Maybe his heroes have always been golfers instead of cowboys?
It might be a tongue-in-cheek take on one of Willie Nelson’s most popular songs, but the 92-year-old legendary musician has never hidden his love for golf. Once an avid player, Nelson in 1979 bought the since renamed Pedernales Golf Club that lies about 30 miles northwest of Austin, Texas, out of bankruptcy for $250,000.
At the time, known then as Briarcliff Yacht and Golf Club, Nelson said of the purchase, “I’ve always wanted a golf course where I could set the pars.”
All joking aside, Nelson introduced a more laid-back environment that was antithetical to the pedestrian country club feel. That included a 54,000-square-foot living space on the land’s highest hill. Additionally, his retinue was encouraged to join him or play at their own will. If that wasn’t enough, he modified the ground’s restaurant into a recording studio, where the likes of Ray Charles, Toni Price, Sublime and Neil Young have laid down tracks over the years. The acclaimed album, “Lefty and Pancho,” a collaboration between Merle Haggard and Nelson came out of that studio. It sat at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums for eight consecutive weeks in 1983.
In any event, the club has prioritized fun as its core pillar. A visit to the website reveals the tone with its “12 rules” carouseling across the homepage. Some standouts: “No more than 12 in your foursome;” “gambling is forbidden, of course, unless you’re stuck or you need a legal deduction for charitable or educational expenses;” and “we play golf here to have fun, and as you would expect, a lot of fun is had by all.”
Of course, that’s when the public shows up. A loose business model has something to do with that.
“Willie doesn’t advertise,” says Fran Szal, course operator and golf professional for the past 22 years. “We do no advertising whatsoever. We are usually wide open. You can get on as soon as you show up, even on a weekend or holiday.”
Saturdays attract the largest walk-ups, adds Szal, estimating they get about 100 players.
The club — also known as Willie Nelson’s Cut-N-Putt — has remained semi-private and currently has a little more than 20 members, according to Szal. The layout abuts the Pedernales River and offers glimpses reminiscent of the rustic driving range that opens Tin Cup, the quintessential 1996 golf film that nudged its way into cultural phenomena status.
What makes Pedernales interesting can be defined by its circumstances. Due to drought and a chronically challenging irrigation system from 1968, dry seasons turn the fairways into managed dust bowls dotted with green clumps of grass.
The three-person maintenance staff, along with Szal and an assistant golf pro, have to manually turn each sprinkler head on and off. Many sprinkler heads have become defunct. Approximately 25 of them have been exhumed from depths of up to 7 feet beneath the soil.
“Now if Mother Nature’s not good to this course, where it doesn’t rain a lot, then it used to be very bad dirt and dust,” Szal says. “What we did do was bring in 900 loads of Pedernales River body soil when the Pedernales River dried up years ago, but this is probably 10, 12 years ago now, maybe longer even, but that helped a bit.”
En route to a hole, it’s common to encounter trees, rocks, weeds and rough spots. Some lies are so good thanks to the baked-out ground that eyes widen as large as hard-boiled eggs. Of course, there are challenges with getting under the ball on the hardened surface, but that’s a different story.
Tee boxes and greens show a bit more color after the club suffered through a disastrous stretch. An accidental application of glass sulphate killed the greens several years ago. Szal contacted Morris Brown, Champion Turfgrass inventor, to use the hybrid Bermuda to fix the damage and improve the course.
The course can be tricky and tough. It’s a tight layout that mixes in blind shots among sloped fairways. Szal advises players to aim for the high side of the fairway because it also improves the chances of locating the ball. He wasn’t kidding.
“You can hit a great shot right down the middle of the fairway and never find your ball. That’s because of the fairway slope,” Szal says. “Plus, with the different rocks that there are in different places, you can get an abundance of bounces. You either get a ‘Willie good one’ or a ‘Willie bad one.'”
Lee Trevino, perhaps the best ball striker during his era, used to patron the club during his prime playing days. Trevino once shot a 5-under 31, according to Szal.
Over its history, Pedernales Golf Club has experienced a complex past. In 1991, amid financial issues, Nelson lost the club when the IRS seized it. University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal, a Nelson friend, stepped in to buy it. However, the IRS believed something was awry and sold it to an outside investor. The story ended happily with Nelson buying back the course in 1992. Nelson continues to subsidize it, according to Szal.
As for Szal, he’s been associated with the club on and off for more than 40 years, dating to the Briarcliff Yacht and Golf Club days when he served as the head pro, beginning in 1977. A career path took him away from golf to help at-risk youth, among other endeavors.
One day Szal re-entered the golf landscape by answering a golf course ad for Lakecliff Country Club (Spicewood, Texas). The developer, Bobby Day, was friends with Nelson. When Day learned of Szal’s background, he eventually asked him if he could help Nelson at Pedernales. Day died in 2010 but Nelson asked Szal if he could stay on.
“It’s been wild,” says Szal of his career.
When he’s not “on the road again” or in other parts of the U.S., Nelson still shows up to play some holes, especially if son Lukas Nelson is in the area.
More than that, Szal credits Willie Nelson for implementing the laid-back vibe. Besides the fun factor, the course is conducive for all levels.
“It’s the absolute perfect place to come and learn, because it’s not a place that is overcrowded,” Szal says. “You never have people breathing down your throat, trying to get you to hurry up or pressure you. That also gives you an opportunity to hit a lot of practice shots as you’re going along.
“You can easily get addicted to golf, which can be a beautiful thing. You either get bit by the bug or you get bit by the bug. That’s the way I look at it.”