Hungry Like the Wolf
August 11, 2012The Wolfdancer Golf Club roared onto the Austin, Texas golf scene in 2006. Buoyed by an incredible setting and a thought-provoking, challenging layout — all under the respected Hyatt brand flag — Wolfdancer was immediately bestowed prominent national awards including GOLF Magazine’s “Top 10 New Courses You Can Play” while at the same time storming to the top of regional and state rankings.
The centerpiece of an easy-to-arrange, one-stop resort destination that includes a world-class spa, premier accommodations, horseback riding — all in the form of a luxurious base camp from which to experience Austin’s legendary culinary, arts and music scenes — the sprawling, 405-acre Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa is a 491-room destination resort comfortably adjacent to a larger, 1,100-acre natural park. Hyatt Lost Pines is truly a hidden wonderland equally idyllic for traveling golfers, family getaways and corporate retreats.
For those in the know, this resort offers an elegant, backwoods experience minutes away from the hustle and bustle of civilization. Hyatt Lost Pines is located 20 miles of east of the “Live Music Capital of the World” and just 13 miles due east of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Highway 71, yet feels completely secluded in its sleepy farmland surroundings buffered by the McKinney Roughs nature preserve.
Designed by Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates, the 7,205-yard, par-72 Wolfdancer Golf Club was named after the land it occupies formerly belonging to the Tonkawa American Indian tribe, who performed ceremonial dances covered in wolf skin and imitating the behavior of wolves by dancing on all fours. A golf course is only as good as the land it sits upon, and the property at Hyatt Lost Pines is superb. The Hills layout rambles over a dramatic, 150-acre stretch of terrain dotted with oak, cedar elm and pecan trees and cut by the Colorado River, which dramatically frames the right side of layout’s memorable finishing holes.
Wolfdancer Golf Club features an unexpectedly large amount of rolling, wooded and flowing topographical variance resulting in one resort and one golf course, yet three entirely different experiences: A true cross-section of Texas Hill Country geography playing through three eco-systems. Holes one through four are set on covered rolling prairie land, five through 12 on a heavily wooded ridgeline and 13 through 18 along a shaded valley bordering the Colorado River. A former owner of the land, Marjorie “Tiny” Leach, is a legendary cattle rancher who once owned an Austin leather shop, “Tiny’s Leather Shop,” and today the Wolfdancer starter’s hut stands in her honor.
While the Hill Country is chock full of layouts designed by names like Fazio, Crenshaw and Trent Jones Sr., Wolfdancer is the only design save Hyatt Hill Country Golf Club credited to the equally well-respected golf course architect Arthur Hills. With Wolfdancer, Hills delivers a classic layout capable of challenging the Texas single-digit handicapper while delivering an unforgettable resort experience for the visiting family or transient golfer.
