Architect Chet Williams has already set the standard for golf in Texas with Whispering Pines, the state's top-ranked course in Trinity, north of Houston. The land he had to work with at The Covey, set within a 2,000-acre hunting club 75 miles west of Houston, was even better with hills, ridges and ravines cut by natural dry washes that have been reinforced as rushing-water streams. With no surrounding development, The Covey is a scenic journey through the Texas outback through groves of pines and hardwoods and cross-course views. Numerous specimen trees have been left standing in the fairways that must be maneuvered around, and Williams' green complexes can be wicked, flanked and fronted with deep, staggered bunkers, with strong putting contours that create multiple internal levels and severe false fronts that eject any short approach 30 or 40 yards back down the fairway. The halfway house behind the ninth green on the property's highest point is one of golf's best, with an upper-level observatory deck and lounge that offers 20-mile views across the county.