Unlike the others in this brief review, this venerable facility does not host a Tour event. It could: Ram Rock, one of its three Robert Trent Jones Senior-designed courses, is as tough as anything the pros play. But Horseshoe Bay is an hour’s drive west of Austin, too far from a big city for the Tour circus—which makes it an extraordinary getaway for the rest of us.

John Blanton met us in the golf shop with odd advice. Barton Creek’s Director of Sales and Marketing—an old friend from his years at The Four Seasons in Irving—had heard that my son Clay and I were about to play BC’s Crenshaw Cliffside course.

Sure, John, I replied. Gravity. Meanwhile I was thinking that irresistible physical forces usually remember me, and that John has apparently been working too hard, and that I’d better buy him a drink later.

Lots of resorts have lots to do, but you have to go all over the lot to do them. The Hyatt Regency Lost Pines near Austin, Texas, on the other hand, has a pleasing centeredness. There’s something wonderful about having the first tee, the tennis courts, the spa, the pools, restaurants, bars, and the Colorado River in short walking distance from your bed.