Hancock Public Golf Course

With the new gray water irrigation, the course is in remarkable shape for this time of year. It’s a relatively short, old-​style course which is well suited for beginners yet challenging enough for experienced golfers who just want to tweak their game. And it’s cheap. However, the only par five on the course, hole #6, is still a spirit killer and should be a par six. I’m just saying.

DO NOT DRIVE NEAR THIS COURSE! The City of Austin will NOT pay claims from damage caused by golf balls flying out of bounds. Smashed windshield, over $ 500 damage, and THEY CLAIM THEY ARE NOT LIABLE FOR THE DAMAGE??? REALLY??? The government is protected from paying damages when a citizen is just driving on a public thoroughfare. THIS IS INEXCUSABLE!!! Where is the SHAME people should feel from harming others and getting away with it?

Nice little course to work on short game, not the best greens but for the price it’s a good value.

Fun little 9 hole golf course in central Austin. Perfect for when you don’t want to devote 6 hours of your day to drive out somewhere and play a 4.5 to 5 hour 18 hole round.
Course is in much better shape now than it has been in years past, when some of the fairways were little more than baked dirt. Easy to walk (I never get a cart). The price is cheap, which is also a plus. The course is short, and attracts a fair bit of duffers, but Hancock is great for what it is.

I’ve actually never golfer here, but it’s a great park to jog around or to bring your dog for a morning or evening stroll. The distance around it is about 1.1 miles so it’s easy to gage your distance while jogging. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained. I recently learned that this is actually the oldest golf course in TX. Pretty cool! The course is 9 holes and is divided in half by Waller Creek. $ 12.50 for 9 holes and $ 21 for 18. They will take reservations for groups of 4.
The park is not closed off and towards the evening people tend to use it more as a regular park rather than a golf course. Awesome view of downtown Austin and great for star watching on clear nights since it has the least light pollution in the area.

*Disclaimer* I don’t play golf here, but I did play DISC GOLF here…
I am a board member of the Waterloo Disc Golf Club in Austin and most recently for our 36^th Annual Disc Golf Classic benefiting the Ronald McDonald House of Austin, we reserved the entire course for our event.
The staff and workers at the location were TOP NOTCH. They allowed us use of all the facilities and allowed us to set up two 18 hole Disc Golf Courses (for a total of 36 baskets). They simply opened their facility to us and trusted us with the decisions and set up, so as to make use of a majority of the property, not damage the greens, and bring a large amount of people/​player traffic to the course.
Our event covered 3 days, with the main event on Sat/​Sun and 178 players. Add to that a large amount of staff and spectators. In the end the facility was EVERYTHING we hoped for and they understood the «Professional» premise of Disc Golf. It allowed many people to come see what everything was all about and displayed our sport and the facility grounds at their finest.
The staff got to watch world famous Disc Golf Pros play on the course and watch some of the youngest as well (age of 7), but in the end, whether it was ball golf or disc golf the players are always the same. The stories just have a different twist to them.
Overall, I can attest directly that if you need to rent a facility for your special event or circumstances, then the Staff and grounds at the Hancock Golf Course are thoroughly accommodating to fit whatever your needs are.
As a note, this was very symbolic. Because of the use of their facility, we were able to raise the largest amount of money ever for the charity from our event. It beat a record that was set back in 2005!
Additionally, Austin’s FIRST Golf Course and Austin’s OLDEST Disc Golf event came together for many historical marks and will always be remembered as such an inspirational event.
Thank you to the great people of the Hancock Golf Course for being so accomodating, friendly, and letting us your facility for our annual event.

The good news is that there is GRASS like crazy here now. The grey water system seems to have worked very well.
The pace of play is still the best of any course I’ve ever been to – almost never have to wait, even when I’m zooming along solo.
Be warned — as of late October, the greens were still getting a little TLC and as such are loaded with sand. At the very least, the unsanded practice green by the clubhouse will help you perfect your long putts in preparation for what’s to come.
One last thing to note — Hancock is not a difficult course. Do not come here expecting a challenge.

We played this course over spring break with our two boys, and we really enjoyed this course. The greens all looked great, and grass was in great shape. Yes, there were some area’s that were rough where the new construction has been done, but over all, course was in great shap. The best part about playing here was the $ 9/​person greens fee’s. Where else can you play 9 holes for $ 9 a head, no where. Have I played nicer courses, heck ya, but not for $ 9 a head.
The iceing on the cake, when standing at the first hole waiting to tee off, the marshal came up to us, saw that we had two juniors with us, handed us a bag with about 20 golf balls in it. The marshal then says, you look like you could use these with those two boys, enjoy. Kids were happy happy to have some extra balls to loose in the water.
Would have given course 5 stars, but with the construction & layout of holes 7 & 8, gota dock them a star.
Enjoy!

It’s supposed to be the oldest course in Austin, and I believe it.

I’ve golfed here twice, once during the winter, and once during the summer. Both times, I’ve really disliked it. I was hoping for at least a decent 9 hole course, but it is really in bad shape. Then again, the cost to play is only like 8 or 9 dollars.
That being said, there is almost no maintenance done here and the place looks like it is falling apart. Austin could get much more for the land here, and I’m sure they soon will sell this course when they realize how much they could get for putting and apartment or housing here.
Sad to see Muni golf going by the wayside, but unless you are going to maintain like kizer/​clay/​mowilly, there is no reason to keep the course around.
If you like hitting off concrete, this course is for you. Also, good luck sticking a tee into the concrete to tee off!!!

9 hole golf course – you get what you pay for. The course is in pretty bad shape, but there are friendly people, and it’s convenient in Austin for a quick game in the afternoon. Be careful on your drive on #7 if you have a slice – this one goes parallel to Red River St., and you might hit a bus!
The holes are very scenic, so it makes for a very nice walk. One downside is that it is popular for people living in the area to walk around the course, and it is not unusual to find a bum sleeping under the trees to the right of the fairway on #2.

A very good course to play if you want to practice your game. I go early morning and no one to slow you up. Most people think of this course as low budget but you actually have to play descent golf here. I like this course from the greens to the tee boxes.

This is a tough one. I suppose 3 stars will suffice. A-​OK, right?
The course itself is in pretty rough condition. Desperately needs water, elbow grease, and love. Of course, I understand that for $ 9, I can’t exactly expect the ball to be fluffed up on the grass, either.
Everyone at the course seems pretty nice and down to earth. Nobody is particularly snobby, like you will find at more expensive courses. If fact, everyone seems to have this comical understanding with one another that pretty much says, «Hey, it’s okay that your ball somehow landed on my fairway, which is a totally different hole than the one you are playing; we’re at Hancock, it’s no big deal.»
Staff isn’t particularly friendly. Some are friendlier than others. Some are downright rude. Again, though, for $ 9 what do you expect?
Wish they had a drink cart though… Oh well, one can always dream!
I’ll continue to play Hancock when I want to get a little golf in here and there, or get some exercise in (it’s a great course to walk). Maybe I’ll see some of my fellow Unilocalers out there sometime? Look for me — I’ll be the girl wading knee deep in the water trying to rescue my brand-​name golf balls!

I’m sure your golfing is fine, whatever. However, the people playing on your course are downright assholes.
We were having a photo shoot here at a bridge on Sunday, absolutely not in the way of anyone playing golf. At all. And we had permission from the lady at the front desk to shoot in this location, too.
THEN, out of NOWHERE some middle aged ugly lady and her husband who were there with their son decided to be total dicks and start shooting balls trying to hit us while yelling and cussing at us — in front of their son. Poor little boy. We should have video taped it and created a website «hownottoparent DOT COM»! So sad.
Anyway, I know not all golfers that golf here are like that, but it doesn’t make me ever want to return to this particular golf course anytime soon, that’s for sure.

This would definitely be last on my list for courses in Austin. 12 bucks on the weekday, but the guy at the «clubhouse» was a little rude, the greens are like shag carpets, and the fairways/​tee boxes are worse. If you’re a complete beginner this is fine but anyone else won’t gain much from this place.

For a cheap muni course this is pretty good. I dont know if I’ll be coming back, though. It all depends on what other cheap courses I can find in Austin.
Two problems that kept it from having four stars: most holes don’t have fairways (just short rough) and the greens are a joke. They must have intentionally searched for the worst possible places to place the greens because the holes are all on slopes and it’s just luck if you manage to play the break correctly. I’m a good putter, but you wouldn’t have known it today.
Overall, fun and memorable, however. The holes, especially 2 and 3, are fun and memorable. Plus, it’s the oldest course in Texas!

My golfin’ buddy and I were itching to get out on the course one Saturday morning for a leisurely round and some cocktails. We agreed on Hancock for convenience and price; unfortunately we left less than impressed with our experience.
They had recently raised the prices for 9 holes and cart rental, so it ended up costing what we could have paid for 18 holes at a much nicer course. They do not maintain the grounds well at all, and the staff was none too friendly. The course marshall got his panties in a bunch because we were sharing clubs; stating that it’s policy to require each golfer to have their own set of clubs. Pretty sure he was just being an ass trying to get a few more bucks out of us in club rentals.
Overall, this is a very uninteresting and overpriced course with unfriendly management. We were very pleased when we discovered Harvey Penick golf course on the eastside! We’ve since said so long to the cock.

So the joke goes that if I ever were to design my own golf course, it’d be designed in a giant concentric circle to the right, because of my slice. If you flew over it in one of those tiny prop planes, it’d no doubt look like a giant honeybun from the sky, complete with various trees (if honeybuns came with trees) and the pathetic refuge of whatever is left over when a pond dries up or a sandtrap goes back and springs weeds like it hasn’t shaven in a while.
Alas, Hancock isn’t particularly fancy (a few holes will make that abundantly clear) and yes, there are plenty of golfers who subscribe to the theory a friend of mine once espoused, namely, that if you were going to pay a greens fee, you should get your money’s worth and try to use as much of the course as possible. All of that said, here’s why they get four stars from me: it’s affordable, totally easy to get on, and best of all, it’s nine holes. Total.
You can get up (like a few of us did on July 4^th), be on the course by nine am and be at lunch by 12:30. The course is forgiving enough that someone like me actually pars legitimately once in a while, and by and large the fairways are wide and even, which didn’t keep me from cranking one into the street. I’m reasonably certain that ball’s still in line for a slurpee at a convenience store in the neighborhood. Regardless, one of the reasons that golf’s such a compelling pastime is that people build great memories over the time we spend together, hacking around, losing balls in the trees and being generally surprised when the damn things go where we want them to go.
Which I suppose is reason enough for a return trip. Fore, indeed.

Cheap green fees. You get what you pay for. If you’re a bad golfer, this is the course for you…(judging by all the bad golfers i saw.)
*Sidenote*…if you were driving down Red River and felt a golfball-​sized ‘thump’ on the side of your car… Soooorrry.

Hancock golf course cured my craving for golf this past weekend… but it wasn’t the best round of gold I’ve ever had.
The course is only 9 holes, which can be perfect for a quick game.
They only take cash! Be aware of this before showing up.
The greens and fairways are extremely fast… which makes it a little difficult to get a good game going.
The grounds are kept well… but since it’s so old its much different then your normal 18 hole golf course. The only sand trap is on the 8Th hole, the paths are a little rough, etc.
I wouldn’t say this is a good place for beginners.