San Antonio golf on three budgets

By Mike Bailey, Senior Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO -- The Alamo City is quietly becoming one of America's best golf destinations. And one of the reasons is because of the variety and quality of the golf courses, which are not only different, but also cater to different budgets.

You have to stay at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort to get a tee time at the TPC San Antonio.

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Whether you decide to stay at a resort -- and San Antonio has some very nice ones -- or choose a hotel and take the daily fee route, there's a plan for every wallet.

Here is a quick guide to making the most out of a golf trip to San Antonio.

San Antonio golf on a high-end budget

San Antonio is home to several outstanding high-end resorts, and their price points generally reflect the product, which includes the golf courses, accommodations, dining options, and spa and recreational facilities. So if money is no object, you can't go wrong with any of them.

The most premium selection these days in San Antonio is the relatively new JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort, home of the Texas Open on the PGA Tour as well as the AT&T Championship on the Champions Tour. The PGA Tour event is staged on Greg Norman's AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio, considered one of hardest -- if not the hardest -- golf courses in Texas; and the Champions Tour plays its first event ever on the Pete Dye-designed AT&T Canyons Course at TPC San Antonio. To play both courses, however, you have to stay at the resort, which (with more than 1,000 rooms) is the largest JW Marriott in the world.

The Texas Open's previous home, the Westin La Cantera, remains a pretty good choice as well, and the resort has been updated in recent years to remain competitive in this high-end market. In fact, nowhere in San Antonio will you find better views, and the two golf courses -- Westin La Cantera's Resort Course and Palmer Course, have plenty of dramatic elevation changes, lots of risk-reward scoring opportunities, and are, in general, just a blast to play.

And for a more serene experience, perhaps, you can check out the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort, located near Sea World. Home to 27 holes designed by Arthur Hills, the resort has its own water park, terrific dining and very comfortable rooms on a beautiful piece of property perched on the edge of the Texas Hill Country.

San Antonio golf on a mid-range budget

Another resort option, and a rather reasonably priced one at that, is Tapatio Springs, located just north of town in Boerne. And you will be as impressed with the quiet and the deer as you will be with the resort, which isn't fancy, but is certainly relaxing. The golf course is divided into three nines, and while no combination is particularly long, course management and precision are a must. Golf packages regularly run $200 or more per night, but Tapatio Springs often has specials that are significantly less expensive.

Brackenridge Park Golf Course, an A.W Tillinghast classic that hosted the Texas Open for more than four decades, also fits into this category, even though it's a municipal. Colligan Design Group, of Arlington, Texas, overhauled the course as close as it could to the original specs and added MiniVerde greens and TifSport fairways and roughs to create a premium experience for a price befitting mid- to high-end daily-fee courses. Given its historical significance, and the fact that it's now the home of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, it's definitely worth a play for visitors.

Another good mid-range, daily-fee play is The Quarry Golf Club, a Keith Foster design that has become a San Antonio institution. There's nothing quite like the Quarry, which has a back nine dredged out of an old stone quarry, creating memorable holes surrounded by rock cliffs.

Other excellent mid-priced daily fees include The Republic Golf Club, Olympia Hills Golf Club in Universal City, Canyon Springs Golf Club and The Golf Club of Texas at Briggs Ranch, the latter of which is an outstanding Lee Trevino design.

Value-priced San Antonio golf

First things, first: For the most part, there's no such thing as cheap golf in San Antonio. As a tourist destination, that's just the way things are. If you're looking for some economical rounds, however, check out the city's municipal system, which besides Brackenridge Park, also includes Olmos Basin, one of the city's most popular public golf courses, as well as Cedar Creek Golf Club, an excellent and very challenging Finger-Dye-Spann design.

Just south of downtown, there's also historic Pecan Valley Golf Club, which hosted the 1968 PGA Championship. Designed by Press Maxwell, Pecan Valley was renovated in 1998 by Bob Cupp and remains a favorite among locals, and it's worth checking out for visitors as well.

For a little more money, though, there are a couple of daily-fee courses that warrant consideration. Silverhorn Golf Club is a Randy Heckenkemper design that opened in 1996 and is a great value for the money. Heckenkemper worked with PGA Tour pros Willie Wood and Scott Verplank to build a course that would not only test really good players, but also be enjoyable to the average player. And there's also the Flying L Guest Ranch and Resort in Bandera.