13 WINTER TEXAN TIMES www.wintertexantimes.com MARCH 19, 2025 956-580-3370 Serving Valleywide for 35 years Sales • Parts • Rentals • Onsite Service Easy Ride Golf Cars Drive Around In Your Brand New Golf Cart Today! linnetezride@gmail.com www.easyridegolfcars.com 2508 W. Interstate Hwy 2 Mission, TX 78572 COME IN & MAKE AN OFFER Inventory reduction on all used and new cars Used Yamaha Drive 2 EFI $5,700 New Yamahas $8,800.00 Here’s a little tip – you may want to play here as quickly as you can – it’s not a secret anymore, and it used to hold the best chili-cooking competition maybe across the entire Valley. Tony Butler is new and history-laden at the same time. Named after the famous golfer, the city has invested so much that you may not recognize it. The challenges are different, the beauty has increased, and the course truly has a new face. This 27-hole course has always been a popular municipal course, but now its bursting at the seams with golfers who want to see if they can master it – good luck with that. The course is located at 2640 Golf Course Dr. in Harlingen. Tierra Santa Golf Course in Weslaco gives golfers all the positives of a wonderful lifestyle, from the clubhouse to the grill and pro shop – and maybe the most spectacular and challenging course in South Texas – it’s just that beautiful. Every hole is a different challenge, every green you hit makes you feel like a champion. Tierra Santa is located at 1901 Club de Amistad in Weslaco. Put this course on your bucket list – go play it and put it back on that bucket list. Winter Texans’ favorite Upper Valley Course is Champion Lakes, 2701 S. Ware Rd., in McAllen, formerly known as Palm View. Tierra del Sol and Ebony Hills were selected as second and third respectively. Champion Lakes is one of the most illustrious municipal courses anywhere, never resting on its laurels. It seems to always have some type of project going on to make it part of the community. Recently it built lockers for the University of Texas-RGV golf teams, it added maybe the longest and best lighted driving range in the Valley, it holds the Valley’s most prestigious golf tournament – the McAllen City Amateur where golfers come from all over the state and Winter Texans make it happen with all of their volunteer hours. But that’s how McAllen Director of Golf Carlos Espinosa runs his course – his concern is for those who play there and he’s always gathering input from local golfers and has been known to go to Winter Texan parks to see what they are interested in. It’s a beautiful course and the South Texas wind also calls it home – so be ready for that as well. With all the issues Tierra del Sol (700 E. Hall Acres Rd., Pharr) once had, the city breathed new life into it not once, but twice and the course is in the best condition it has been in years. Several of its holes are wide open – feel free to grip it and rip it. Don’t get too carried away however, because some require an assassin’s aim. There are plenty of shortcuts on this course that will bring golfers mega rewards. But there are also risks. Its clubhouse is quaint and friendly – and has the best breakfast tacos around – just those make it a must play (or at least must eat) course. Ebony Hills remains open – is a survivor – and thriving. It has a simple layout with very few obstacles in your way, making it a dream course for any level of golfer to attack the greens aggressively and practice shots one wouldn’t dare try on a tougher layout with all sorts of hazards. One reminder though, like its sister golf course Los Lagos, the wind can do dastardly deeds to your golf ball, and your round. The 9-hole par-35 course is located at 300 W. Palm Dr. in Edinburg. It’s the course you play if you want to just clear your mind and have a good time. River Bend Golf Course took first place in the Lower Valley with Brownsville Golf Center, Long Island Village, and Valley International all tying for second place. River Bend Golf Course and Country Club (4541 US-281, Brownsville) was once the best kept secret golf course in the Rio Grande Valley. Since then, however, ownership has not only marketed the course to Winter Texans inside and out of the country club, but they’ve also added a touch to make the challenging, but fun course, a more memorable event. In the past few years, the course has removed trees and cleaned out the holes that run along the Rio Grande, providing golfers with a view that is enough to bring them back to the course. River Bend opened as a ninehole course in 1983 and quickly expanded to 18 holes just two years later. Thirty years later, in 2015, the Barnard family, owners of Coastal Realty and long-time Brownsville residents, bought River Bend and the new strategic marketing plan was put in place. That strategy included improvements for residents and letting golfers know that River Bend golf course was no longer a secret place – its doors opened See GOLF pg. 14 Champion Lakes Courtesy photo
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