My friend and I were headed north out of Dallas (up to Kansas City) on this trip and were looking to play somewhere on the way out of town. We decided to give The Tribute Golf Club a try and were able to walk on for a twilight time, which ended up costing $60. On the drive in we passed by Old American Golf Club, but skipped it this time around due to its premium price. Maybe next time!
Before we got going with the round the starter told us about The Tribute. He shared that the course is a links-style course and that each hole is a replica of a famous hole from Scotland. You’ll find the short flag sticks here – maybe because of the wind? As the round progressed I recognized a few of the holes from major championships that I’ve watched on TV. One of these days I’ll have to get to Scotland for a golf trip!
The most recognizable holes will probably be the 5th, 17th and 18th. I thought these were the course’s signature holes and golf fans almost everywhere should be able to identify these holes. In the event you were like me and couldn’t tell which hole was which all the time there was a marker at each tee to help you out.
The 5th is a 127 yard par-3 which is a copy of the 8th hole at Royal Troon, aka “Postage Stamp”. I’m not sure about the green’s dimensions and if those match the real thing but the green at The Tribute did seem fairly large to me.
The 17th and 18th are modeled after the closing two holes at St. Andrews’ Old Course. The 17th is the “Road Hole” and the 18th has the famous Swilcan Bridge across the burn and the green with the “Valley of Sin”. I always love golf courses twists (pun intended) like these.
We played the yellow tees (73.2/128/7002) and The Tribute’s design has a little bit of everything. There are burns that run through the course, plenty of bunkers, rock walls and some nice views of Lake Lewisville. For the challenges, yardages vary and the fairways provide uneven lies. Because things were firm and fast it was tougher than it seemed to keep the ball in the large fairways and out of the bunkers and fescue!
The conditions were acceptable and I only use “acceptable” because I was disappointed with the greens. Besides the greens everything else was in good shape. While planning the trip I called the course and asked about their aeration schedule. I was told it wouldn’t be until two weeks after we played so I was frustrated to find that maybe a third of the greens were aerated and sanded. The other greens rolled okay, but were on the slow side.
Overall, I’d highly recommend a round at The Tribute. It is a novelty course and I found it tons of fun to play! If you are staying downtown and have a car then I’d say it is certainly worth the drive.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):