This weekend I decided to check out a local course. I live pretty much around the corner and thought it would be nice not to have to drive very far to golf. And, it was!

Oddly, Firewheel Golf Park made it on my radar years ago when I was living in California. For many years I collected logo balls from courses that I played. I didn’t start collecting logo balls right away though and had to search high and low to find the logo balls missing from my collection.

So, probably ten years ago I came across Firewheel Golf Park’s logo ball and remember thinking the logo looked sharp! For those curious, a firewheel is in the sunflower family and looks like a small red and yellow sunflower. I guess the area was covered in these flowers and that is how the course got it’s name! Fast forward to this weekend and I was able to add that logo ball to my stash.

Logo information aside, there is quite a bit going on at Firewheel Golf Park. There are three courses here – Bridges, Lakes and Old – and the Bridges has 27 holes. I read that the Bridges has bent grass greens so I figure that will be a good one to play in the fall after it cools off!

From what the proshop was telling me the Bridges is the “best” course at Firewheel, the Lakes is the toughest and the Old is probably the most enjoyable to play. I guess the Old has been made quite a bit easier in recent years.

I had an afternoon time on the Old Course and got out just before the twilight groups at 2pm. I paid $30 to ride, which I thought was just fine for a municipal facility. My plan to avoid the twilight crowd worked great as I played in 2.5 hours as a single, just catching a few groups towards the end of the round. I’m sure the temps around 100 kept many golfers away!

Overall, I thought Firewheel’s Old Course was a solid muni. The setting isn’t very inspiring with nearby homes, power lines in play on a couple holes and a what looked like a small water treatment facility near the 17th hole.

If you can overlook the setting I think you’ll find a mostly fun layout that offers you a chance to hit some big drives and make a couple putts. I hit many different clubs and was able to pick all sorts of lines depending on which shot I was trying to play. Keeping things interesting are a handful of drives that play into some super narrow fairways.

The course plays as a par-71 (72.5/130/6845 from the gold tees) with five par-3’s, which are all long holes. The 8th is 234 yards and plays uphill! It was even playing into a slight breeze when I was there so I wasn’t upset with my bogey.

I think the best hole on the Old Course is the also long 9th, which plays as a 552 yard par-5. The hole has a little Hill Country look to it as it plays slightly downhill. If you can manage to find the narrow fairway then you might be able to get to the green in two with the firm conditions.

One thing that drove me crazy were some of the trees crowding tee boxes! I think that will be the biggest difficulty on the Old Course. If you hit a big slice (like me) then this may not be the place for you as multiple tee boxes have overhanging trees just to the left. If you can get the tee ball past these trees then you can score.

While the conditions played better than they look in my pictures, I wouldn’t expect pristine upkeep here. The course is drying out in the heat so I managed to hit some crazy big drives! There was a mix of grasses in the fairways and rough along with some hardpan spots along the edges. The greens rolled smooth and were quicker than they looked.

As someone who grew up playing at municipal courses, I didn’t have any issues with my experience here. The Old Course is a budget course and besides the narrow chutes off the tee I had a decent time playing it.

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