I’m afraid that I’ve been doing some insurance studying in my free time, which hasn’t left me much time to explore the golf scene in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. However, I couldn’t pass up a seemingly nice weather day and made my way over to Fort Worth to check out The Golf Club Fossil Creek.
From what I’ve read, Fossil Creek is one of the best public options in the area and it is an Arnold Palmer design – something that always grabs my attention! I snagged a noonish tee time for $55 and made the 50 minute drive over from where I live.
Well, the weather turned out to be the thing I’ll remember most about the round. The forecast was for a slight chance of storms and 5 to 10 mph winds. However, we got some crazy winds, a couple claps of thunder and some Armageddon-looking clouds!
We teed off on the 1st hole and while riding down the fairway it started to thunder nearby. That blew through quickly and then we caught the edge of another storm cloud. That storm brought probably 40 mph gusts and it turned out to be windy for the rest of the afternoon. I guess that is Texas weather for you, though.
Fossil Creek is in a community that isn’t far from downtown Fort Worth and the course is convenient to much of the Dallas area. The course opened in the late 1980’s and was one of the final courses to be designed by Palmer himself, according to the course’s website.
The main feature about Fossil Creek (which I’m sure you guessed by now) is the creek that cuts through the course! The creek comes into play on a handful of holes while other smaller creeks that feed lakes come into play on other holes. There is quite a bit of hazard trouble here so you might want to bring some extra golf balls.
The neat thing about the creek holes are the rock-lined edges that you get to play over. If you hit it like me then you’ll get to see those edges up-close while dropping one! While it makes for good pictures all the course’s forced carries will be difficult for some.
Another cool thing about Fossil Creek is some of the views on the back nine. A quarry occupied the property previously and a couple holes ring around a lake with some good-looking cliffs. There are plenty of mature trees as well.
Our group played the blue tees (72.1/133/6457) and besides the target golf feel of the course, there were plenty of other challenges. The greens were very small, there was plenty of mounding and I thought some local knowledge would be helpful to pick lines off the tees. I found Fossil Creek to be a tougher Palmer design, with some room to miss in very specific areas.
The course’s signature stretch starts on the 9th and runs through the 13th. As you’ll see in the pictures each one of these holes photographed well! The 9th is a scenic par-4 with water that comes into play near the green while the 10th is a long par-3 that plays across another hazard.
The 11th is a quirky double dogleg par-5 where I lucked into a par. The green sits just over the creek and has some mature trees that frame it, so the green complex looks awesome.
The 12th and 13th are the holes I mentioned that play around a lake. You’ll need to pick the perfect line on the 12th to get your favorite yardage into the green and then pick the perfect club on the 13th. The 13th is a 173 yard par-3 that plays to a peninsula green complex. The wind was gusting while we teed off there, which made the water look even more expansive.
There isn’t much to say about the conditions, besides everything was in great shape! The greens were beautiful, rolled well and had some speed to them. The fairways were firm, but had complete coverage. The rough was thicker and a place you want to avoid.
My only gripe is that the pace of play was pretty rough. It took over 4.5 hours to play and everyone was waiting all day. Fossil Creek can be a bit pricey, but it is worth a look because of the unique rock formations and that 13th hole!
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):