Landscape Information
Located just north of downtown in the southern portion of Brackenridge Park, this 114-acre golf course was designed by Albert Tillinghast in 1916. After years of petitioning by the San Antonio Men’s Hotel Association, Park Commissioner Ray Lambert agreed to develop the state’s first municipal golf course in the expansive park. Tillinghast began work on the project in October 1915 and completed construction in September 1916. The course was unique for its use of grass greens rather than hard sand, which was prevalent at the time. The course has undergone significant changes since its completion in 1916. In the 1960s the development of U.S. Highway 281 sliced through its western edge, separating the twelfth and thirteenth holes from the rest of the course. The course was subsequently redesigned by course manager Murray Brooks and consultant George A. Hoffman to fit the site’s new boundaries. In 2008 the golf course was rerouted to better reflect Tillinghast’s original design.
The eighteen-hole course is predominately flat and interspersed with a variety of trees and sand traps. The original square greens remain, a common design element of the early 1900s rarely found today. Winding cart paths cross the San Antonio River and Water Works Channel on stone bridges designed by Tillinghast. Woodlands border the site’s northwestern perimeter, screening it from nearby development. On the southeastern edge of the property, a Tudor-style, stone clubhouse designed by architect Ralph H. Cameron in 1923 (and remodeled in 1968) serves as the entrance to the course, fronted by a parking lot. The golf course is a contributing feature of Brackenridge Park, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
