On Saturday I snagged the final “Deal Time” on Teeoff.com for $35 at Heritage Ranch Golf & Country Club, which is in the McKinney/Fairview area. With a coupon code my green fee was $30 – a nice savings from the normal $50 twilight rate!
I paired with another single as the twosome that was supposed to join us never showed. A foursome slowed down around the 4th hole and let us play through on the 6th, which was a nice gesture. It gave us some open space until things got a bit backed up towards the end of the round. Overall it was a 4 hour round so not too shabby!
Heritage Ranch is about a half hour from where I live and it is a fancier retirement community on the outskirts of town. It appears there is a large member base and it is a golf cart community – as I saw quite a few member carts parked near the clubhouse. I’d guess it was designed as a private course originally, but I’m not 100% sure on that.
No matter really as the course allows public play throughout the day, just at a higher price point compared to most other courses I’ve seen nearby. A weekend morning time here will set you back $80 plus tax so it isn’t cheap. The nice thing about the spendier green fees usually is that the conditions should be very nice. All I had read about regarding the conditions is that they were good. That turned out to be my experience as well!
The tees, fairways, greens and bunkers were all in outstanding shape except for a couple sanded spots. The turf here was more lush than what I’ve found at other North Texas courses since I’ve moved and had a healthy “green” color. The bermuda rough was gnarly and especially difficult to chip from around the greens. The greens were as smooth as can be and slick – I had to be defensive on many of my putts. I saw that they are doing the aeration this week so you might give the greens some time to heal if you are planning to play here soon.
I thought the front nine at Heritage Ranch was well done for a community course. There is some nice elevation change (at least for the DFW area) and holes that play by a nice natural area. The 1st and 2nd are downhill par-4’s that play to a low point. From there the 3rd through the 7th feature mature trees and the shady parts of the course. This stretch was my favorite as it had a natural look to it. Oh, and on such a hot day the shade was awesome!
The 4th is a long par-3 that plays over a creek and is surrounded by trees. The green is long but not that wide so getting a long iron onto the surface is a tough task.
The 7th is a short par-4 with some quirk to it. It also crosses that same creek for the second shot but setting up the approach is tricky! The hole doglegs left and if you hit it through the dogleg then you’ll be in a group of trees. If you don’t hit it far enough then you can also be blocked out! I hit my 200 yard club but needed a little more distance (or more to the right) as I had to try to sling a draw into the green.
On the other hand, I didn’t find the back nine all that interesting. The back nine has the good-looking par-3 12th (probably the course’s signature hole) but I thought it lacked some character and was forced between the houses. Things here are flatter and much more cleared out.
Arthur Hills designed Heritage Ranch and while I’m not a huge Hills fan I found Heritage Ranch to be one of his tamer designs. You get plenty of space with wider fairways and not a lot of lost ball trouble. There are a few hazards and a couple narrow holes but it was a comfortable driving course.
I played the white tees which are 71.0/130/6472 and I think the biggest challenge will be trying to get an iron shot close. I wasn’t hitting my irons great but the few I thought were good didn’t end up close. The greens are smaller than you’d think from the fairway and only a perfect iron shot will give you a realistic birdie look. There are small shelfs and ridges on the greens and chipping areas around them to guard pins.
Overall, I think Heritage Ranch is a good option if you are looking for an upscale course in the area. It is a little too involved for me to want to play all the time but that doesn’t make it a bad course.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):