Spanish Oaks Golf Club
Spanish Oaks is in the Austin area in a town called Bee Cave. That’s kind of funny, get it? Austin? Bee Cave?
Hopefully you have it stuck in your head now! Anyway, Spanish Oaks is the 4th through 7th best course in Texas according to Golf Digest depending on the year. The course, the people and the experience here put it up in my top 100. I played here with my work buddy Elliott in 2019. My pro got us on and we had to play with their pro as unaccompanied guests were verboten.
Spanish Oaks is fun to play. We warned the pro that we weren’t at his level or even two levels below that skill-wise but we both played well here and he thought we were sandbaggers. Spanish Oaks was the last course I got to play with E-Train before he changed jobs. Hopefully we’ll play again but poor Elliott had to drive around America with me and my music for at least two-plus years. While I think my music range is awesome (I go from music to kill yourself to music to kill someone else to) I agree it’s pretty eclectic. I even got him to go with me to a Yo La Tengo concert at some bar in NYC. I’m a fan of Autumn Sweater and The Lie and How We Told It but didn’t know a lot of other stuff. Well I guess they had an electric harp player for that show and that got all of the post-modern hippies all lathered up. They didn’t play the only two songs I knew and not sure the electric harp jams were up any of our alleys so of course we were mocking the scene when we got shushed! Well “F you hippie” we went up to the bar and waited to hear Autumn Sweater which never came. We swore that Elliott was the first black guy to ever appear at a Yo La Tengo concert ever. But I digress.
Spanish Oaks is one of the under-rated courses out there. Conditioning was great, the course was fun, no houses really impacted the views, and our caddie and the pro we played with were awesome. Austin Country Club has recently hosted the PGA down here over the past few years and we asked why Spanish Oaks didn’t. It certainly has the chops to host a tourney. The pro said, “Cause the members are kind of laid back about the course and wouldn’t want it.”
To the course. Loved the people here. If we’d need a refill, the pro or caddie would call in to reload us with bloodies or screw drivers whenever we needed them. We hung out after the round for a little and spoke to some members and staff, and all were great. The par three 14th above was one of my favorites and there was a great variety of holes: short, long, dog leg left, right, penal, forgiving, uphill, downhill. You name it, Bobby Weed baked it into the design here. Austin’s a fun city and I’ll go into some bar and restaurant faves in my Barton Creek write-up but if you can work the invite, definitely play Spanish Oaks.
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