I've finished up my week in the Austin area.  I'd say the golf was good to outstanding, the best being Wednesday's tour around the University of Texas Golf Club course and today's round at The Hills in Lakeway.

    The Hills Country Club golf course was one of Jack Nicklaus' earliest designs, circa 1981.   The Golden Bear's design affectations are on full display throughout the imaginative, often difficult routing.  First and foremost is the Bear's tree fetish; he just has to put them in places few others are bold enough to consider -- that is, more or less in the middle of fairways, forcing precision drives and extra length off the tees. (I played the blue tees at 6,358, but the rating and slope of 70.8/133 give an idea of how difficult the course is.)  A good drive on the #1 handicap hole, the 380 yard par 4 8th, leaves you with a tree and water to come over (unless you are well left).  On other holes, fairways are pinched in at the landing areas, with trees at one pinch point or the other, and occasionally both.

    My camera wasn't working today, but a few holes will be etched in my memory for some time.  The par 3 7th plays to just 151 yards but is both beautiful and intimidating, with all carry over waterfalls at the green's front and right.  It is a terrific hole that demands one club more than it looks off the tee.

    The par 4 18th plays as the 9th when The Hills hosts an annual Champions Tour event in the spring.  At an average 4.65 strokes for the senior pros, it is one of the most difficult on their tour.  For me it played a modest 372 yards, but for the pros around 450.  One of Jack's trees will force anyone who hits to the right edge of the fairway to pitch out for a wedge third shot.  The green is significantly elevated, the highest of any on the course, and is guarded by a bunker in front and a pond with more waterfalls at front left.  I wound up on the slope in front of the green in three, above the bunker, with the pin at front, and I holed out for a par, beating the professionals by 65/100 of a stroke.  Hurrah.

    The course was in splendid condition, and despite a recent aeration and covering of sand, the greens were medium fast and near perfect, as well as difficult to read, as most of the greens in the Texas Hill Country tend to be.  My cart mate, Jack, told me that the first couple of years of the tournament, the senior pros had a difficult time reading the greens.  Thanks to him and his mates Mike and Joe for helping me with directions around the course.  It made for a most pleasant day.

    The Hills and its sister course, Flintrock Falls, are owned and managed by Club Corp, which provides members with reciprocal privileges at many of the company's other golf courses nationwide.  For membership information at The Hills, contact Leah Carter at (512) 343-3806, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  The club's web site is at www.TheHillsCC.com.

    I'll have more to say about The Hills, its adjacent community and about Austin itself in an upcoming issue of HomeOnTheCourse.  For subscription information, please click here. 

Thankfully, tee shots on the par 3s at River Place, like the 16th, are not blind.

    Blog visitor and friend Bill Field left a comment suggesting I should eat at County Line Barbecue while I am in Austin,  He is a mind reader.  I ate there yesterday afternoon after a terrific visit to the University of Texas Golf Club at Steiner Ranch.  Although County Line was virtually empty at 4 p.m., the kitchen performed as if it were Friday night.  I ordered the 5 Meat Combo to sample as much as I could, and except for a heavy hand with the barbecue sauce poured over the meats, everything was spot on.

    I've been on a brisket taste comparison this week, and County Line's was excellent, a little thinner cut than Bill Miller's but just as moist.  It could have used a little more smoke, although under the spicy/tangy 'cue sauce, it might have been hard to discern any smoke.  The meaty taste of the huge beef rib, though, came bursting through, as did the half rack of baby backs, which did have a little bit of smoke but not enough to hide the earthy taste of the pork.  Hiding under everything, including the sauce, were a few generous slices of County Line's turkey breast, which took well to a slight dose of smoke and a hint of pepper.  I took a bite of meat #5, a sausage, and decided to finish it only if I had any room left.  I didn't.

    Generous portions of cole slaw, potato salad and baked beans accompanied the meat, and all were first rate.  The cole slaw was my favorite type, only slightly dressed, the taste of fresh cabbage the dominant note, not vinegar or mayonnaise.  It was as close to cabbage-only as slaw gets, and with all the sauce on the plate, didn't need its only wetness.  I tasted the potato salad, which was excellent and fresh tasting, but I knew I wouldn't have a shot at finishing the meats if I went further.  The baked beans were another story; I am not a baked beans fan, but when I saw those shards of meat in the cup with the beans, I had to try.  I finished them all.

    For consistency of meat preparation, I give County Line my slight nod over Bill Miller's, although the brisket was a toss up.   Tonight I took a break from barbecue and ate at the outstanding Asian restaurant Satay, where I had both a dish I always order, the coconut infused Tom Kha Gai (Thai chicken soup), as well as two I had not seen before.  The appetizer, five jumbo prawns wrapped in rice paper, deep fried and served with a spicy peanut sauce, had crunch, a little fire and fresh seafood taste.  Terrific.  The entree, called Hok Mor, is hard to describe, a kind of curry souffle into which were buried shrimp, squid, a large mussel and some pieces of fish.  It was unusual, tasty and forced me to order a second Singha, the excellent Thai beer.  I may just go to Satay again tomorrow night; the menu is wide-ranging and interesting.

    Okay, this is a golf blog site, so here are a few notes on the course I played today in Austin, River Place.  It was originally designed by Tom Kite in the early 80s, then redesigned just three years later (with Kite's involvement again).  The former University of Texas golf star apparently can do no wrong in the Austin area, but I found a few things wrong with the course, although not the views which were the best of the week I've been in town.  First the positive:  The course was in wonderful shape, the greens fast and perfectly smooth and very difficult to read.  I had a half dozen putts inside 10 feet that I hit exactly where I wanted; they only broke when I thought they were straight, and vice versa.  Homes are everywhere in sight but all are a long distance away and up a lot higher or considerably lower than the fairways.  Remarkably for the area, I only spotted high-tension wires once or twice; at the excellent UT and Avery Ranch courses, they were all over the place.  The River Place community was beautifully landscaped, the nicest I've seen, although I never saw the river (or Lake Austin, as it is called locally) from the course.

    River Place offers some interesting holes, but I have a few gripes, one of which I will raise here.  The par 5 13th is short, at just 476 yards from the Bronze tees (6,128 yards total, but a chesty 131 slope).  I hit my drive down the middle but it did not roll far.  At 230 over a pond to a green with a retaining wall in front, I decided to lay up.  The GPS in the cart said 180 yards to the water; I hit 6-iron which, when I hit it properly, is my 165 club.  I hit it properly, but when I got to the landing area, it was clear the ball had gone into the water because Tom Kite, or whoever, had seen fit to build a large hill from about 100 yards away from the green.  My "safe" layup had hit the hill and taken off down into the water.

    That is just bad design.  You should never be penalized for a well-played layup shot.  I would have had to hit 9-iron to have come up short of the water.  Just silly.

    Okay, with that off my chest, I must say that River Place did not live down to the beating it took from people I met on golf courses earlier in the week.  Yes, it is a little wacky, and so many blind shots rob the golfer of one great treat of the game -- to see the result of a well-played stroke.  But on the fairer blind-shot holes, I enjoyed the modest tension of not knowing where the shot wound up, and once or twice I was pleasantly surprised.  I could see River Place growing on me if I played it a few times a week, but I could never grow to love the 13th.

    River Place is an active country club with pool, fitness center, tennis and other activities you would expect. Full golf memberships are available at $10,000.  Because the club is owned by the local Dominion Golf Group, members have full access to the well-regarded Onion Creek course south of town for just cart fee, and to the Dominion Golf Club in San Antonio for a modest surcharge.  For membership info, contact Raquel Hebben at (512) 346-1114.  The club's web site is at www.riverplaceclub.com.