Historic Houston Golf Courses

[Fringe]

What about pics from the old Sharpstown CC?? Anybody want to comment?

Just played there a week ago. Still one of the best public courses in Houston for the money. When my family moved to Houston in 50's it was an exclusive private country club. There was a neighbor that would take my dad there on occasion during the 60's. Not sure exactly when the City bought it and turned it into a public course.

The golf course at Southwest Freeway and Highway 6 in Sugar Land/First Colony was in fact called First Colony Golf Course,I still have a couple of their tee markers.The day before they closed they had a tournament for the senior mens group with some unique rules given that they were shutting down the next day.Normally golf carts would be required to remain on the carts within 50 yards of the greens,but at that tournament the rule was changed to "no carts closer then 20 feet from the holes".The old guys were parking their carts on the on the outer edge of the greens and the fringe.

Area golfers continued to play the course for free for a month or so after it closed to work on their drives and iron play,putting was out of the question.

There's now a CVS drug store where the 11th green used to be.

I think I only played there once before it closed. It was a nice course. The one I miss the most though is Old Orchard.

[august948]

We've had two par 3 courses close down on the west side of town in the last 10 years. The first to go was Texas Par 3 at the corner of Highway 6 and Alief-Clodine. My two oldest took golf lessons there and we played the whole course a couple of times. The other was Hackberry Golf Club, on Dairy Ashford just north of Beechnut. Never played there, but I believe it was a lighted course. It was bought by the city and is now a park. There were also a number of driving ranges that were waiting for better land use. Most have shut down but one is still going off Richmond between West Houston Medical Center and Phoenicia.

[Fringe]

We've had two par 3 courses close down on the west side of town in the last 10 years. The first to go was Texas Par 3 at the corner of Highway 6 and Alief-Clodine. My two oldest took golf lessons there and we played the whole course a couple of times. The other was Hackberry Golf Club, on Dairy Ashford just north of Beechnut. Never played there, but I believe it was a lighted course. It was bought by the city and is now a park. There were also a number of driving ranges that were waiting for better land use. Most have shut down but one is still going off Richmond between West Houston Medical Center and Phoenicia.

I remeber both of those. The Texas Par 3 was great when it was just a 9 hole course but they later crammed in another 9 holes and ruined it.

Hackberry was great. I really miss that course. It was always immaculate. They talked about putting lights on it but I don't think they ever did unless it was right before they closed. Don't know why it ever closed. Always seemed pretty busy.

Are there any par 3 nine hole courses left? They were fun for sharpening your game and when you had limited time to play.

[samagon]

We've had two par 3 courses close down on the west side of town in the last 10 years. The first to go was Texas Par 3 at the corner of Highway 6 and Alief-Clodine. My two oldest took golf lessons there and we played the whole course a couple of times. The other was Hackberry Golf Club, on Dairy Ashford just north of Beechnut. Never played there, but I believe it was a lighted course. It was bought by the city and is now a park. There were also a number of driving ranges that were waiting for better land use. Most have shut down but one is still going off Richmond between West Houston Medical Center and Phoenicia.

had played both of those par 3s and hackberry was a pretty fun course.

There's a course (I think still there) off 45 north on canino. Melrose Golf Club.

It was a full 18 hole par3 course. lighted, and very short. great for working the wedges, hard to tell where the field ends and the greens begin, if you don't land the greens. Anyway, not an old golf course, but certainly something everyone should experience in their life (assuming they enjoy golf).

Sugar Hill, very short run (I think it was open maybe 3 years?), nice course, but I think they charged too much for the area. Bissonnet and Kirkwood. it was also built on a landfill.

[Fringe]

Sugar Hill, very short run (I think it was open maybe 3 years?), nice course, but I think they charged too much for the area. Bissonnet and Kirkwood. it was also built on a landfill.

I forgot about that one. It was interesting because of the hills. Surprised it closed. I mean what else are you going to do with a former landfill?

[matty1979]

Does anybody know anything about the old couse that was on the corner of Gessner and Hammerly?

Spring Woods HS is there now but dont think the school was built until about 1965

[Dagnabbit]

I remeber both of those. The Texas Par 3 was great when it was just a 9 hole course but they later crammed in another 9 holes and ruined it.

Hackberry was great. I really miss that course. It was always immaculate. They talked about putting lights on it but I don't think they ever did unless it was right before they closed. Don't know why it ever closed. Always seemed pretty busy.

Are there any par 3 nine hole courses left? They were fun for sharpening your game and when you had limited time to play.

Theres still Mulligan's Golf Par-3 on Jones Rd just past 1960.

[NenaE]

Does anybody know anything about the old couse that was on the corner of Gessner and Hammerly?

Spring Woods HS is there now but dont think the school was built until about 1965

http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/historic/road_maps/images/1961_houston_enco_highres.jpg

This map shows the Spring Branch Country Club between I-10 and Clay road. Maybe that's the golf course you speak of.

Historic aerials shows a possible course (manicured land) in the 1957 map, and the school in the 1964 map in that location.

[KAggie97]

On 12/11/2007 at 8:33 PM, MaxConcrete said:

The Red Barn golf course was on the Southwest Freeway just south of Bissonnet. I'm nearly certain it was a 9-hole with par threes only (I never played there).

It became a Metro Park and Ride lot. The golf course closure and paving must have been in the 1980s.

In the 1990s there was a golf course on the west corner of the Southwest Freeway and Highway 6 in Sugar Land/First Colony. It was specifically designated as an interim land use, and was urbanized when the market was right for office buildings. I don't remember the name.

Houston Hills golf course was just east of the intersection of the Southwest Freeway and BW 8. Some of all of it was built on the former landfill for the city of Bellaire. It was a very inexpensive course to play, and you received what you paid for. Actually, about 12 of the holes were decent quality. It was a good starter golf course.

The golf course at Highway 6 and 59 was First Colony Golf Course. I worked there from February '94 to August '94 before I went off to college. It remains my favorite job ever.

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

The First Colony golf course was one of the few courses with real bent grass greens. My brother and I got about 2/3 of the way through it the one time we played there, we had to stop because of rain.

[Ross]

12 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

The First Colony golf course was one of the few courses with real bent grass greens. My brother and I got about 2/3 of the way through it the one time we played there, we had to stop because of rain.

I think Lochinvar has bent grass greens, but I'll never get to play there. The first time I played back in Houston on Bermuda greens after playing on bent grass for a couple of years in California, I manage to miss putts by 10 feet, as there was no break at all here. It was hilarious to watch. Unfortunately, bent grass just doesn't do well here.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Ross
added never before "get to play there"

[Colleen Corneau]

On 12/13/2007 at 11:15 AM, Fringe said:

My Uncle, Jack Hinrichs, owned that golf club.

 

 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

I used to skip out of work for a few hours and play Houston Hills. The 9th Hole had water on three sides of it, the side that didn't have water was the back side. The first time i played there, we waited for the greenskeeper to finish moving the tee hole before swinging on a par 3... My tee shot slowly rolled over where the freshly moved hole used to be.
It was built on the Bellaire and West U garbage dump, so some of the hazards included the tire sticking out of the ground near the third hole's dog leg.
I never played it after it expanded to an 18 hole course.

[mblaise]

On 3/13/2011 at 10:07 PM, NenaE said:

http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/historic/road_maps/images/1961_houston_enco_highres.jpg

This map shows the Spring Branch Country Club between I-10 and Clay road. Maybe that's the golf course you speak of.

Historic aerials shows a possible course (manicured land) in the 1957 map, and the school in the 1964 map in that location.

was a 9 hole course on Witte Road that it?

 

World Houston golf course near BW8 and greens rd

Bear Creek golf course abandoned

[Ross]

28 minutes ago, mblaise said:

was a 9 hole course on Witte Road that it?

 

World Houston golf course near BW8 and greens rd

Bear Creek golf course abandoned

The course on Witte was pretty much on the corner of Witte and Old Katy. The course on the map is up near Gessner and Hammerly. On the 1953 Google Earth aerials, there is a golf course on the SW corner of Gessner and Hammerly. There was another course, Pine something, at Gessner and Clay, built between 1989 and 1995. It's essentially gone now with houses being built there.

The par 3 course at Witte and Old Katy is now a Citibank processing center. A friend call Citi after the building opened to ask if they had any jobs. The Citi rep asked him how he knew about the location to which my friend replied "there is a big ass Citibank sign on the building, is it lying about what's there?".

[JJxvi]

I don't/didn't know about Shepherd Park Plaza potentially being a golf course at any point (mentioned a long time ago on this thread), but I'm pretty sure there was a country club with an 18 hole golf course in Garden Oaks.  Garden Oaks is essentially a copy of River Oaks and similar to the way River Oaks Blvd is a short blvd running between the country club and a school, Garden Oaks Blvd was the same way.  Today Garden Oaks Blvd east of Shepherd curves around northward to Crosstimbers through a business/industrial park, but previously it ended at a large clubhouse structure just beyond Shepherd with an 18 hole golf course behind it covering all of what eventually became the business park.  The course can be seen on the 1950s Google Earth imagery.

[Ross]

11 minutes ago, JJxvi said:

I don't/didn't know about Shepherd Park Plaza potentially being a golf course at any point (mentioned a long time ago on this thread), but I'm pretty sure there was a country club with an 18 hole golf course in Garden Oaks.  Garden Oaks is essentially a copy of River Oaks and similar to the way River Oaks Blvd is a short blvd running between the country club and a school, Garden Oaks Blvd was the same way.  Today Garden Oaks Blvd east of Shepherd curves around northward to Crosstimbers through a business/industrial park, but previously it ended at a large clubhouse structure just beyond Shepherd with an 18 hole golf course behind it covering all of what eventually became the business park.  The course can be seen on the 1950s Google Earth imagery.

That was Pine Forest Country Club, which is now at Barker Cypress and Clay. A former colleague grew up in Garden Oaks a couple of blocks West of Shepherd, and as a teen would go over to Pine Forest behind Sears and chip and putt with friends until they saw a course marshal, at which point they ran off. The course moved because the land area in Garden Oaks wasn't really large enough, and the fairways were pretty narrow.

[SKIPPER]

On 12/6/2007 at 7:39 PM, GlenBrookValley said:

Back in the early 1960's there was a golf course on Bellfort across from Hartman Jr. High. I was wondering if anyone remembered it. I think it was a Country Club. At some point in time a large ship was moved in and remained there for a number of years.

It was called Simms Bayou country club, a wonderful 9 hole golf course...