Pheasant Trails Changes Character After the Ninth Hole

The front nine at Pheasant Trails looks open, but the city describes deep rough beside flat, Scottish-links-like holes. Newer trees are beginning to shape those fairways. The problem is less about climbing ground than keeping a shot out of the rough.

The turn changes the course. The back nine runs longer and carries what the city calls a West Texas character, with established trees lining the fairways. A creek enters play on several holes and ties the two halves together.

This municipal course on Schuman Road has 18 holes and plays to par 71. The listed tee distances are 5,292, 5,985, and 6,481 yards. A driving range, putting green, and chipping green sit alongside the course. The scorecard can help choose a tee, but it cannot show how differently open rough and tree-lined corridors play. Pheasant Trails gets its identity from that change after nine holes: a round begins across open-looking ground, then moves into longer corridors where trees and water ask for a different plan from tee to green.