Big ups to @Cody for interviewing Ira Molayo on his pod. It’s a great listen and will be obvious why we have our local events there and donate to his foundation. Some people talk about “growing the game” to take a check from the Saudis, others are actually doing it.
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Thanks brother! As the majority of y’all know, it is hard not to be inspired by Ira. I was fortunate to meet him this past spring when we were out in Fort Worth for the hickory event. I came a couple days early to film Crash Courses at Cedar and SP. He was super generous with his time then and I knew if I ever had a podcast, he would be on it. We will be back to CC, and plan to do some stuff with the foundation.
For the videos: Unfortunately the greens were still struggling to come back from the freeze. We have the footage and I plan on going back next year to get the greens again. But it is also on a list of locations for another series. Ya never know……
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In the Waco area, I would go with Cottonwood Creek. City of Waco dumped $$ into it, it caters to the weekend Baylor crowd, and its somewhat in the middle of the city.
Truly tickles the soul knowing CC and SP may be gracing our screens in the future. To think that two city-owned courses of such quality are a combined 7 miles from the downtown of a major metro area is mind-boggling.
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I spend too much time thinking about how a Dallas Strapped or a Texas Tourist Sauce season would go, would love to see either one day.
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What are the other Waco / Temple / Killeen places that should be on the Roost list? We’ve got Mill Creek and Cottonwood creek down … what else? (thanks, btw!)
SP, CC, and literally anything else in-town. As long as the first two are included it would be amazing.
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There are so many Strapped options throughout Texas. West Texas would be pretty epic. Middle of nowhere vibes with some high school football mixed in would be awesome. DFW would probably the highest quality of golf overall On any Strapped season. There’s great Hill Country options as well. Even Houston if you’re into swamps and mosquitoes.
I don’t know if Texas is ready for a tourist sauce. I just don’t think that there is vacation caliber courses here yet, especially compared to other seasons. And the logistics of that type of trip would be nearly impossible.
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I think you could pull off a plains TS starting in TX and working up to NE, but agreed TX-only would be tough. Still a ton of driving but that’s the nature of the beast in that part of the country
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Now that Plains TS is one that I could absolutely get behind. West/North Texas, up through Oklahoma, Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Nebraska. That would be something. It would probably need a lot more private golf than other seasons but the private golf would be a much more blue collar / rural vibe.
A Texas only TS would probably have to the I35 corridor. Otherwise you’re going to drive 2-4 hours out of your way for a single good but not great course.
Ah damnit. Now I want to put together my Texas Tourist Sauce season and I don’t even believe in it yet. And yes I think you should be able to include course that will be built in the next two to three years.
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Sketching out a verrrry rough draft but it could look like:
-Colonial
-Karsten Creek
-Southern Hills
-Prairie Dunes
-Swope
-Omaha CC
-Wildhorse
-Dismal River
-Sand Hills
-Ballyneal
-(Big Randy finally joins the trip for) CommonGround
Honestly - and this is the wrong thread to say this - you could cut out TX from this trip and make it a cleaner/more pure Plains season.
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For the Plains season
-Rawls Course
-Red Feather
-Ross Rogers (wild horse and Mustang)
-Amarillo CC
Then everything you listed minus Colonial
Unfortunately it looks like Frisco, TX is entering the chat here. They are turning the Tribute/Old American into a stay and play destination in combination with PGA Frisco allegedly being a top course.
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Texas Tourist Sauce:
Ep 1- Amarillo: Ross Roger (Wild Horse and Mustang), and Amarillo CC
Ep 2 - Lubbock : Rawls Course vs Red Feather. The “design off”. Tom Doak vs King-Collins. Two architects working on blank canvases. Closest thing to a straight up golf design contest we’ll probably ever see. Great debate plays out at Chimy’s. Also college town vibes.
Ep 3 - Fort Worth: Shady Oaks CC? (If they can get on). Idk, we’ve gotten a lot of Colonial and it’s kind of overrated.
Ep 4 - Texas Rangers and Old American
Ep 5 - PGA Frisco. There’s going to be so much media around this opening, I’m sure the NLU crew will visit.
Ep 6 - Pine Dunes
Ep 8 - Austin : Barton Creek (whichever is best) and maybe Wolfdancer
Ep 9 - San Antonio : Brackenridge
Ep 10 - Houston: Memorial Park? Sorry, Houston is kind of a blind spot for me.
Honorable mentions: Butterfield Trail, Pampa Country Club, Diamond Back National, Cliffs Resort, Sugar Tree, Turtle Hill, Cowboys (overpriced), Boot Ranch, Briggs Ranch, Horseshoe Bay Courses, La Cantera Palmer, Blue Jack National (total vibes but probably too much private golf), Gus Wortham, Brack.
Some of this could be cut, probably all of Amarillo. Would be very good non-golf content in each city.
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Memorial Park would be the obvious choice because it’s a PGA Tour stop. And they could talk about the park’s actual history in how it used to be Camp Logan, a WWI Army Training ground that opened in 1917 and then closed in 1919 after being the focal point of the 1918 Flu pandemic.
But I would actually want to see them play Gus Wortham. It’s the oldest continuously operating course in Texas and there’s allegedly a secret tunnel off the 12th green that Howard Hughes would take from his house next door to get to the course without being spotted. The course also overlooks Forest Park Cemetary, which is not quite as famous as our Glendale cemetary, but most people don’t realize that a lot of Houston was built by women and a lot of them are buried in Forest Park, including Millie Esperson who built the Esperson Building downtown and the Majestic Theater, and Mama Ninfa. I could be biased as my own grandparents and uncle are also buried in Forest Park.
Gus would be a great course to play for the guys because it’s full of hills, a rarity in Houston, and very walkable. It’s also the home to the Houston First Tee.
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But if they came after the Gil Hanse renovation work then it would be a great way to introduce the new layout
Hanse also is doing PGA Frisco so they could incorporate interviews with him across both courses
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Fairly limited Houston knowledge but a Gus/Hermann/Memorial Strapped would be amazing
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Don’t sleep on Old Brack in San Antonio. Originally designed by Tillinghast and had a remodel a few years ago. Plus is the home of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame
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I still think you could make a great strapped trip in San Antonio, although I’d add in San Pedro par 3 and swap Silverhorn with the recently renovated Olmos Basin or Cedar Creek.
https://refuge.nolayingup.com/t/strapped-local-qualifying-series/9862/32?u=jbrooks
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Palmilla Beach is less than a shell of its former self. Read up on it and find that they converted part of one nine into a pitch and putt.
It’s all but gutted, and probably that too.
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