I booked this trip last minute and The Golf Club at Cinco Ranch turned up on my radar as one of the better public courses on the west side of Houston. Originally I planned on only playing Meadowbrook Farms on Thursday. However, at the last moment I threw in Cinco Ranch as a bonus round to make the best use of gas and toll money.

After trying to hurry our group along at Meadowbrook Farms I made it over to Cinco Ranch on time! Thankfully the drive between courses was only about 10 minutes. I checked in for my 4pm time and headed directly to the first tee for my second round of the day.

I’ll say that I’m glad I was able to get to the course on time – because Cinco Ranch turned out to be another packed place. Normally during the week there is plenty of flexibility to push back a tee time but that wasn’t the case today. The place really was a madhouse and I didn’t see another tee time until around 6pm. I guess it is just golf during the pandemic – selfishly I could do without so many people out golfing these days!

Ultimately, it worked out well as our group finished the round as darkness fell and I was able to add another course to my list. Unfortunately, my focus just wasn’t there during this round for a couple reasons. First, the greens were recently aerated/sanded and second, I just didn’t feel like waiting on every shot for another four hours (which is exactly what we did).

Besides my mood, the $36 twilight green fee at Cinco Ranch turned out to be a good value. I’ll give the greens a pass as they looked to be quality surfaces. As things stand right now they wobbled and bounced thanks to the recent aeration. As soon as they recover the course should be in great shape. Everything has a beautiful green color (even with the gloomy skies) with just a handful of winterkill patches, which didn’t usually affect play. The fairways were full and offered good lies. The tees were playable but unfortunately the bunkers were rocky.

Cinco Ranch was designed by Carlton Gipson (a Houston-area architect) and opened in 1994. The course has plenty of modern elements with many bunkers – too many if you ask me – and greens with plenty of contour. I paired with three others and our group played the tournament tees which are 71.2/129/6396 (par-71). From there I found the yardage quite manageable but wouldn’t want to try the tips (6,922 yards) too often.

In many ways Cinco Ranch reminded me of a course that would be found in Virginia’s Tidewater region. Think elaborate mounding and built up green complexes. Overall, I preferred playing the front nine as I thought it had a better routing through the community. The back nine has some odd doglegs where it is easy to drive the ball through the fairway and into trouble. And, if you get way offline then there is a deep drainage ditch that can come into play. My golf ball was curiously drawn to that darn ditch more times than I care to admit!

While there didn’t seem to be a signature hole at Cinco Ranch, the par-3’s are solid and there are a couple strong par-4’s (e.g.: the 10th and 18th). The par-3 3rd is 167 yards with water to the right. The green slopes from left to right and back to front so there are a few ways to get the ball close without going directly at a flag. The back nine has the fun 12th (145 yards over water) and the heavily bunkered 16th, which is 159 yards. The 16th has twelve (yes, I counted) circle bunkers and a green with an elevated tier on the left side. That many bunkers look a little silly, but provide something to talk about.

Cinco Ranch is a good course and one I’d recommend if you live in the Houston area, for the right price. However, for an out-of-towner I pictured a bit more of an upscale experience before the round. Cinco Ranch is too modern for me to love, but there is no doubt it brings together many aspects of the game (aesthetics, affordability, playability, and challenge) in a positive way.

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