I have an uncle who was a former public-school coach, and he was one of the first people to take an interest in me playing golf. He liked to play right there at home, and when the Grapevine Municipal Golf Course opened at some point in the ‘80s, he invited me to play what he said was a really nice course. The course was a challenge, so much so that I balked at the chance when I asked him how long it took to play on the weekends -- six hours.

That place was designed by Joe Finger (a friend of Byron Nelson's), and for all the complaining about Rees Jones designing courses that the golfer of average ability can’t handle, I think Finger walked that line back in the ‘80s.

Cedar Creek Golf Course opened in San Antonio in 1989, and Finger’s name is listed on the design credits along with his surviving partners Baxter Spann and Ken Dye (Finger died at nearby Kerrville in 2003). I don’t know how the work was split between the partners (I‘ve been told Mr. Finger did much of the redesign at Memorial Golf Course in Houston), but Cedar Creek walks that same line of being too tough for the average golfer. I played a tournament there recently and it took six hours to finish our round.

Yeah, it’s got some length (7,150 from the tips) while it scores a rather moderate 131 on the slope with a more appropriate 74.1 rating. The course plays longer in spots when you consider that the 435-yard third hole, 410-yard seventh, 455-yard ninth and 435-yard 17th all play uphill (at least on the drives, if not on the entire stretch) and the 455-yard 11th requires an approach over mounds obscuring most of the green.

But it’s the putting surfaces that kills -- and adds minutes to -- your game. At least half the greens have split or tri-level designs, and all of the surfaces have enough undulation that could be considered significant sloping. The superintendent has an annoying habit of cutting pins that are just two or three feet from the start of a fall-off area. The greens are especially slick in the winter when the Bermuda gets dormant.

The outstanding feature of this place is the topography. This is Texas Hill Country terrain; I always think when I’m making the drive out there that I’m going so high up that I'm scraping against the ceiling of the San Antonio city limits. I actually think the design team has made as good of use out of these hillsides as any Hill Country course I’ve played, maybe the best. And this considers a list that includes Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer, who each designed a layout at nearby and highly regarded La Cantera (Weiskopf‘s 18 was the site of the Texas Open until recently).

You get that sense of efficient design incorporating the natural landscape right from the start at Cedar Creek when you tee from a ledge to the first fairway that slants right to left. Any decent drive to the right will roll down center fairway and leave a 9-iron or so from absolute Position A.

There are other holes that are just beauties. The fifth is between 500 and 530 yards of double dogleg from a plateau driving area to a green that’s down hill and blind. The 10th (they flipped the nines at “Cedar” a couple of years back) is really pretty. At less than 400 yards you can swing a 3-metal from an incredibly elevated tee. When I hit it pure I always expect a string to hang from my ball -- like it’s solid core of helium.

This place was the jewel of the city of San Antonio’s municipal course lineup, until the wild hogs started flushing out of the brush and decided they liked to eat dinner through the tee boxes and green fringes, and then when the A.W. Tillinghast-designed Brackenridge Park near downtown was redesigned in 2009. But, now that the city has assigned the management of the courses to the non-profit Alamo City Golf Trail, the hogs aren’t quite as hoggish. Even La Cantera has trouble with the big pigs.

Cedar Creek remains a hot property, and I’m lucky to have this Hill Country golf experience available as a part of my membership in Alamo City Golf Trail. I just always hope the novices aren’t playing when I do.

(Tim Price has more reviews posted on the Secret In The Dirt website. His "Golf Like You're Poor" blog can be read at http://timpricesportsbooks.moonfruit.com/#).