River Oaks - Texas - USA

The golf course at River Oaks Country Club sits on rather flat ground next to the winding waters of Buffalo Bayou. It’s an old Donald Ross design from 1924 that was revamped by Rees Jones in the 1990s and renovated by Fazio Design in 2015.

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

“River Oaks may not be Houston’s oldest, but with a (much-altered) Donald Ross course, and both Jack Burke Sr. and Claude Harmon on its list of former professionals, it surely rates among the area’s most venerable.

Few of River Oaks’ holes actually utilize the Bayou (really just a wide creek), though the 191-yard 3rd and 356-yard 5th occupy headlands above it, and the 173-yard 6th plays across some jungle-filled lowlands along its banks.

Most of the stronger holes are among the altered, including 549-yard 4th, the 380-yard lake-guarded 9th, the 378-yard 17th (a dogleg left around water), and the 425-yard 18th, which is also flanked by a Joe Finger-added lake down its left side.”