Omni Barton Creek — Fazio Foothills

Omni Barton Creek's Fazio Foothills is a 1986 Tom Fazio and Roy Bechtol routing through the limestone cliffs, dry creek beds, and natural caves of the Edwards Plateau southwest of Austin. The geology is the design. Cliff faces frame fairways, ravines do the work of hazards, and the caves you see along several holes have been there longer than the live oaks rooted into the shallow Hill Country soil above them.

You're playing 7,125 yards, par 72. The opening holes ease you in across relatively conventional terrain before the elevation changes start. By the middle of the front nine you're hitting tee shots from elevated platforms down into corridors framed by cedar and oak. The 7th, a par 3 across a ravine to a green backed by exposed limestone, is the hole every photograph captures, and it plays as dramatically as it looks.

The back nine is where the course earns its reputation. The routing threads the most rugged section of the property, where pulled tee shots disappear into canyons rather than rough. The greens themselves are restrained: moderately sized and gently contoured, which is the right call given how much visual information the surroundings already provide. The par 5s give you the most interesting decisions, with shorter lines along cliff edges trading distance for the genuine risk of losing a ball below.