A thread for the Texas folks

This man is an awesome host. Thanks again for the beers today!

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I’m out at Westridge and Oak Hollow just about every weekend right now! My home course is The Bridges in Gunter if you’ve ever been out that way

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Oh man I’ve seen the Bridges online and have been dying to try it out but haven’t been able to get someone to take the 45 min drive yet

I just made a rambling post on Stevens Park inspired by the Jax Beach Crash Course episode, and I figured I’d x-post it here with people who can appreciate the majesty of SP. Would love to see more of these for other DFW courses.

https://refuge.nolayingup.com/t/crash-dis-course-stevens-park/32267

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I’d love to play as well, I’m currently playing 5+ rounds a week and have pretty solid finger on the pulse of how the courses are playing right now. Gus and Memorial are both great options although Gus has been getting a ton of traffic and rounds might take a while. Memorial, as mentioned, is just always tough to block off that many tee times but we could certainly look into it. Not sure what their exact plans are for closing for the Houston Open but I’ve played it a few times in the past two weeks and it’s in great shape. Another great option would be to head out to Cypresswood (I joined about two months ago and it’s really the best deal in town if you’re willing to drive out to Bush IAH). We could certainly get enough tee times and Tradition is hands down one of the best public courses in town. I get 20% off greens fees for anyone in my foursome and I might be able to finagle something depending on how big the group gets. It’s also the sweetest membership deal around ($175 for unlimited golf on either of the two courses, no restrictions on tee times, and you only pay $15 for a cart if you want one but I always walk anyways). Any of you Houston guys hit me up if you’d ever like to play!

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y’all! City courses in ATX open back up August 8.

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I’ll definitely take you up on this. We’re going to buy a house in the Spring/Klein/Tomball area sometime around December or January so I’ve been interested in getting a membership somewhere. $175 for Cypresswood is a steal, especially since I’m like you and always walk.

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Played at Irving Golf Club today and that place is really firming up. It’s a blast and the greens are rolling pretty true too.

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this is a great write up. I can totally get behind this (as a snobby private course member…SP is THE little gem in Dallas). My dad and his crew are Plano based and most are either current or former club corp guis that think Gleneagles/Stonebriar etc are wayyy nicer than they are (granted they were awesome in the late 90’s early 00’s before Club Corp ruined them)

They came down and played SP on my rec and were blown away by the layout, views, and most importantly the “how on earth had we never played here before”.

SP def has its areas for improvement, but it is hamstrung obviously by city budget etc.

BUT the one thing that I think everyone could come close to agreement on…if there was one spot in Dallas that IF you could put $$$ into and bring some renovations to and be able to keep in pristine condition SP would be the place that not only deserves it…but would make it 10x more special

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I disagree with the what if proposition of putting a ton of $$$ into it. I think part of what makes it special is that you can play it for $40, even under the current very good conditions, which include brand new greens. So that you’ve got this uniquely routed, extremely fun course in the middle of a city neighborhood that anyone can play. We have so many expensive pristine courses in this state and city, many of which are kind of meh.

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good thing I said “could come close to agreement on” :slight_smile:

yeah, the more I think of it the really special part of SP is the muni vibe and taking the value away could do the opposite of what I was thinking.

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Didn’t mean to come across argumentative for the sake of arguing. I really value the things in this city that have some personality and haven’t been excessively shined just because we can. And I feel like both SP and Cedar Crest are some of the few examples of public places, not just golf, that are great the way they are in part because they exist for everyone, and they actually get used.

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I know dude…didnt think it came across that way.

But yeah totally agree and I will turn my dream of renovating a dallas public track back to GCOD :slight_smile:

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I would love if someone took some chainsaws out there. You get that place shined up, name it The Dallas Refuge, I’ll join you as a founding member

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I just want a good Pitch n Putt in Houston. There’s Melrose Golf Club but last time I went half the greens were just sand with a flag stuck in the middle. There also probably doesn’t need to be 18 of those holes. They need to renovate, drop it down to 9 or 12 and expand the driving range. Also turn the clubhouse into a bar.

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Same for Dallas, if we had a good (any) pitch and putt in the city with like a decent beer trailer and grill/food truck space, it would absolutely clean up.

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Playing Coyote Ridge in a couple hours. Haven’t been out there since last year but I remember it being in pretty good condition? How’s it playing this year?

I wonder what the economics of making those changes would look like for Melrose. As much as I prefer hitting off of grass, having mats at the driving range would probably be best for traffic. They could sell off about 1/3rd of the land where they have 6 holes. Throwing up some nets to section off some of the holes where shanks could hit other people playing would be a smart idea. And there’s a whole area near the front that they could have tables so you could grab something from a food truck and beers from the bar.

Ok, I will admit, this may have gotten a little out of hand. Between the rain and everything being closed I’ve gotten a little bored.

Here’s my plan for changing Melrose Golf Course, an 18-hole Pitch & Putt municipal in Houston that currently is not fun.

First, the issues:

  1. The course is poorly maintained. Last time I was there, half the greens were just sand and the other half had broken flagsticks.
  2. The course is too long. 18 holes is too long for a Pitch & Putt. Ideally it would be 9 or 12 to maximize fun and flow.
  3. There is nothing else to do there besides using the poorly maintained driving range and playing golf.

So, here is what I’ve come up with:


This area, containing holes 3-8, is about 7.5 acres. Based on the sales price of acreage in the area, it looks like 1 acre is selling for about $350,000. Therefore, by cutting this portion off and selling it, they could make roughly $2.6m. This could go towards funding the rest of the project.

This is the current routing if we were to eliminate holes 3-8:


As you can see, there are a lot of holes where you are teeing off while someone on a different hole is trying to hit towards the green right next to you. Right now that’s not an issue as the course is empty most of the time however, were we to increase the amount of players on the course this could become very dangerous. Especially if we are marketing towards people who don’t regularly play golf.

Here are my suggested changes:

  1. I would like to expand the driving range and add more areas for people to hit from. As it currently stands, there are no other driving ranges in the area so this would benefit people who want to practice but not necessarily play a round.

  2. Add mats to the driving range to hit off of. I understand that it’s a lot better to hit off of grass however changing it to mats will allow more traffic and less maintenance.

  3. Add nets at strategic spots around the course to minimize the danger from shanked balls. The goal is to get people who don’t regularly play golf out onto the course to have fun but these people won’t have perfect swings. Shanking or blading balls will be common so it will be best to alleviate these concerns.

  4. Extend the parking lot. Add more spaces so more people can come to play.

  5. Allow the clubhouse to sell beer and add a food truck into the newly expanded parking lot. You can also add picnic tables in between the clubhouse and driving range so people can hang out before/after their round or even in between if they would like to play more. This will cause them to spend more money at the course.

  6. Reroute the existing holes to create a better flow or even eliminate 3 holes to make it a 9-hole course. This will allow people to get through a round in 1-1.5 hours. If you go the route of eliminating another 3 holes, you could sell off the area containing holes 11-13 for about $1.6m (~4.7 acres).

I think the 9-hole option would work best and I would suggest pricing it at $12 for 9-holes or $20 for all-day play. You could also rent a set of 2 wedges and a putter for $5 for people who don’t have their own clubs.

I also went through and did a rough draft of what it would look like if they updated the logo. Here is the current logo:
melrose_Logo

And here is my suggested change (note that I am not a graphic designer and this is just a rough draft):

Here it is on a hat:

So yeah, that’s my thoughts. I’ll see what y’all think and then I’ll probably forward it to Houston Parks & Rec and the company that manages the course. I think it has the potential to be a really fun course and with it being only 15 minutes away from Memorial, it could be a cool thing to do for people who come into town for the Houston Open as well as providing a much-needed practice facility in the area.

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Which gets built first… this or TBC??

But in all seriousness great plan! I’d play a few round there when I have conferences there

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