tom Fazio, who is a very well-known designer in the community. Cypress Lakes is tucked into a residential area with homes along the perimeter of the course, however the homes shouldn’t be much of a distraction. As the name indicates, there is a lot of water and about half the holes could result in lost balls. Those hazards – and pine trees – help add separation between the many parallel holes. One nice thing about the layout is that even on a busy day, I never felt like I needed a hardhat.
We played the back tees – 71.3/129/6566 – for most the round, although we tried the last three holes from the championship tees. A few of the markers were pushed forward throughout the round so we evened things up by adding some distance at the end. The front nine is fairly straight forward and highlighted by its two risk/reward par-5’s. The 2nd will have you thinking about your strategy if you hit a good drive and then the 8th (514 yards) is a great chance for birdie.
The back nine adds some distance and closes with four difficult holes. So, it is important to score well early in the round. The 15th, 16th and 18th are tough par-4’s thanks to a mix of length and lost-ball trouble. The 15th, at 433 yards, is the longest par-4 at Cypress Lakes and emphasizes the importance of hitting the fairway since it is tree-lined. Then, the 16th and 18th have water to the left. The 18th – 425 yards – is a strong closing hole and requires four well-played shots for a par.
The conditioning at Cypress Lakes was respectable. Things were highlighted by the beautiful putting surfaces. Putts rolled smoothly and quickly. Other areas of the course were acceptable, but could use some TLC. The fairways were full and the ball usually sat up. However, there were many patches of crab grass. The bunkers were washed out, although looked to have decent sand.
I enjoyed the playability and design of Cypress Lakes. For the right price it is a good course for the Houston golfer. I think the design has just enough of everything (sand, water, trees, mounding, contour in the greens) to make it interesting for the majority of golfers and it was nice that homes don’t line every hole. If I lived in the area I’d probably have Cypress Lakes in my regular course rotation.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):