I used Sunday afternoon to revisit Waterchase Golf Club which is in Fort Worth. I played here in 2013 on a golf trip and wanted to give it another try for a couple reasons. I hoped to get back for some updated pictures (which turned out great!) and also wanted to see if my thoughts changed any from my round here seven years ago.
I booked a 3:20pm tee time on what turned out to be a quiet afternoon. It has been hot and humid recently and today was no exception. My phone showed 92 degrees with 50% humidity, nasty! I’m not sure if the steamy weather or the holiday weekend kept the golfers away during the afternoon, but I basically had the place to myself.
A twosome offered to let me golf with them but I decided to tee off on my own behind them. Usually it is better for me in those cases to do my own thing because I tend to go crazy with the camera these days. I gave them some space and ultimately, they played at a good clip in about 3.5 hours.
Waterchase was designed by Steve Plummer and can get mentioned among the best public courses in DFW. The course presents itself as an upscale facility and for $75 during peak weekend hours ($50 for twilight) your green fee gets you a lot. Both times I’ve played here the course has been in mint shape and I’ve never read a poor review about the conditioning. So, I think the conditioning is one of the main reasons to play here.
After a week of endless rainfall, almost everything was in perfect shape. Things were soft but the fairways were full and cut down. The greens rolled great (medium speed) and were a pleasure to putt. The sand in the bunkers was packed down from all the rain and tough to play out of. There is some nice landscaping and a cool waterfall between the 9th and 18th greens, both of which help provide that premium feeling.
When it comes to the design and routing of Waterchase, unfortunately I’m just not a fan. The course sits on land next to the West Fork Trinity River and the majority of the holes have a wetlands feel to them while the remaining holes are more wooded. The land leads to some extremely tough and weird golf holes, but you do get a still/peaceful feeling while out here. It doesn’t seem like you are minutes from the interstate in a major city.
Both times I’ve been here I’ve played the gold tees which are 73.1/132/6882. I’m not going to say I played well, but both times I’ve shot well above my handicap and lost a lot of golf balls. There is trouble everywhere and Waterchase has a harsh, penal feel to it. I cannot recall playing a course with more forced carries than this one. You have to carry water fifteen times (think I counted right!) while trying to deal with trouble to the sides too.
The layout features five par-3’s, eight par-4’s and five par-5’s. I enjoyed the par-3’s the most as their yardages range from 138 to 198 yards. I hit four different clubs, but easily could have pulled a different stick on each par-3 here. The 16th has an open, prairie look to it and was my favorite hole at Waterchase.
On the other hand, the 610 yard par-5 10th is one of those weird holes. The tee shot plays to a narrow fairway before you need to decide which side of a split fairway you are playing to for the layup. A grove of trees separates the fairway and if you go to the left there is a good chance of getting blocked out. My recommendation is to try for the more narrow right side.
As you can probably tell I am not a big fan of all the target golf at Waterchase. I can see why some people like the course and think it is worth a round because of the conditions and scenery – it just isn’t one I’d like to play consistently.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):