Tanglewood (about an hour north of Dallas) caught my eye because the design has Arnold Palmer ties. According to what I can find Arnold Palmer and Ralph Plummer co-designed Tanglewood in the early 197... Continue »

Tanglewood (about an hour north of Dallas) caught my eye because the design has Arnold Palmer ties. According to what I can find Arnold Palmer and Ralph Plummer co-designed Tanglewood in the early 1970’s. Usually, I’m a pretty big fan of Palmer designs but I haven’t heard of Plummer until today. Apparently Plummer is a mostly-Texas designer who grew up before much of the earth moving equipment was available.

The design of Tanglewood is very straightforward and probably just as you’d imagine a resort course built in 1971. Most of the holes have a similar look with slight doglegs or slight elevation change. I played the back tees which are 71.1/125/6536. No matter where you play though, the course won’t beat you up! While the fairways are borderline narrow, you can hit it all over and still advance the ball.

There isn’t much to highlight about Tanglewood’s design as it is about as functional and simple as you’ll find! The most interesting thing about Tanglewood, at least in my opinion, are the green complexes. Having played some of Palmer’s newer courses I could see his influence on the bunkering. The bunkers weren’t deep, but they were laid out in Palmer fashion and added some interest to the design.

The conditions were fine for the price I paid ($27), but generally speaking things were a bit unkempt. The fairways were playable but not much more. There was some great sections to them and then some very spotty patches with crabgrass/worn areas. The rough was mostly a mix of grasses. The greens are zoysia and were great surfaces.

Probably not worth the hour drive north from DFW, but if you are in the Lake Texoma area for other activities and want some golf then this is one of the places to look at.