I first played Tangle Ridge Golf Club in April when most of Texas was closed down for the COVID-19 pandemic. When I booked that tee time I forgot I had an iDealGolfer voucher for the course and needed to use that this weekend. I wasn’t in any huge hurry to return to Tangle Ridge but I didn’t want to let my $29 go to waste!

I got a Sunday afternoon time on what turned out to be a much better weather day, at least for pictures. In my April visit the sun didn’t break through the clouds until the last hole. This time though there was sunshine all day. That was great as Tangle Ridge’s presentation is probably its best feature.

Tangle Ridge is a mid-tier course located southwest of Dallas. The course has an address in Grand Prairie, but it is very close to Cedar Hill. It is located in a natural area (largely undeveloped) and on some rolling terrain. There is good land movement and plenty of up and down to the holes. I walked my first round here and the walk wore me out!

Besides the quality land with the elevation changes, the other distinguishing feature at Tangle Ridge are its many stacked sod bunkers. Overall, the course has too many bunkers for my tastes, but the stacked sod ones look great.

Jeff Brauer, who has done other work in the area, designed Tangle Ridge and I normally enjoy his designs. From my experience he seems to blend a modern design with playability for the average golfer.

Both times I’ve played the blue tees which are 70.8/128/6337 and there is plenty of width on many of the tree-lined holes. I think the wild bounces you’ll get off various slopes will be the biggest challenges. You need to find the high points on each hole and try to land the ball there. I believe that is the key to success around here. Even with a second round under my belt, there are some odd landing areas.

My favorite holes were the short par-3’s on the front nine (111 and 129 yards) while my least favorite holes were the par-5’s, which felt squished onto the land. The 14th (a 368 yard par-4) is the course’s signature hole and slides right around a hazard. It gives you some options off the tee and then again on the approach, depending on how aggressive you want to be.

Both times I’ve played the conditions have been solid. The bermuda has grown in nicely from the winter and offered quality lies. The greens were fast and a bit wobbly while the bunkers had softer, quality sand. The going rate is $68 on the weekends which seems a bit steep for a municipal course.

For the right price a round at Tangle Ridge is a no-brainer. Still, I find myself wishing for more from portions of the design. Bunkers could have been placed in more friendly places and the par-5’s aren’t great to play. However, Brauer always does an above average job so that automatically makes Tangle Ridge a solid consideration.

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