Legends Golf Course Up & Running Again

After being shuttered for better than 16 months as accountants and creditors jousted over the valuable lakeside property on which it sits, Legends Golf Course in Kingsland, Texas, is back up and running and enjoying a measure of success equal to if not more so than when the track was mothballed.

Playing a round of golf at the Legends Golf Course is akin to teeing it up at the high-end, daily-fee courses in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio - with a lot of the things that makes the Highland Lakes-area so special thrown in for good measure.

This jewel in the rough was designed by PGA tour pro Tom Kite in conjunction with Austin-based architect Roy Bechtol. A trip around the track shows the touches each of those men brought to the process.

There is the pinpoint accuracy Kite is known for in his play and his designs, and Bechtol adds moxie to the routing with the combination of lengthy and short holes, risk-reward opportunities and attention to detail both on the course and in its surroundings.

Since the bankruptcy of its developers and original owners closed its gates until January 2007, the Legends - as should be expected - still has some roughness around the edges. But layout has potential and will challenge the best players.

"We are still working to get the course back to the shape we know we can have it in," said Robert Strain, who manages the course and the adjacent villas after they were purchased by Strain and his father Don. "The course you see today is really just a stepping stone to the course we will eventually have ready for play."

There are places at The Legends (Nos. 1, 6, 11, 12 and 14) where you have good chances to make birdies, but those holes are balanced by the course's tougher holes - Nos. 2, 7, 9, 15 and 17 - where the use of a wrong club or a less-than-perfect shot can generate big numbers.

Located about a mile north of Highway 1431 in Kingsland on Ranch Road 2342, The Legends on Lake LBJ Golf Club is nestled in the bend of the Colorado River arm of Lake LBJ. The par-72 course stretches 7,260 yards from the tips.

Bechtol is an expert at routing courses to fit a property's natural surroundings. "We were really lucky with the property that The Legends was built on," Bechtol said. "The vistas there offer seclusion and elevation changes that only Mother Nature could provide. All we did was find the golf course that was already there and bring it to life. It is great to see that someone has bought the course and is looking to get the things out of it that are so readily apparent."

For more information, call 325/388-8888 or visit www.legendsgolftx.com.