Pine Dunes Resort and Golf Club, Texas
Enjoying every moment of my round at Pine Dunes in Frankston, Texas.
I have mentioned a few times in this blog that the state of Texas was home for me for two years. Minnesota is where I live now and undoubtedly my state of origin. From the moment I arrived in Texas, it felt like a second home. The food was spectacular, the weather was more than cooperative, and the people were significantly kinder than I imagined. Streetways were bare when the Dallas Cowboys played on fall Sunday afternoons, and the smoke from barbecue joints passed through adjacent business and homes. Shoutout to Hard Eight and Ten50 for being my favorites.
Texas is home to over 30 million residents and is the second most populous state in the nation behind California. There isn’t a soul, however, who would claim Texas as the state with the second highest quality of golf courses. California, New York, Florida, and North Carolina, among a few others with a solid argument like South Carolina, Wisconsin, Oregon, New Jersey, and Georgia, have greater quality and depth. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about the best golfing states in the country, as I’m sure I missed a few.
I played a dozen courses in the two years I lived outside Dallas and was a member at Brookhaven Country Club. When you talk about ultimate family clubs, Brookhaven, the site Jordan Spieth honed his craft, should be at the top of the list. The facility has three 18-hole golf courses, two of championship length and one that is great for beginners and children. I will absolutely write a blog post at some point about Brookhaven.
Today, we will talk about the best public course I played in the state. Situated deep in the heart of east Texas, Pine Dunes in Frankston is a one-of-a-kind course that looks and feels completely different than anything you’d find in the rest of the state. You will know this as soon as you meander down a road through the towering pines of the property. Pine Dunes is technically a resort, so you will see a few updated cabins near the eighteenth hole. The clubhouse is modest, as is the bar and grill next door. As of February 2021, when I played, the pro shop displayeds pictures of both former president George W. Bush and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is from the area, teeing it up at Pine Dunes.
The course is no stranger to accolades. GolfWeek declares Pine Dunes the fourth best public course in Texas, and Top100GolfCourses.com has it ranked first among daily fee facilities and fifteenth overall. Former Golf Channel host Shane Bacon recently called Pine Dunes “the best hidden gem in America.” Not bad for a course whose greens fees only top $100 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings.
The 7,117-yard course was designed by the late Jay Morrish, whose most famous designs are the Stadium course at TPC Scottsdale, which hosts the rowdy Waste Management Open every year on the PGA Tour, and Stone Canyon down in Tucson, a member of Golf Digest’s Second 100.
A sense of tranquility greets you as you head to the first tee at Pine Dunes, a gentle dogleg left par four lined with longleaf pines. The sand “dunes” of the course don’t really appear until the fifth hole, a par five you could play every day for a year and never play the same way. There is no tee shot I’ve had like this one: a sand oasis to the left, a giant pine tree in the middle, and a skinny fairway down the right side. The second shot is played down a fairway at least twice as wide as the first shot, but a quartet of evergreens will swallow up anything that goes too far right. The eleventh, another par five, also sports an enormous amount of sand and flash. Your second shot must carry a sand area that is at least an acre or two. These two are among the best par fives in Texas.
Pine Dunes rewards smart play. The fifth and sixth, a beautiful, downhill 253-yard par three deep in the conifers, emulate that idea. Purists might even say the sixth green resembles a tumbling Redan. Nearly every hole is a new adventure that brings the stunning pines into play.
If there is one bit of chatter to expect after your round is complete, it’s discussion regarding the closing hole. From what I have heard opinions are divisive, but more people than not aren’t exactly raving about the par five, a 90-degree dogleg that doesn’t seem to fit the mold of the rest of Pine Dunes. The final hole lacks the trees of the other seventeen and has the course’s most penal water hazard. In fact, the only other pond on the course splits the fourteenth and fifteenth holes.
Speaking of the fifteenth, the par four dogleg left of 344 yards is a beautiful high-risk, high reward offering. If you can carry a driver over 250 yards, smack your tee shot over the bunker. Otherwise, laying up and poking a wedge into the butterfly-shaped green is the alternative. I would call this hole my favorite of the unheralded at Pine Dunes.
When I played, the greens at Pine Dunes were a little less than consistent, but that could have been the result of the time of year I teed it up. A word of advice if you’re a high handicapper: stay out of the sand! Some shots are downright impossible. This place is not for the faint of heart.
I really enjoyed Pine Dunes as a whole. If you are in Texas, you will not find anything remotely like this 2001 design. Considering the rates of the course and lodging, a 100-mile overnight buddies trip here from Dallas is a no-brainer.