Pine Springs Golf Club is improved, rated

Published 11:59 pm Monday, November 30, 2015

PINE SPRINGS – A big part of the charm of playing Pine Springs Golf Club is the two-mile drive leading to the course from Tyler on U.S. Highway 271. The landscape along Pine Springs Road is undiluted East Texas. Leafy oaks and pecan trees form a canopy above the winding two-lane road.

The relaxing drive is enhanced by historical landmarks. First up is the Pine Springs Baptist Church that was founded in 1881. Its spiritual goals are plainly stated on a marquee along the roadway: Praising the Savior; Preparing the Saints; Proclaiming Salvation. The church has an adjoining cemetery that dates back to 1898.

Closer to the golf course is another cemetery with an historical marker and it tells a lot about Tyler’s early settlers. The Shamburger family cemetery dates back to 1875. It is the private burial site for the Peter Shamburger family that started one of the first rose nurseries in East Texas.

Arriving at the course finds a parking lot bathed in sunshine with most of the patrons already parked along the perimeter to find some shade. Opened in 1999, Pine Springs was finally officially rated by the Texas Golf Association earlier this year.

With the closing of Bellwood Golf Club many years ago and Oakhurst and Peach Tree being on the far south side of Tyler, Pine Springs is Tyler’s public course of choice on the north side of town. The course began a steady improvement in 2010 when Larry Wood of Dallas purchased the course.

Wood is a veteran of golf course maintenance from years spent at two highly respected country clubs in Dallas – the old Oak Cliff Country Club and the Dallas Athletic Club. About three years ago, he handed the golf course superintendent reins to Craig Murphy who continued to passionately care for the course.

The results are obvious; Pine Springs is a well-kept and fun golf course that is not too long and not too tight off the tee. Its main defense against low scores by good players is the Bermuda rough that can be challenging when cut to its present length of only about an inch high but severely punishing if the course were to host a tournament and want to make driving accuracy a must. Three-inch high Bermuda rough is brutal, even for the best players.

“We have just seen the course improve steadily because of a lot of aerating and fertilizing and a water system that Larry improved years ago,” Murphy said. “We are trying to make the fairways a little tighter but not too much. We have some tight holes, however, with the par 4 fifth hole really kind of old school with trees lining both sides and our finishing holes are challenging off the tee as well.”

Pine Springs only measures 6,509 yards from the back tees and plays an even friendlier 6,149 off the regular tees. There are also senior and women’s tees measuring 5,171 yards and 4,405 yards respectively.

One unusual feature of Pine Springs is a par 3 first hole. Not too many courses begin with a one-shot hole but Pinecrest Country Club in Longview is a wonderful East Texas course that begins with a par 3 and Royal Lytham and St. Annes in England, part of The Open Championship course rotation does as well.

Before the TGA set a date to rate the course, Murphy and head golf professional Jeff Todoroff, a graduate of the Golf Academy of America who came to Pine Springs last year, measured all of the holes from the centers of the tees to the center of the greens. That information was forwarded to the TGA offices in Dallas and two of its raters set a date and came to the course for an on-site inspection.

“They also measured the holes but they looked at each hole and the potential trouble spots,” Todoroff said. “They read the slope of the fairways and greens and spent about five or six hours out on the course. After they left, we heard back in about two weeks with the ratings.”

Golf courses in America today have a stroke rating and also a slope rating. These are used to help golfer assess their accurate handicaps to be used in competition. Given that Pine Springs, especially for East Texas, is a relatively flat piece of property, the slope came in at 122 from the back tees with a stroke rating of 69.9. To compare with two other Tyler courses, from the back tees, Willow Brook is rated 73.9 with a slope of 132 and The Cascades 74.2 with a 137 slope. .

Todoroff and Murphy both point out that the golfer-friendly ratings make Pine Springs a popular destination for golfers.

“Because of the lay of the land and the design of the course, rounds here are usually played in less than four hours,” Todoroff said. “Some of our seniors play in less than three hours and even during really busy times like Saturday morning, a round seldom takes more than four hours.”

Murphy said the grass on the greens is the original tiff dwarf with the fairways a mixture of common and hybrid Bermuda. Most of the improvement has come from a program to monthly assess the PH levels of the soil.

“We have a lot of different soil here with sandy loam on a lot of the property but also some clay and even iron ore on a few holes,” Murphy said. “I have learned so much from Larry about how to treat the soil to help us grow grass and keep the course in good shape.”

To beautify and frame the holes, some 65 trees were planted in 2013. For those who are observant of such things, there are white oaks, red oaks, burr oaks and bald cypress trees now dotting the landscape and some mini magnolias behind the 13th green.

Pine Springs has an unpretentious East Texas feel to it with a couple of dogs, Max and Lola, close by to greet golfers in a mild manner, usually just looking up from their naps. The clubhouse is modest but provides both hot and cold sandwiches as well as non-alcoholic drinks. Green fees are reasonable with a peak weekend rate of $48 and $40 during the week. There are discounted rates for seniors who are at least 55 ($42 and $35) and a special twilight rate of $30 available on weekdays. For a fee of $30 annually, a golfer can post scores and maintain a handicap.

Like most of East Texas, Pine Springs was inundated with water during May with some 30-40 inches of rain falling on the course. It was during one of those rainy May days that I stopped by the course and was visiting with Wood on the front porch of the clubhouse when a big pickup truck pulled up and a man in a rain suit unloaded his clubs. Determined to play a few holes was Tyler Junior College football coach Danny Palmer! I joined him since I also own a good rain suit.

You have never heard a pre-shot pep talk like the one Palmer gives himself as he addresses the ball. And his success as a coach was finally realized with his final stroke of the day on the 18th hole, which was our fourth hole of an abbreviated outing.

Despite some poor golf leading up to it, Palmer canned a 20-yard pitch shot to finish our time together. He loaded up that big truck with a smile still etched upon his face.

But for those of us who didn’t finish with such a flair, there was still a reason to smile given the beauty of the course and the scenic drive back to the main highway.

Head Pro: Jeff Todoroff

Superintendent: Craig Murphy

Address: 5634 County Rd 334,

Tyler, 75708

Phone: 903-526-4653

Hours: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.