Almost every city has a municipal golf course or two. Some have more. But almost none of them have a golf trail. San Antonio’s Alamo City Golf Trail is a national standout — eight courses under one name, one reservation system and one nonprofit mission: keep public golf excellent, keep it affordable, and keep the money in the courses instead of in a shareholder’s pocket. Since 2007, when the Golf Trail was put together under the management of the new, nonprofit Municipal Golf Association of San Antonio (MGASA), it has reinvested nearly $44 million in the city’s courses, according to Andrew Peterson, the Association’s President and CEO. Another $40 million in improvements is planned over the next 20 years.
“We’re recognized nationally,” Peterson said. “I get a lot of interest from other cities all over the country — even in Canada — wanting to know what our secret sauce is.”
Even if you’ve never swung a club in your life, it’s a great story. And like many success stories, it starts with a problem. The city’s Parks and Recreation folks didn’t have the skill set required to manage golf courses successfully, but they had the job. And a lot of the revenue they did generate went into the city’s general fund — not back into the courses, so maintenance was deferred.
“I remember teeing off on the 10th hole at Olmos Basin and looking at a bunch of mowers just sitting on the side of the course, not being used,” recalled Jim Simmons, a self-described “golf nut” who plays the city courses as many as three times a week when he’s not working in the golf association’s call center. “There’s been a huge improvement.”
Compared to elite private golf clubs and even privately-owned public courses, the Golf Trail is a bargain. For less than $100.00, an annual Trail Pass gets you discounts on green fees, six bonus rounds a year and more. Tiered rates for different days and hours help make the Trail courses accessible to everyone — and every course offers top-rated Callaway clubs to rent.
“Allowing the golf trail to operate independently has been a great thing,” said Thomas Aguillon, former chairman of the MGASA Board of Directors. “They started marketing them together — ‘Come Play the Golf Trail.’
“I’ve played every city course – Olmos Basin, Riverside, Cedar Creek… the Trail has very competitive green fees, and we try to make it accessible to everyone,” Aguillon added. “I grew up in the game, playing Brackenridge — there’s a special tie to my family there. My grandfather won Low Amateur in the last Texas Open there in 1959. The Pan American Golf Association, the oldest Hispanic golf association in America, started at Brackenridge, and my Uncle Ray still plays with them every Sunday.”
Hitting the Trail
“Old Brack”
The Crown Jewel
San Antonio golf started here in 1916, when the city opened the first 18-hole public golf course in Texas. (A bison herd and assorted wild animals that George Brackenridge had donated to the city had to be moved off the land first, to a nearby area that became the San Antonio Zoo.) One of America’s greatest golf course designers, A.W. Tillinghast, built his famous “reef bunkers” to cope with a water works canal, the winding San Antonio River and a couple of roadways that ran through the property. In 1922, Brackenridge hosted the first Texas Open, with a $5,000 purse — triple what the U.S. Open paid back then. More than 6,000 spectators showed up each day. Over the following decades, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer all walked those fairways in the 22 years the Texas Open — now the Valero Texas Open — was played at “Old Brack.”
It was fitting that the Municipal Golf Association’s turnaround started where it all began, with a completed renovation of the Brackenridge Course. Restored to Tillinghast’s original design, today the course is a Texas Golf Hall of Fame site with its Walk of Fame, its stunning old Tudor Clubhouse and the renovated Borglum Studio, now an event center, where sculptor Gutzon Borglum watched golfers on the 17th hole as he worked on designs for Mount Rushmore.
Willow Springs
Opened in 1925 as the Woodland, Willow Springs also hosted multiple Texas Opens. Today, with the Spurs’ AT&T Center and San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo grounds just across the street, significant course improvements have made it a popular spot for golf again.
Riverside
Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders once trained here — thus the par-3 “Teddy Bear.” The front 9 opened in 1929, and generations of golfers learned the sport here. Recent improvements include a fresh facelift along its shaded, historic stretch of the San Antonio River.
Cedar Creek
Out in the Hill Country, at 7,158 yards, it’s said to be the toughest Golf Trail course. The course was closed for months for huge renovations, from water features to re-grassing, in 2024. Last year, a new Snack Shack opened there.
Mission del Lago
Another long course — 7,044 yards from the back tees, with 100 bunkers, it has the Trail’s highest course rating and slope: 74.1/134. Denis Griffiths, the only American to design a course in St. Andrews, Scotland, might have been channeling the seaside wind — it can be formidably windy here.
Olmos Basin
The busiest. Smack-dab in the middle of the city, it’s short, walkable, friendly, tree-lined and beloved by regulars who’ve played it hundreds of times. Not all easy, though. Watch out for the second hole — a tree-lined dog-leg par 4 with an uphill approach.
Northern Hills
A former private club acquired by the city in 2015, it still has the traditional private clubhouse and event space. It has also received a lot of TLC — most recently, renovated tee boxes and concreted cart paths — to bring it up to Golf Trail standards. The 12th hole, with a pond beside a narrow landing area, is notable.
San Pedro
The Trail’s beginner-friendly social spot. The new 18-hole artificial putting facility (think putt-putt!), par-3 course, driving range, lessons, simulators, music events, Wine and Nine scrambles and a new patio bar make San Pedro a cool gathering place for everyone, from families with kids to senior citizens, golfers and duffers. It’s the kind of happy hangout that makes folks like Peterson optimistic about the future of the sport.
“Seven or eight years ago, people in this business were worried about the future of golf,” Peterson said. “With population rates going down, there were potentially fewer younger people coming into the game. But the script has tipped a little. Younger people have really grown into the game.”
Whatever generation you’re in, whether you’re chasing a Youth on Course round at Riverside, hunting your first ace at Olmos, or just watching the sun set over Mission del Lago as twilight rates kick in, if you’re playing the Alamo City Golf Trail, you’re playing on the history — and maybe the future — of San Antonio golf. In the immortal words of Roy Rogers, “Happy Trail To You!”
