Bay Forest Golf Course

Bay Forest Golf Course is the City of La Porte's municipal course, set along bayou-fed waterways a few miles from Galveston Bay on the east side of the Houston area. City records show a contract for the eighteen holes, putting and chipping greens, driving range and irrigation lakes being let in late 1987, and the course opened in 1988 to a design by Houston architect Jay Riviere. Riviere made water the defining feature: it is in play on 16 of the 18 holes, with a tight, tree-lined front nine giving way to a lake-dominated back nine. The par-72 layout stretches about 6,770 yards from the back, and the steady coastal wind makes it play longer. The signature 11th doglegs right around a pond. It remains one of the better-value public rounds on the Houston ship-channel side of town.