I have plans to head out of town later this month for vacation so I was hoping to enjoy a lazy weekend. However, I could only do so much “nothing” before I booked a round at a new-to-me course, Duck Creek Golf Club. For those in DFW who stumble across this post, you are probably wondering why I golfed here. For everyone else, I normally see Duck Creek mentioned among that bottom tier of courses in the area, so it isn’t the most desirable course to play.

However, as you know by now I’ll play just about anywhere. I’ve read that Duck Creek has been looking better recently, thanks to new owners. So, I figured now would be as good of a time as any to check it out since I only live about 10 minutes from the course. Periodically, I post about a “locals” course and on Sunday I was the local!

I checked in, paid the $32 green fee, and followed another single around the course. We caught up with the morning groups on the back nine, but the pace moved well for a weekend. Of course it gets hot this time of year in Dallas so it was nice to have a 3.5 hour round in the afternoon heat.

If I’m honest, I was a little leery of golfing at Duck Creek. However, I ended up satisfied with the experience given the course’s price and convenient location. I’ll say that the new owners seem to be doing some good work! For example, the course has a new fleet of golf carts, updates are being made to the clubhouse and Duck Creek was in decent shape (think muni conditions without tons of winterkill). While the course won’t win any awards, there was an unpretentious feel about it that I liked.

Duck Creek was designed by Jack Kidwell and Michael Hurdzan in 1983. Apparently Hurdzan worked for Kidwell before taking over the firm. That work aided Hurdzan’s transformation into the highly regarded architect he is today, partly thanks to his work with Dana Fry. I didn’t know Hurdzan designed the course going into my round and was surprised to learn this while typing up my article.

Overall the design at Duck Creek is fairly basic – I guess “functional” is a good word to describe it. The course is centered around a creek which comes into play on probably a third of the holes. The front nine has a residential feel to it and it isn’t hard to slice a shot into someone’s yard. The back nine is more of a back and forth layout with parallel holes, but has a cramped feel to it. I much preferred the front nine, even with more homes around it.

Even from the back tees (rating 71.3/slope 125) Duck Creek is only 6,523 yards. The course is a par-71 with three par-5’s so it may play slightly longer than it looks, but with the firmer ground there should only be a couple holes where the distance is challenging. The par-5’s are all reachable and I had plenty of short irons into the greens, after a decent driving day. The toughest part about the course are a few funky holes, thanks to the creek cutting across and narrowing the driving areas.

I thought the best hole at Duck Creek was the 3rd. It is one of the reachable par-5’s (475 yards) and the creek angles through the fairway. Even if you hit a great drive then you might not be able to see the green, since it is tucked in the trees, next to the creek you’ll have just crossed. On the other hand, the 18th is an odd closing hole as it horseshoes over the creek twice. I decided to take a direct line at the green to avoid the water and chopped it out of the thick rough – that seemed to be the play.

The conditioning at Duck Creek was more than acceptable for the budget price. Compared to other courses in DFW, Duck Creek seemed to make it through the freeze without significant damage. The fairways were mostly full and the tees were good. The greens had some crusty edges but rolled fine – I just had to hit putts firmly since they were slow.

Overall, Duck Creek is a buddies course and one for the casual golfer, thanks to its thrifty green fees. Unless you are looking to play them all, I see no reason to drive across the Metroplex just to golf here. However, the course has good bones and appears to be getting the facelift it needs.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):