The Links at Lakehouse (formerly St. Mark Golf Club) — Restaurant in San Marcos

Went for lunch today and though it's pricey, we split a delicious tuna melt sandwich and fries. They are keeping everything very clean and disinfecting tables and chairs. Was fun to watch the golfers.

Update: 3/29/22... Split the tuna melt. Very good still. I think our favorite thing to do is actually go for breakfast in the morning and split the breakfast burrito with the sausage in it. It is so good! It's nice and quiet and so peaceful in the mornings and watching the golfers on the driving range and putting green. They finally resurfaced the parking lot! It was so bad and we could barely make out the handicap parking spot which is exactly what we needed before. Now we can not only see that spot but five others also. This is such a beautiful place but they badly needed to resurface the parking lot and hopefully they'll redo the cart paths because whether it's our own cart or theirs, the path is so bad and so many areas or even most of the areas that you either have to drive off of the path to get around all the holes in the path which then ruins the grass alongside the path.

One thing they changed which we didn't think was good, was the seating area. They have rearranged the tables to have two people at each table looking out of the golf course and the other two looking at the building. Before, all four people at a table could look out at the golf course. They said it created more room and space for them but we don't see extra tables and it was a real turn off to our guests and so we switched seats with them so they could look out of the golf course and we looked at the building.

Update 10/31/24... now called Brinkmans, this is a now a fancier name and with some upgrades. Had breakfast here today. The best thing is the breakfast burrito and big enough to share with my husband. He had the Huevos Rancheros and said it was pretty good but not as much flavor as he'd hoped for as it looked really good. He said they really need to give you tortillas to dip into the beans as they are not very firm and all you get is a fork and so needed that tortilla to have with it. Didn't ask for one. They didn't have the heaters or fire pit going and it was cool so we sat inside. Inside is fairly bland on decor and very corporate like. The chairs in the bar area.... are covered in a carpet or rug? Can't imagine what is like to clean those. They were comfy but looked a little odd. So food was good and still very pricey but it's a Resort. The service.. fast for sure but I think it might have been too early for our server Mason. Couldn't get a smile out of him. His service was fine but cold is maybe the best way to describe it. We felt that maybe they pulled him from another area in the club to work tables. We were the only diners inside. 3 tables of folks outside. We, unfortunately, being on a fixed income and seniors can't afford to eat there much but the location is good and you can watch the...

St. Marks is a solid local track that offers a nice layout, some holes are relatively straight forward, but the course offers a nice variety to challenge a pretty wide range of players. #14 is a standout hole with awesome views of San Marcos. I have played here probably 7 or 8 times over the last year or so, and the course is often undergoing some form of minor maintenance. It's a shame, because it seems like there's always a handful of areas that are roped off to let the grass regrow or something. Greens leave something to be desired, they are frequently abused by other golfers with shoe indents and unrepaired pitch marks. It's inline with expectation for a public course, not any worse than most of the other courses around here. I will say that the cart GPS systems, while convenient when they work, are so unbearably intrusive they make it nearly pointless to have a cart. Many holes and areas in St. Marks are "keep out" zones and the cart will slow to around 0.5mph if you enter them. The zones aren't always clearly defined and the carts are setup to alert you about every little thing or warn you to repair divots about 38 times per hole or tell you about the tomato bisque available at the clubhouse (or something like that, honestly the alerts are so frequent, it's difficult to keep up). All this to say, a good business should not be judged by how it handles itself when everything is running smoothly, but by how it responds when things go sideways. I was a little frustrated that it took my cart almost 5 minutes to cross the fairway on #16 after I had driven a little too close to OB on the right side of the hole. It took so long, that the rest of the group I was playing with finished the hole and started playing the next while waiting for me just to get back to the cart path, and even after getting to the cart path, it still ran in limp mode for the next 150ft. In the meantime, the twosome behind us was waiting to tee off. I felt bad that it was disrupting the pace of play, so I brought it up to clubhouse and while they mentioned some tips for next time (drive in reverse, the carts should move quicker) the employee did help me out with a refund for the cart fee. I'll definitely be back, I enjoy this course a lot but I'm hoping they get carts dialed in before...

I finally bit the bullet and played a round here today. For starters, it's really cheap and short sighted to charge me 9 dollars for literally 20 balls to wam up before I play a 60 dollar round of golf. The turf mats mine as well be concrete. It would cost close to nothing to replace these mats. If you're not going to do that then allow us to hit off the grass 7 days a week. These are literally 79 bucks on Amazon right now. On to the round of golf. I loved the course and the layout. The greens were large and very consistent and fast. Shot the best score of my life out here today. Pace was fine since it was during the week. From other reviews, this can be a real issue. Course is super long but if you can hit it long it plays to your favor. Sand traps mine as well be concrete mix. Absolutely terrible. The cart paths are like driving down an old mine field. I recommend walking with a cart (long day) or not driving on the cart path. Summary: If you can go early or late in the day during the week, walk with a motorized bag cart, stay out of the concrete traps and then hit the range Friday through Sunday (grass tee boxes) then this place is a great value in my opinion especially if you live close by. Better and cheaper than Twin Oaks. They just need to make a few adjustments here and this would be 4 to 5 star experience. Hopefully someone there actually reads...