Tee like Tiger
Words by Art Stricklin
One of the allures of golf is following in the footsteps of the pros.
Most sports fantasies are destined to remain just that—fantasies. Touch football in the Orange Bowl with your buddies? Not a chance. Shagging fly balls in the outfield at Yankee Stadium? the possibilities are slim to none. Shooting hoops at the local NBA arena? Only until the police arrive to take you away. But playing the same PGA Tour course as Tiger Woods and hitting the same shots from the same spots as John Daly or Phil Mickelson? No problem at all. In fact, it happens every day, thanks to full participation opportunities for the public in world class golf.
this year on the PGA Tour, Woods, Daly and Mickelson will tee it up for millions every week. But 11 of the courses the pros use during their season are open to the general public the other 51 weeks of the year. Amateur golfers of all shapes, sizes and playing abilities have the same chance to play the same shots under the same conditions as their golfing heroes.
“It’s a chance to challenge yourself and see how you and your game measure up,” says Paul Earnest, director of golf at the TPC (Tournament Players Course) at Las Colinas, part of the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Irving, just outside of Dallas, and the annual home of the PGA Tour’s EDS Byron Nelson Championship.
In fact, the trend of the golfing public taking on the pros’ personal playgrounds is especially Texas-sized: th ree of the four PGA Tour events in the Lone Star State that are held on public courses—Byron Nelson, the Shell Houston Open and the La Cantera Texas Open in San Antonio—are open to all golfers year-round, except for one professionals-only week.
“It’s a chance to see what the pros face when they play here,” says Shell Houston Open tournament director Steve Timms.
the lure of playing the same course as the PGA Tour’s best is a powerful one. “We probably do about 30,000 rounds a year out here,” says Earnest, “and a vast majority of th ose are during the spring [the Nelson Championship is traditionally held in mid-May].
“One of the great allures of our sport is to play the same courses the pros do. You can’t play catch at Yankee Stadium or football at the Rose Bowl, but you can come out here and see how you match shot for shot with Tiger Woods.”
One golfer who never misses a chance to play in the footprints of the pros is Dallas businessman Bob Swanson, who has been playing at the TPC-Four Seasons and neighboring private Cottonwood Valley course since 1988. “It’s just an awesome experience to play in the post-Nelson [a tournament traditionally held the Monday after the PGA Tour event]. they have the pins set up where they were during the tournament on Sunday, and small flags out to mark where that year’s champion hit every shot and what type of club he used to get there,” he says.
Swanson insists most golfers who play the same course as the pros know they could never match them on a head-to-head battle, but the courses allow them a fleeting glimmer of hope. “If you have one good hole and see they made a bogey on that hole, you th ink, ‘I just beat the guy who won the tournament on that hole.’”
He had a similar experience last year when he took his 15-year-old son, Ryan, to play in the post-Nelson, the day after Vijay Singh had taken the Nelson Championship. “My son loves to play and when we get to the par-4 15th hole, he hits a really good drive. When we approach the ball, we see it’s about five yards from where Vijay Singh hit his drive. Ryan was so excited. We looked at the card, and it said Vijay had just used a 5-wood to get it there and Ryan had hit his driver as hard as he could! that shows how good th ose pros are. the rough is so deep after the tournament, you might not even find your ball in the grass. And if you do, you just have to chip it out. they’re blasting the ball everywhere.”
the Four Seasons, which operates the four-star luxury hotel next door to the golf course, has even created the “Champions Golf Package,” which includes a round of golf at the TPC tournament course and a night in the beautiful hotel accommodations—nice enough to soothe any aches and pains from the tough golf layout. the Champions Golf Package is especially popular in the spring around the tournament time, but is available all year long for amateur golf dreamers.
“Everybody has seen a famous shot from the Byron Nelson Championship on TV, and when they come out here, that’s the one they want to try,” Earnest says. “One year, Fred Couples was near the lead when he came to the par-3 17th and bounced his tee shot off the rocks in front of the green and into the water, and that seems to hold a fascination for players coming here to play.”
the Houston Open has been on the PGA Tour schedule for more than 50 years with a strong public presence for most of th ose five decades. “We have a championship course for our players to play on, but we want to make it accessible to everyone,” says Evan Johansen, CEO of Redstone Golf Management, which operates Redstone Golf Club, site of the annual PGA Tour’s Shell Houston Open.
the Houston Open was first played at the public Memorial Park in 1947 and 1951-63 before moving over to the TPC Woodlands course between 1985 and 2002. When the first of two Redstone courses, designed by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy, opened in 2002, it was kept public. When the second par-72 Redstone course, designed by Rees Jones and David Toms, opened in 2005, the original layout became private, but the new course remains public access for all.
“Having a public course to play on is very important,” Johansen says. “Before coming out here, we looked at a renovated Memorial to keep allowing people to play like pros.”
Like the TPC-Las Colinas and Four Seasons Resort outside of Dallas, Redstone stages some big events before and after the Houston Open for eager Texas amateurs. “If you’ve seen a great shot on TV, you want to try to make the same shot even if you don’t have the same chance,” Johansen says. “We keep the course looking like a Tour course with signs and tee markers and historical information. We want our guests to feel like they’re pros and they’re on a Tour course, if even for a day.”
Because of Houston’s usually warm weather, Timms says the Redstone course is especially popular in the February-March-April time frame right before the tournament. that’s when the course is being toughened for the one-week professionals-only stay—so the public players are often in for quite a challenge.
“this can be a very hard golf course,” Timms says. “We want the amateurs to know what the players are going th rough, but with this course—with out houses and with lots of vacant land—it may look more like the Carolinas than Houston.”
No matter the challenge or the damage to their score card or their ego, Dallas and Houston golfers line up in droves to play the same course as their golfing heroes, matching them shot for shot or divot for divot in a search for public golfing glory.
DALLAS
Bear Creek Golf Course
this is a super-convenient golfing option, as it’s literally inside the DFW Airport borders. there are two excellent public courses—a North and a South course, both built in the late ’70s. they have been recently renovated and make the perfect places to get in a quick nine before heading out of town.
DALLAS
Dallas Cowboys Golf Club
the only NFL-themed golf course in the US, this is an 18-hole blue and silver tribute to all th ings Cowboys. Architect Jeffrey Brauer’s public layout meanders th rough rolling hills and each tee box contains a plaque with a Cowboys moment. Head coach Bill Parcells has been known to play th rough slower groups during his off-season.
HOUSTON
Tour 18
this was one of the original replica golf courses in the US. Its owners took some of the most famous holes in golf and exactingly crafted copies of them just north of Houston. Highlights include Augusta National’s Amen Corner, the TPC at Sawgrass island green and the 18th hole of the Blue Monster at Doral, Florida.
HOUSTON
Cypresswood
A fine 54-hole public facility, which will give you quite a variety of public golf during a brief visit. Plenty of native Southeast Texas pines, man-made water and outsize bunkers across its 800 acres will have you celebrating or commiserating your final score as you head back into town.