Austin, TX recommendations on summer venue for practice/play?

hey residents of the forum and experts of golf austin!

could you respond with some recommendations on local venues in Austin that would be appropriate for this situation?

Profile: college golfer home for the summer (new town for our family)..

Looking for a home course where he can practice and play during the weeks. many weekends will include travel for am events..

cost always a consideration but willing to 'join' somewhere (junior memberships?)..

preferably 30 min or less car ride from downtown.

bonus:

1) quiet afternoons to burn through tons of holes

2) solid short game practice facilities

3) tougher the shot values, the better. college setups are about as difficult as they come in amateur golf..

most of his tourney golf is in the southeast during the year..

thanks for the help!

cn

Was just in Austin myself but unfortunately did not get to play down there. Anyway, I would suggest reposting this in the Texas section under Courses and Travel - I'm guessing you'll get some good feedback there.

UT golf club has probably the best practice facilities I’m aware of. I’ve never been to many of the other private clubs, so it’s hard to say.

Twin creeks meets many of the requirements, but short game practice area is not great. The course is challenging though and has good variety of short game situations.

I can’t think of any public facilities that have very good to elite practice areas.

Clay/Keizer is one of the best ranges for public access. They have 2 public courses and a short course. Golf courses are very easy munis and don’t provide much challenge for an elite golfer. $65/mo for unlimited range.

As far as affordable private’s there are not very many good choices under $5k initiation.

I’d check out:

Lost Creek - junior membership with low to non-existent initiation. Good range but weekdays is off mats. Nice little 100yard short game area. Course is always empty in the afternoons. Tons of young single digit players always looking for a game. It’s short but tricky and provides some challenge for a college golfer. I’m a member here.

Flintrock Falls - $2k initiation, Nicklaus Course that’s always pretty empty. Challenging, not many young players. No driving range (might have access to Hills range)

Onion Creek - same price range, 27 holes, big range. Probably the best option for your situation.

Wolfdancer - excellent golf course with tons of risk/reward shot values. Big resort, cart ball golf. Excellent range, short game area. Very inexpensive ($300ish per mo with no initiation). Only problem is location... it’s in Bastrop past the airport. So great option if that works for you.