Like a few easy bars from Willie Nelson's acoustic guitar, the iconoclastic spirit of Austin is at once comforting and vaguely revolutionary. This capital city on the Colorado River—where every third person you meet, it seems, plays in a band—embraces a tapestry of cultures and personalities, a fact celebrated by the popular bumper sticker keep austin weird. It's home to Grammy winners and Hollywood refugees, Texas statesmen and technology wizards, perpetual grad students and PGA Tour pros (after all, this was where Harvey Penick taught the game to generations, including his most famous disciples, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite). The University of Texas spreads north of the rosy pink granite state capitol, which is about the hair of a javelina taller than the nation's Capitol. The first suggestion of the Piney Woods rises beyond the cattle pastures to the east of town, and the majestic Hill Country heaves to the west. Moody stage lights and a screaming Stratocaster? Those would be the sights and sounds of the indefatigable live-music scene in the Warehouse District and along South Congress Avenue.
Where to Play
Barton Creek, Fazio Foothills ****1/2
The best of the four eighteens at Barton Creek, Austin's premier Hill Country resort, the Foothills course bears all the markings of a showpiece Tom Fazio design. The architect drew on the land's natural features—limestone caves and cliffs and the eponymous creek—and augmented them with man-made rock walls, ponds and waterfalls for aesthetic (as well as environmental) effect. The result is a collection of postcard-worthy holes such as the downhill par-three ninth, which plays over a streambed to a limestone-fringed green. A second-shot course with small, angled greens, the Foothills evolves with symphonic precision, peaking appropriately on the closing holes. The serpentine eighteenth winds past a fairway bunker pouring from a cave near the hundred-yard marker and climbs triumphantly up to the resort grounds. The hole is prettier from the green looking down, so treat yourself to a long parting glance.
Architect: Tom Fazio, 1986. Yardage: 7,125. Par: 72. Slope: 135. Greens Fees: $180-$250 (resort guests only). Contact: 8212 Barton Club Drive, Austin; 800-336-6158, www.bartoncreek.com.
Wolfdancer Golf Club ****1/2
Secluded in pineland a short drive from Austin, Wolfdancer, the centerpiece of the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, opened a year ago to well-deserved fanfare. The course navigates two distinct types of terrain: high meadows above the Colorado River and sleepy pecan groves along its steep muddy banks. The first twelve holes sweep through the open hills, exposed to a frisky Texas breeze that can mean the difference between hitting a six-iron or a sand wedge. From there, the layout plunges into a valley, where errant drives ricochet among the trees. Most of all, Wolfdancer offers something that few other courses so close to an urban area manage to achieve: serenity. The only sound you hear is the wind whishing through the pine needles and pecan leaves.
Architect: Arthur Hills, 2006. Yardage: 7,205. Par: 72. Slope: 137. Greens Fees: $89-$165. Contact: 575 Hyatt Lost Pines Road, Lost Pines; 512-308-1234, lostpines.hyatt.com.
Barton Creek, Crenshaw Cliffside ****
When the Canadian Tour played its season-opening event here a few years ago, players looked at the scorecard and wondered how such a short course could possibly challenge them. But they found out as soon as they stroked a putt on the steeply pitched first green. This fun, spacious design—whose bunkers were renovated and greens regrassed last year—invites you to pound tee balls with abandon. But enormous, slippery and baffling putting surfaces await at every bend. The green at the par-four fourth is as big as a West Texas ranch tank—it's a four-club spread from front to back. The short par-three seventeenth plays to a green cut into the bank of a canyon. It looks simple enough—until you try it.
Architects: Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, 1991. Yardage: 6,630. Par: 71. Slope: 132. Greens Fees: $95-$180. Contact: 8212 Barton Club Drive, Austin; 800-336-6158, www.bartoncreek.com.
Barton Creek, Fazio Canyons ****
From the back tees, the rugged and remote Canyons course—a close second to the Fazio Foothills layout for top billing at Barton Creek—poses the most arduous test in all of Austin thanks to a succession of intimidating carries over age-old escarpments. If either nine is scorable, it's definitely the front, which is sheltered from the wind by mature red oaks and madrones. The holes on the back nine edge along the seams and pockets of the beautiful cedar and limestone hills that give this corner of central Texas its distinct topography. Beginning at the elevated tee of the deceptively narrow par-four fifteenth and culminating at the long, creek-laced par-five final hole, the closing stretch at the Canyons just might prove to be the most invigorating hour of your trip.
Architect: Tom Fazio, 2000. Yardage: 7,153. Par: 72. Slope: 138. Greens Fees: $140-$285. Contact: 8511 Henry Marx Lane, Austin; 800-336-6158, www.bartoncreek.com.</p>
Horseshoe Bay, Applerock ****
This Robert Trent Jones Sr. design in the Hill Country forty-five minutes northwest of Austin slithers through the natural arroyos like a rattlesnake in pursuit. Several of its tees are perched high on ridges, including at the par-five tenth, where the view of distant whitecaps on the water defines the region's allure. Live oak, persimmon and juniper trees frame the fairways, which are punctuated by Jones's trademark amoeba-shaped bunkering. Applerock is the youngest of the three eighteens at Horseshoe Bay Resort, located on the shores of Lake Lyndon Baines Johnson. In terms of challenge, it ranks comfortably between its two siblings, the fiercer Ram Rock course and the far gentler Slick Rock.
Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1986. Yardage: 6,999. Par: 72. Slope: 136. Greens Fees: $99-$119 (resort guests only). Contact: 1 Bay West Boulevard; 830-598-6561, www.hsbresort.com.
Golf Club at Circle C ***1/2
Five years ago, the Bermuda fairways at Circle C wilted like a rose after Valentine's Day. But new management installed a million-dollar irrigation system, hired a greenskeeper from a top course in Dallas and sharpened the amorphous bunkers to restore the polish of the most intriguing layout in Austin proper. The firmness and flow of the fairways require precise shotmaking. And the understated par-four twelfth features a rippling, organically shaped green that slopes upward at its edges, allowing approach shots to funnel toward the flag; it's marvelously reminiscent of the finest work of golden-age architect Perry Maxwell.
Architect: Jay Morrish, 1992. Yardage: 6,855. Par: 72. Slope: 130. Greens Fees: $70-$90. Contact: 7401 Highway 45, Austin; 512-288-4297, www.thegolfclubatcirclec.com.
Best of the Rest
Falconhead Golf Club (falconheadaustin.com) near Lake Travis offers mesmerizing views of the Hill Country and a cantilevered green at the par-three seventeenth suspended above an artificial limestone-edged pond. ColoVista Country Club (colovista.com) in Bastrop, thirty miles east of Austin, features a pine-draped back nine and a majestic vista of the Colorado River at the par-three fifteenth. Heading northwest, a day trip to Burnet puts you among the bluebonnets and prickly pear cacti at Delaware Springs Golf Course (www.delawaresprings.com), a model municipal layout. The fairways of Star Ranch Golf Club (starranchgolf.com) ripple through a maze of dazzling bunkers. Jimmy Clay Golf Course (austinpubliclinks.com), a tree-lined Austin muni favorite designed by Joe Finger, is being renovated until August. For an unmistakable Austin experience, head to Lions Municipal Golf Course (austinpubliclinks.com). Short, eccentric and seductive, Old Muni, as it is lovingly known, hosts the annual Firecracker Open, a popular summertime tournament won by Crenshaw and Kite when they were young.
Where to Stay
Barton Creek Resort & Spa With four of the best golf courses in Texas, a world-class spa, indoor and outdoor pools, a billiards-and-cigar bar and a variety of restaurants on the property, you can stay in one of Barton Creek's well-appointed but understated rooms and never require a car. An evening stroll down the lighted paths along the tributary itself is a quiet pleasure.
8212 Barton Creek Drive, Austin; 800-336-6158, www.bartoncreek.com. Rooms: $180-$380. Suites: $570-$1,900.
The Driskill This opulent hotel, opened in 1886 by Texas cattle baron Jesse L. Driskill, lords over the Sixth Street entertainment district with elegance and grace. It was here that LBJ set up his election-night headquarters in 1960 and '64. The Driskill's 176 rooms and thirteen suites still feature rich Victorian decor. Even if you don't stay here, visit the lobby, where antiques gleam in soft light filtered through a stained-glass dome.
604 Brazos Street, Austin; 800-252-9367, www.driskillhotel.com. Rooms: $215-$375. Suites: $395-$2,500.
Hotel San JosÉ A bohemian, bungalow-style hotel fashioned out of a former motor court and located in the emerging neighborhood of SoCo (as in South Congress), the forty-room, stucco-walled San José oozes urban chic. Native gardens, crushed-granite walking paths and an in-house music library combine to evoke an unmistakable Austin attitude.
1316 South Congress Avenue, Austin; 800-574-8897, www.sanjosehotel.com. Rooms: $90-$240. Suites: $260-$370.
Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa The newest resort in the center of the state exudes a decidedly Texan spirit. The tree-shaded grounds hug the Colorado River, offering opportunities for fly-fishing, rafting and horseback riding. Children can enjoy the Crooked River Pool and water slide, and couples or families can visit the nearby historic town of Bastrop.
575 Lost Pines Road, Lost Pines; 512-308-1234, lostpines.www.hyatt.com. Rooms: $329-$405. Suites: $580-$2,500.
Where to Eat
Austin's dining scene reflects the cosmopolitan energy of the city, but the fact remains that you're still in the heart of Texas. Barbeque, therefore, rules. It's beef, not pork or chicken, that defines the Texas smokehouse and grill: beef ribs, beef brisket and beef sausage served with beef-flavored ranch beans. And it's sauced strictly after being cooked, not rubbed in advance.
Chuy's (Tex-Mex) Nothing goes better with a cold drink after a round than a bottomless bowl of homemade chips and salsa and a steaming stack of enchiladas, and few places do either as well as this Austin institution of vinyl, Formica and chrome. The kitsch on the walls and ceiling alone, including an installation of hubcaps, makes it worth the short wait for a table at lunch or dinner.
1728 Barton Springs Road, Austin; 512-474-4452. $
County Line on the Hill (Barbeque) An outdoor patio with sweeping views of the Hill Country goes well with the saucy ribs and freshly baked bread with honey butter at this beloved original location of what's become a chain of barbeque joints across Texas and into Oklahoma and New Mexico. A second Austin branch sits on the banks of Town Lake.
6500 Bee Cave Road, Austin; 512-327-1742. $$
Hudson's on the Bend (Southwestern) One of the finest restaurants in America for wild game, Hudson's offers a seasonal menu that covers the gamut, from the familiar (grilled venison chops) to the exotic (kangaroo pastrami). The smoked duck diablos appetizer—duck breast, jicama, jalapeño and balsamic-soaked figs all wrapped in bacon and served with a red-chile dipping sauce—is duly celebrated.
3509 Ranch Road 620 North, Austin; 512-266-1369. $$$$
Iron Works BBQ (Barbeque) This historic and supremely aromatic downtown place serves the best brisket and iced tea within walking distance of the Warehouse District, Sixth Street, the state capitol and the Driskill Hotel. The hard part, after a meal of Texas-size proportions, is the walk back.
100 Red River Street, Austin; 512-478-4855. $$
Kerbey Lane CafÉ (American) Opened on a shoestring twenty-seven years ago, Kerbey Lane remains one of those amusing Austin originals. There's plenty of variety on the menu—which is designed around fresh local produce—but the café is open twenty-four hours and serves breakfast round the clock, so you can try the Frisbee-size buttermilk or gingerbread pancakes whenever you happen to walk in.
3704 Kerbey Lane, Austin; 512-451-1436. $
Kreuz Market (Barbeque) As authentic as a Texas summer afternoon is long, this cavernous restaurant—the offshoot of a century-old family-owned meat market—serves seasoned meat with no plates, no forks, no sauce and infinite shades of smoky flavor. It's the most redeeming thirty-minute drive (from downtown Austin) you'll ever take to eat off butcher paper.
619 North Colorado Street, Lockhart; 512-398-2361. $
Manuel's (Upscale Mexican) With a menu rich in seafood and homemade salsas, Manuel's brings a taste of coastal Mexico to Austin. An ancho-chile base spikes the tortilla soup, and the enchiladas de mole are worth staging a revolution over.
310 Congress Avenue, Austin; 512-472-7555. $$$
The Roaring Fork (Western) The menu at this upscale bistro leans toward cowboy country, with spit-roasted chicken and steak dishes refined at the original Roaring Fork in Scottsdale, Arizona. The wine list has been recognized by Wine Spectator.
701 Congress Avenue, Austin; 512-583-0000. $$$
The Salt Lick (Barbeque) Perfect after a round at nearby Circle C, this ranchlike place offers the most memorable barbeque experience in central Texas. Order the family-style options, and the waitstaff will bring plates of beef, sausage and pork ribs from the pit as long as you have room for more.
18001 FM 1826, Driftwood; 512-858-4959. $
Uchi (Japanese) Taking its name from the Japanese word for house, this celebrated restaurant operates out of a converted tree-shaded home. Tyson Cole—named a Best New Chef of 2005 by Food & Wine, this magazine's sister publication—combines local and exotic ingredients, including seafood flown in daily from the Tsukiji Market in Japan.
801 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin; 512-916-4808. $$$
Where to Listen
Few cities in America compare to Austin when it comes to live music. Home to popular annual festivals (see next page), Austin rocks nightly at an amazing collection of cozy clubs, honky-tonks, historic music halls and headliner concert venues.
Antone's With a pedigree that includes hosting blues legends B. B. King, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy as well as rockers Eric Clapton and Elvis Costello, this no-frills joint enjoys a richly deserved national reputation. The first club to open on Sixth Street, in 1975, Antone's has since moved to the less rowdy and less college-y Warehouse District on Fifth.
213 West Fifth Street, Austin; 512-320-8424, www.antones.net.
Broken Spoke A classic honky-tonk since 1964, the Broken Spoke bills itself as "the last of the true Texas dance halls," where the likes of Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, George Strait and Jimmie Dale Gilmore have kept the wood-plank floor hopping with the two-step well into the night. The club—featured many times on the PBS show Austin City Limits—books country bands five nights a week, from Tuesday through Saturday, and serves a mean chicken-fried steak.
3201 South Lamar Avenue, Austin; 512-442-6189, www.brokenspokeaustintx.com.
Continental Club This indomitable, über-retro bar opened in 1957 on South Congress Avenue and has rattled windows ever since. Over the years, its acts have included musicians ranging from Glenn Miller and Joe Ely to Stevie Ray Vaughan and baritone-belting Junior Brown, famous for playing his trademark "guit-steel," a double-necked hybrid of a traditional six-string and a lap-steel guitar.
1315 South Congress Avenue, Austin; 512-441-0202, www.continentalclub.com.
Threadgill's For nostalgia, trek over to the South Austin location of Threadgill's, a descendant of the country-music bar founded in 1933 by bootlegger Kenneth Threadgill in a filling station at the northern edge of town. It traces its ancestry to the Armadillo World Headquarters, a breeding ground of alt-country. On Sundays, the club features gospel music and some of the best southern comfort food around.
301 West Riverside Drive, Austin; 512-472-9304, www.threadgills.com.
Orientation
Getting There
The Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), ten miles southeast of downtown, is served by eleven carriers and offers nonstop flights to and from most major U.S. cities. If you're staying at Barton Creek Resort & Spa or Hyatt Regency Lost Pines, you can take a free ground shuttle from the airport. Getting to the heart of the city is also a snap, provided you avoid Interstate 35, where traffic can be as thick as room-temperature queso. The better north-south artery to use is Mopac Expressway (also known as Loop 1). The courses at Barton Creek and Horseshoe Bay are located west of town, as are the better private clubs, so find a map and get familiar with Texas Highway 71, which leads into the Hill Country.
Climate
Central Texas is blessed with three hundred days of sunshine a year. Come July, August and September, the blazing sun isn't exactly a friend of the golfer, as temperatures routinely rise into the nineties. But spectacular springs, glorious autumns and moderate winters—the average daily high in Austin doesn't dip below sixty degrees—more than make up for the sweltering summers.
Private Gems
Thanks to a concentration of wealth, good available land and a year-round golf season, Austin has an abundance of great private courses. By northern standards, most of the finer clubs are fairly new. Tree-lined Onion Creek Club (1974), routed by Jimmy Demaret, hosted the first Legends of Golf tournament, the forerunner of the Champions Tour. Hills Country Club (1981), a shotmaker's paradise, is a Jack Nicklaus design on Hurst Creek that annually holds a senior tour event. Cimarron Hills Golf & Country Club (2003) is a sensational Nicklaus layout with bent-grass greens on old ranchland in the northern suburb of Georgetown. West of Austin in Bee Cave, Bobby Weed brought a minimalist sensibility to the windswept Spanish Oaks Golf Club (2001), home of PGA Tour pros Rich Beem and Joe Ogilvie. Finally, the modern Pete Dye incarnation of Austin Country Club (1984), where Harvey Penick tutored Crenshaw and Kite, dips onto the tranquil shores of Lake Austin on the front nine. The club dedicates a room to the homespun teacher, with wonderful memorabilia on display; public visits can be arranged by appointment (512-328-0090).
Hill Country
For the best route into the Hill Country, head west on Highway 71. The vast and rugged landscape opens up beyond the Balcones Fault, leading to miles and miles of pleated limestone outcroppings blanketed in springtime by bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. A chain of lakes formed by the Colorado River winds through the region, which offers the option to hike any number of trails, taste the Granite Blush at Fall Creek Vineyards (325-379-5361), spelunk in ancient caves, splash in spectacular waterfalls at Pedernales Falls State Park (830-868-7304) or fish for trout in the Llano River. The region is also rich in seasonal celebrations such as the Bluebonnet Festival in Burnet and the Hill Country Regatta on Lake Buchanan, both in April; the German community in Fredericksburg hosts an October festival of local foods and wines.
Hook 'em Horns
In Texas, football ranks up there with church, family and making sure the cattle get fed. With a little effort, you can score tickets to a University of Texas football game at the ninety-thousand-seat Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Tickets are available at the U.T. athletics office (texasboxoffice.com) or through the online brokers Ticket City (ticketcity.com) and StubHub (stubhub.com). Tailgating begins Friday afternoon for a Saturday game; follow the brisket smoke to Trinity Street and listen for the cowboy hat-wearing Longhorn band rehearsing "Deep in the Heart of Texas."
Festival Fever
Austin's major popular music festivals attract thousands of enthusiasts to the city each year. The influential South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival made its start in 1987 with a modest audience of seven hundred. Today the rocking, nearly round-the-clock event, held in March, includes concerts and film screenings and draws more than ten thousand people. In mid-September, the Austin City Limits Music Festival brings thousands outdoors to Zilker Park, where Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Willie Nelson, Gnarls Barkley and Van Morrison headlined the 130-act lineup in 2006.
Where Willie Hangs His Hat
When he's not at his home away from home in Maui or on the road (again), country-music icon, Texas native and habitual golfer Willie Nelson resides on an 850-acre property between Austin and Horseshoe Bay that encompasses his recording studio, his Western-movie-set town called Luck and his tumbledown nine-hole course, Willie Nelson's Pedernales Cut-N-Putt (pedernalesgolfclub.com). A former country club that Nelson purchased nearly thirty years ago—and around which assorted family members, friends and roadies of his now live—this unpretentious hill-country layout is open to the public. But before booking a round, familiarize yourself with the course rules, including, as the web site states, "No more than twelve in your foursome." Afterward be sure to stop at Poodie's Hilltop Bar & Grill (poodies.com), owned by Poodie Locke, Nelson's longtime road manager, for live music and the hands-down best cheeseburger on Highway 71. If you're lucky, you might find Willie there, still going strong at age seventy-four, bending the nylon strings of his old Martin while he waits for lunch. —K.R.
