As I’ve done a few times already this year, I made a weekend trip to the Houston area to visit with a friend. Houston is a good meet-up point for us with me in Dallas and his work in Louisiana. It usually takes each of us about three and a half hours to get there. This weekend we played two rounds of golf, caught up and had a couple good meals.

Our first round of the weekend was at Walden on Lake Conroe Golf Club, a course that is about 45 minutes north of downtown Houston. The last bit of my drive had me leaving the I-45 and taking the back roads through the Sam Houston National Forest – pretty.

Walden on Lake Conroe is a course I haven’t heard much about since it spent many years as a private facility. I don’t follow the private golf scene much, but saw on the course’s website that it was allowing non-member play during the afternoon. After some discussion with my friend, I booked a Saturday afternoon tee time for us.

Ever since finding out that Walden allows public play I’ve been interested in golfing here. From what I could see online, the course’s setting, among the pine trees and along Lake Conroe, looked pretty incredible. And, after golfing here, I can confirm that Walden presents well and is quite scenic! The course is filled with pine trees, hardwoods and has plenty of water. Add in the lower angle of the sun this time of year and Walden really sparkled. It is a seriously pretty golf course.

Walden is a Robert von Hagge and Bruce Devlin design that opened in the 1970’s. The course is part of an upscale community on the west side of Lake Conroe. The course’s standout feature are its four holes which play along the lake. The front nine has the 8th hole where the approach plays over a finger of the lake while the back nine has the signature stretch of holes, the 11th through the 13th.

We played the blue tees (73.4/143/6756) and from there the 11th, at 582 yards, is the longest of the course’s five par-5’s. It is also one of the toughest holes because the green sits on a tiny peninsula in the middle of the lake. If you get the tee shot in play then you’ll need to avoid the lake on the layup and then carry the water to finally get to the green. Out of all the golf holes I’ve played so far in Texas, I’d say the 11th here is one of the best.

Then, the par-3 12th is another of the signature holes. It plays 158 yards and again you shoot over water to another green in the middle of the lake. The wind was gusting when we played so that made it difficult to pick the right club. The 14th starts to head away from the lake, but not before needing another forced carry over a finger of the lake. I played these holes poorly, but still enjoyed them because they are so unique.

Unfortunately, besides those four cool holes, I found the design at Walden to be downright weird. The course is squished in between all the homes and if you get out of position, at least on a few of the weird dogleg holes, then the direct line at the green is through the trees and over someone’s yard. Odd. Trees overhang the tees and fairways, narrowing most holes and many greens are tiny. Not surprisingly, the playability suffers for anything but the perfect golf shot. I don’t normally comment about my score, but I’ll say that I ended up with one of my worst scores of the year and I didn’t feel like I played “bad”.

The green fee was $100 (plus tax) and as you’d expect for a premium price, the course was in great shape. The fairways and tees had great grass coverage and everything was cut down. The greens were pure and had plenty of trickle to them. Downhill putts were especially fast. The bunkers were inconsistent and had a crusty top layer while the sand underneath was heavy. That made bunker shots tricky to judge.

I’m happy to have played Walden with its awesome setting and great conditioning. Those 11th and 12th holes show off the beauty of the Gulf Coast and I think Walden can be talked about as one of better publicly-accessible courses in the Houston area. All that said, if I lived in the area, I don’t think I’d play here often since the layout requires so many shots I don’t have.

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