Traditions Club Course Review

Posted On May 7, 2018

With the NCAA golf regional tournaments coming up, I decided to go to Traditions Club in Bryan, TX and take a look at the course and see what the players would face.

The course was in good shape and a lot of fun. The greens were really receptive due to the recent rains. Generally wide fairways made the tee shot less stressful but shot placement is key. You could end up with a 200 yard shot vs a 150 yard shot depending on which side of the fairway you were on. As always, it is a terrifically designed Jack Nicklaus course.

We would rate Traditions Club 9 out of 10 sticks.

Pulling up you could tell they were gearing up for the tournament. When I have played the course previously, there is usually an attendant who will either take your clubs or bring you a cart. This didn’t happen when I pulled up but noticed there was one later.

Since it had rained, we had to warm up on mats. Not my favorite way to warm up but Traditions Club has some of the best mats I’ve ever hit off of. Plus it was covered so the warm sun wasn’t shining down on you the entire time.

On each cart there is a card with the date, weather forecast, rain chance, wind, pin locations and any cart restrictions. As you can see below, we were cart path only, little because of the recent rain I mentioned above but more so because of the tournament next week. They weren’t taking any chances of a fairway being wet and carts making ruts.

Traditions Club has 4 sets of tees with two combo tees ranging from just under 5000 yards to just over 7100 yards from the tips and a slope rating ranging from 126 to 151. From the tips, this is one of the harder courses in Texas.

Pulling up to the first tee, there is a large rock Texas A&M logo, which can also be seen from the 18th fairway and green. Just a reminder that is Texas A&M Golf’s home course.

The first hole is a par 4 dog leg right over a small creek. This will set up the remainder of the course to come as 15 of the 18 holes hitting over a creek or body of water at some point on the hole.

Many holes seem to be similar as you have to have a good drive to a wide fairway and then a second shot either over a creek or to a well protected green. A few of my favorite holes were:

#4- A shorter tee shot is required as you will run out of room with the fairway running downhill a bit, and longer doesn’t necessarily mean closer to the green as this hole dog legs hard left.
#5 – Not an overly long par 5 but requires a very good shot to get there in two. when laying up you have an uphill shot over a creek.
#10- Another par 5 with a creek in the middle that turns this hole into a 3 shot hole. The green is very receptive, but make sure you are on the correct side of the ridge that runs down the middle of the green.
#13- a sharp dog leg right that requires a strategic tee shot. This again is a shorter par 4 that does not require a driver but either a hybrid or long iron off the tee.
#16- A long par 3 with along forced carry over water. This hole is beautiful and very tough at the same time.
#18- a very fun finishing hole done right. A slightly up hill tee shot that will allow your ball to roll a ways back down the hill. Take your pick, either a flat lie at the top of the hill or a much shorter, downhill lie. Either way you go, you will be hitting down towards the green.