“If you’ve never been to this part of Texas, you’re not gonna believe it,” Lanny Wadkins said of the No. 1 course.
Texas has an incredibly diverse mix of landscapes, and its best golf courses likewise serve up a great variety from its desert borders in the west to the farmland in the east.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960 (c): Classic course, built before 1960
Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.
Black Jack’s Crossing at Lajitas is No. 1 on the list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play: Texas.
Even though Texas may be the Lone Star State, there’s more than one course that shines brightly in the massive state’s incredibly diverse terrain. But for every ranking list of greatest courses, there must be one at the top, and in Texas that is Black Jack’s Crossing.
Designed by PGA Tour legend Lanny Wadkins and opened in 2012, the mountainous layout sits near the United States’ border with Mexico along the Rio Grande River. The course was named for U.S. Army General “Black Jack” Pershing, who chased Pancho Villa across the river more than a century ago.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as layouts accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
Black Jack’s Crossing at the remote Lajitas Resort is No. 1 on the list in Texas, as well as being No. 48 on Golfweek’s Best 2021 rankings of all resort courses in the U.S. The property is situated between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park in what easily could be mistaken for a rocky lunar landscape, requiring as much skill with a camera as with a golf club.
Fazio Canyons in Austin, Texas (Courtesy of Omni Barton Creek Resort)
Fazio Canyons, designed by Tom Fazio, at Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin is No. 2 in Texas on the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list. The resort is also home to the Fazio Foothills layout, which is No. 7 in Texas, and the resort’s Coore Crenshaw Cliffside course ranks No. 12 in the state.
No. 3 in Texas among public-access tracks is the Rawls Course at Texas Tech in Lubbock, followed by No. 4 Pine Dunes Resort & Golf Club in Frankston. TPC San Antonio’s Oaks course rounds out the top 5, and that destination’s Canyons course ranks No. 15 in the state as well.
The Rawls Course at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. (Courtesy of Texas Tech)
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Texas
1. Black Jack’s Crossing
Lajitas (m)
2. Omni Barton Creek (Fazio Canyons)
Austin (m)
3. The Rawls Course at Texas Tech
Lubbock (m)
4. Pine Dunes Resort & Golf Club
Frankston (m)
5. TPC San Antonio (Oaks)
San Antonio (m)
6. TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas
Irving (m)
7. *Omni Barton Creek (Fazio Foothills)
Austin (m)
8. La Cantera Resort (Palmer)
San Antonio (m)
9. Old American
The Colony (m)
10. Cowboys
Grapevine (m)
11. *Omni Barton Creek (Coore Crenshaw Cliffside)
Austin (m)
12. Brackenridge Park
San Antonio (c)
13. GC of Houston (Tournament)
Humble (m)
14. TPC San Antonio (Canyons)
San Antonio (m)
15. Wolfdancer
Lost Pines (m)
16. *Horseshoe Bay Resort (Slick Rock)
Horseshoe Bay (m)
17. *The Tribute
The Colony (m)
18. Texas Star
Euless (m)
19. Stevens Park
Dallas (m)
20. Quarry
San Antonio (m)
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in Texas
1. Whispering Pines
Trinity (No. 21 m)
2. Dallas National
Dallas (No. 38 m)
3. Bluejack National
Montgomery (No. 52 m)
4. Colonial
Fort Worth (No. 73 c)
5. *Maridoe
Carrollton (m)
6. Austin GC
Spicewood (No. 88 m)
7. Boot Ranch
Fredericksburg (No. 91 m)
8. Brook Hollow
Dallas (c)
9. Club at Carlton Woods (Fazio)
The Woodlands (m)
10. Trinity Forest
Dallas (m)
*New to the list in 2020
(m): modern; (c): classic
Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 30 Campus Courses
The rankings below reflect where these courses fall among the top 30 Campus Courses in the United States.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.
