Horseshoe Bay (Ram Rock)

One of three Robert Trent Jones Senior layouts built over a fifteen year period at the Horseshoe Bay Resort, the Ram Rock course was the second course to make an appearance at this venue, in 1981.

The following edited extract is taken from Daniel Wexler’s The American Golf Resort Guide:

“A 7,000-acre development sitting on the south side of Lake Lyndon Johnston in the Hill Country forty miles northwest of Austin, Horseshoe Bay boasts three fine 18-hole courses built by Robert Trent Jones. The initial entry was Slick Rock, a 1971 design which winds its way through a residential development just south of the main resort complex.

It would be a full decade before the resort would add the Ram Rock course, a highly rated track situated three-quarters of a mile west of Slick Rock. Though measuring less than 7,000 yards, there is plenty of challenge here, with numerous holes being affected by a wide range of creeks, lakes and dry gullies, making play as interesting as it is demanding.

The front nine hits stride early with the 488-yard par four 2nd and the 191-yard island-green 4th, but is more interesting in places like the 220-yard downhill 8th, as well as a pair of water guarded par fives, the 533- yard 7th and 540-yard 9th. The much shorter inward half holds its own with the 541-yard creek-fronted 14th and two heavily bunkered uphill closers, the 214-yard 17th and 378-yard 18th.”