To step back in time to when the cedars, oaks, and pines around Wellington Golf Club were first groomed and pared away to make room for fairways and greens would be to see a landscape at once familiar and different. The year was 1919, and the sounds of cattlemen driving herds up the Chisholm Trail would ring through the air, accompanying the sights of a town not 50 years old. Yet that early course's modesty would be recognizable—and very much part of the draw.

The designers kept much of the surrounding growth intact, forcing players to thread their tee shots down somewhat narrow fairways to span the 6,201 yards. This emphasis on accuracy soaks through to the rest of the course as well. The relatively small greens' fast bent grass demands deft iron play and a soft putting touch. And getting there through variable gusts is half the challenge. But Wellington Golf Club doesn't leave its clubbers stranded in that regard—a driving range holds tees at both ends so that drivers can calibrate to different wind directions without relying on their protractors and trajectory calculations.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Total length of 6,201 yards from the back tees
• Three sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard