BuoyED By TEmpERATE wEATHER—300 days of sunshine annually—and sporting a
bevy of strong resort and public golf courses,
San antonio is starting to earn notice among the
lone Star State’s landmark golf destinations.
any talk about golf in San antonio has to be-
gin with the Westin la cantera resort, a 1,600-
acre master-planned development that includes
two 18-hole courses—it's fair in this case to say
"championship" courses—a lovely hotel built in
1999 and modeled after famous King ranch’s
“Big House,” two impressive clubhouses and a
golf academy to help hone your game.
the resort has consistently been ranked one
of the best in america by golf magazine and
earns regular mention on Conde Nast Traveler
magazine's “top 100 golf resorts” list. “We are
happy to be part of the effort to make San anto-
nio a major golf destination,” says tony cher-
one, the Westin la cantera’s general manager.
“With our $10 million room renovation project
completed in the spring of 2009, we look to
continue our role as a leader in this market.”
the digs are nice at la cantera, but it’s the
two golf courses—the resort course, de-
signed as the final work of the team of tom
Weiskopf and Jay morrish, and the Palmer

course, fashioned by arnold Palmer with help from longtime collaborator ed Seay— that are the resort’s biggest draw and they are superior in every sense of the word.

a roller-coas Ter Good Time

the resort course was the site of the Pga tour’s valero texas open from 1995-2009
and remains one of San antonio's better venues.
opened in 1995 and playing at 7,021 yards
from the back set of five tees, the resort
course offers a handful of natural water fea-
tures, 75 sand bunkers and an up-and-down
ride that sports a half-dozen holes with pan-
oramic views of the city and the surrounding
countryside. the course ambles past natural
rock outcroppings, running streams and mature
trees as the routing works its way through and
over land that was once a stone quarry.
With a rating of 72.5 and a slope of 134, the
resort course mixes tight, tree-lined holes and
open fairways, with numerous elevated tees and
several raised landing zones.
and if the course itself is a roller coaster
ride, the downhill, snaking 533-yard par- 5 fifth
hole looks out toward the main rollercoaster at
the neighboring Six flags fiesta texas theme
park and finishes with a tricky putting surface
surrounded by bunkers. Hole seven—a severe
downhill par-four whose green seems to lie
just beneath that aforementioned rollercoast-
er—plays at just 316 yards and is perhaps the
resort course’s most famous offering.