It has gotten better I would say in the last year or so. I play with some of the marshalls out there on occasion and they were telling me that they hired a guy from Golf Clubs of Houston to come work there on the course maintenance. The roughs are cut back much better, fairways are improved, and the greens aren't dog **** anymore. They still need to work on the tee boxes and bunkers. Tee boxes are like digging in to concrete. Bunkers don't hold sand well at all. In fact, a few weeks back a marshall told us to just take relief if we hit into them.

Getting funding from the city has definitely helped, and they just announced a partnership with another management company that should help with improvements.

I'm actually playing a round out there today at 12:30. I will snag some pics.

I didn't snag pics, but it was in good shape yesterday. The tee boxes were still hard as a rock on most holes, but the bunkers actually had decent soft sand in them (hit into 3 of them and all easy outs). The greens need work, they were rolling extra slow and had some overgrowth peaking out. Hopefully there is a plan to work on those soon given that "Texas Spring" is here. My new complaint is that there are two holes 8 and 10 where you can get punished for a great tee shot in the middle of the fairway. It funnels so hard to the right its easy to end up wet. You almost have to aim wide left to the trees and just know itll run back to the center or right side of the fairway.

All in all though, I'd summarize it as a value course with slightly above value conditions. Bay Forest is better, but Battleground is fine for the $59/$39 rate or cheaper on GolfNow.

jonj101 said:

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David_Puddy said:

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Wait so you walked Memorial Park this week for the Open and still have it ranked behind 6 courses including Gus Wortham? And this is coming from someone who likes and enjoys Gus Wortham, but no way that it's above Memorial, especially right now and since late last year when they planted the rye grass. Not to mention that if you have a Houston address, Memorial is far and away the best value in town.

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Yes, I do.

If you don't have a Houston address (which I no longer have) you pay a premium for a municipal course. Plus from what I understand the tee times are a challenge to get even for Houston residents. If its only that condition approx. a few weeks or so out the year around the Open time, most won't experience it like that anyway.

Gus is a better value imo.

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Well if you're not a Houston resident then you have a point.....I paid $38 to walk it a little over 3 weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I do love Gus.....played it a couple of weeks ago. Memorial is in great shape from about December through May, so that's certainly more than a few weeks out of the year. It has been CPO since the beginning of the year. I guess I've been a little spoiled as I have a buddy that knows people who play regularly who get tee times and he is pretty religious about getting up and booking them himself. If you don't do that, then yeah, it's definitely a pain in the ass to get one. Not a bad wait during the week for a walkup though, especially if you're a single. That said, if given the choice between Memorial and Gus, I'm choosing Memorial 10/10 times, even in the other months when it doesn't have the rye grass.

cab559 said:

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CW Traditions was hands down my favorite track 10-15 years ago. Would really challenge anyone from the tips (except me, had no chance) and would be great to watch Poot and Machine get after it. Sad to hear is not in the top tier anymore.

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Played CW Tradition yesterday, first time playing there in several years. I had a 1:00 tee time, showed up about 45mins early and there were no carts. As players were finishing their morning rounds the carts were quickly cleaned out and given to the closest tee time. I didn't get my cart until 12:50. Got to the 1st box and there were 2 groups waiting to tee off, my round ended taking over 6:00hrs. Luckily the course was in fantastic condition and it's such a great layout. Unfortunately the greens were slow and soft, so it seemed like newer players didn't know how to repair ball marks and not drag there shoes. There were only 3 greens that were rolling good. Overall I enjoyed playing the course again and definitely one of the top options in Houston.

jonj101 said:

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David_Puddy said:

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Wait so you walked Memorial Park this week for the Open and still have it ranked behind 6 courses including Gus Wortham? And this is coming from someone who likes and enjoys Gus Wortham, but no way that it's above Memorial, especially right now and since late last year when they planted the rye grass. Not to mention that if you have a Houston address, Memorial is far and away the best value in town.

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Yes, I do.

If you don't have a Houston address (which I no longer have) you pay a premium for a municipal course. Plus from what I understand the tee times are a challenge to get even for Houston residents. If its only that condition approx. a few weeks or so out the year around the Open time, most won't experience it like that anyway.

Gus is a better value imo.

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Dumbest take I have heard in a long time.

I played The Wilderness prior to the hurricane, and it was great. I know it got hammered and had some issues. I had recently heard it was still trying to come back, but it was rough (no pun).

Has some of the folks on here played it recently? Since the hurricane?

TIA