TPC San Antonio's A&T Oaks golf course ready to go

One thing we do know for certain about the new TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks Course: it really drains well – really well. That much has been evident over the past couple of days as heavy rain has inundated the San Antonio area.

Somehow, our group was able to get 18 holes in on Friday despite an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms, and the Greg Norman (Sergio Garcia)-designed course played remarkably dry.

Bunkers were damp but playable, there was virtually no casual water, and the greens were pretty close to perfect. Those characteristics will bode well for the course as it hosts its first PGA Tour event, the Valero Texas Open, which will be played on the Oaks Course May 13-16 to kick off the Texas Swing.

Ironically, the reason the course drains exceptionally well has more to do with the environment and saving water than it does with promoting drainage. The course was built with a closed irrigation system. In short, it’s designed to catch water that goes through the turf and soil profile and re-circulate it through the irrigation system. This ability also comes in handy during heavy rain events, although history tells us May should be pretty dry in San Antonio.

It’s also worth noting that beside the course being very mature, the fabulous J.W. Marriott Hotel and Resort is pretty much ready to receive the PGA Tour as well. As one travel writer who’s visiting the property remarked to me, “I love this hotel; it’s so big.” Indeed, everything is on a grand scale.

The resort has two quality golf courses, 1,002 rooms, a 26,000 square-foot spa, some really cool lounges (including the High Velocity Sports Bar), fabulous dining, a large water park area and more than 140,000 square feet of modern, flexible meeting space.