Tom Doak to renovate Houston's Memorial Park

[Amol Yajnik]

The Fried Egg with the scoop: https://thefriedegg.com/memorial-park-renovation/


The goal is getting the Houston Open to Memorial Park in 2020 and beyond.  Article also states that a PGA Tour player consultant will be added in the coming weeks.

[Tom_Doak]

Well, my player consultant is already on board, we just can't say who it is yet. 


The timing of the announcement is all a bit odd because the city didn't want the news to leak out to local golfers, but it became a matter of public record at a city meeting today, while I'm in Europe.


I will be able to talk about it much more in a couple of weeks, after getting together with my consultant(s) and then getting to Houston to finalize the plan and do a press conference.

[Mike Hendren]

Early front-runner is Bradley Dub Bryant - Doctor Dirt.  Makes sense.

[Kalen Braley]

Zac Blair does a trial run!!??


P.S.  Is this looking like a complete redesign or a renovation keeping the routing mostly in place?

[Rob Rigg]

This is rad news for H'town!
Played Memorial Park with my pops and brother in law a couple years ago and, well, this is really exciting news because the place needs some love.

Kind of too bad there is a link to bringing a TOUR event there but I guess that's how these courses get the cash to make something like this happen.

I'm sure Tom will enjoy working with Houston transplant and key to the City holder Steve Elkington. 

[Scott Weersing]

Hmm, Texas could have two links courses that frustrate the pros but are loved by most everyone else. Some pros did not like Trinity Forest this year. Imagine what Doak and team could do by removing most of the trees and bringing in lots of sand. I would love to see centerline bunkers, fairways that end at 300 yards, and greens that slope front to back. All the things that frustrate pros.


Or perhaps Doak will build an island green in tribute to Pete Dye.

[Peter Pallotta]

Just a guess/feeling, but I think the best thing that could've happened to Tom -- and for the golf course/design itself -- is that it has to serve as both a tour stop and a very busy public.
Necessity -- and trees, and 60,000 choppy rounds a year, and 320 yard bombers with brilliant short games -- can & will need to be the mother of invention.
P

[Peter Flory]

Looks like a lot of nice space between the holes (for width and galleries) if it is going to be a renovation.

[Amol Yajnik]

Hmm, Texas could have two links courses that frustrate the pros but are loved by most everyone else. Some pros did not like Trinity Forest this year. Imagine what Doak and team could do by removing most of the trees and bringing in lots of sand. I would love to see centerline bunkers, fairways that end at 300 yards, and greens that slope front to back. All the things that frustrate pros.


Or perhaps Doak will build an island green in tribute to Pete Dye.

You may have said the last line in jest, but it could be done at #15.


Tom, thanks for your input.  My in-laws live 15 minutes away from Memorial Park, it's my go-to course when my family goes to visit them, even if it's just to hit balls on the range there.  So I'm very excited to see the progress of this project over the next couple of years.

[Joel_Stewart]

The article doesn't say the budget so sand capping is questionable.


My guess would be Jimmy Walker as the consultant.  Teacher extraordinaire Jim Hardy is based in Houston. He's dabbled in architecture and has worked for the PGA on tour event setup.

[Steve Lang]

Hmm, Texas could have two links courses that frustrate the pros but are loved by most everyone else. Some pros did not like Trinity Forest this year. Imagine what Doak and team could do by removing most of the trees and bringing in lots of sand. I would love to see centerline bunkers, fairways that end at 300 yards, and greens that slope front to back. All the things that frustrate pros.

Or perhaps Doak will build an island green in tribute to Pete Dye.

Whoa Pardner!!!  Its only a renovation... but good to see.


I wonder if TD will flip the 9's back??    The original 9's were reversed back in the 1996 renovation by Finger Dye Spann.  Baxter seemed proud of that move... or was it a younger Mike Nuzzo at work there??   I've always liked having the front 9 available when only time to sneek out before lunch to play 9+ and get back to work ASAP, 10 minutes away...

I would hope that the shot making character of the front 9 is retained, even going thru some forest openings... the shade is definitely appreciated in summertime, though TD can blow up #8 & 9 however her wants.  The back 9 is pretty wide open and it'd perhaps be nice to see more angles at play and the water bodies featured differently...   and make #18 a worthy closing hole!

All part of the $200,000,000 park reno masterplan, exciting times here.

[Brian Finn]

Brooks Koepka as the player consultant?  Interesting.

[JC Jones]

Brooks Koepka as the player consultant?  Interesting.

That’s got to be a joke, right?

[David Wuthrich]

So excited that Tom will be redoing Memorial Park!
Can't wait to see what exciting things he has in store for the course.
His work will be the icing on the cake for the whole Park redo.
Exciting times in Houston!!!

[Gary Sato]

Brooks Koepka as the player consultant?  Interesting.

That’s got to be a joke, right?

If it's true I'm surprised.  He's not from Texas and his length and power seem to go against all wisdom for a public course.

[Buck Wolter]

Brooks Koepka as the player consultant?  Interesting.

That’s got to be a joke, right?

If it's true I'm surprised.  He's not from Texas and his length and power seem to go against all wisdom for a public course.

I think he might be an interesting choice -- he spent several years on the European Tour so he's probably seen more variety than any other American Top 10 player.


How much is Tom really going to listen anyway? I'm sure he'll be there 100X the amount of time BK (or any other active PGA Pro) will be.

[Tom_Doak]

Buck:


Why the hell would I not listen?


The whole point of the job is to build a course the players love to compete on, while still being playable and maintainable for the 60,000 golfers who play at Memorial the other 51 weeks of the year.


I can represent the 60,000 players pretty well, but I need to sort out how to make it interesting for today's best players.  It just so happens that Jim Crane, the principal owner of the Astros, also owns The Floridian where Brooks K and Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler all play, so I suggested we sit down with them and get their input.  When Brooks went to #1 in the world, he became our official consultant, but hopefully some of the others will chime in ... because our definition of success will be building a course they all want to come play every year.


I suppose I could just tell them they're all wrong, as many architects do, but I thought it would be more fun to try a different approach.

[Scott Weersing]

Do PGA tour players want a course that is interesting or one that they can score on?


It will be great to see what Tom comes up with that makes PGA Tour players think but not struggle too much. Tom could do a course like Hanse did with Doral. Take a good course and make it great. Not sure Tom will have the same time and budget as Hanse had with Doral.

[Ira Fishman]

Tom,


I do give you credit.  Many of us "coast" once we reach a certain age and certain level of success.  Swinley Forest in Wisconsin and Pinehurst #2 in Houston in the same year is far from coasting. 


Ira

[Kalen Braley]

I'm curious for those who know...are there any examples of this arrangement, where the PGA Tour star actually got involved and genuinely showed interest and provided good input?


P.S.  Not sure when C&C got going?  Did that start out when Ben was still winning on Tour?

[Gary Sato]

I'm curious for those who know...are there any examples of this arrangement, where the PGA Tour star actually got involved and genuinely showed interest and provided good input?

There's quite a few. Nicklaus was actively involved with Pete Dye at Harbor Town. Greg Norman at Medalist again with Pete Dye. Tom Watson was very involved at Spanish Bay and had many disagreements with RTJ2.  In the modern era, I've heard mixed reactions to Couples, Johnny Miller and Mark O'meara.


In this situation,  Tom won't have to deal with the Alpha dog in Jack Nicklaus and his associate Jim Lipe. 

[MCirba]

Very cool. 


Congrats Tom!

[Robert Emmons]

Jim Crane being involved makes sense in Houston. Tie that in with the Floridian who he bought from Wayne H. Harmon and sons  have their school there and the pros are there almost every day. Brooks is a quiet Florida boy who is very intelligent, don't know as a architect but he obviously has the tour game and has played everywhere...be interesting to see his input Realtime to TD...RHE

[Kalen Braley]

I'm curious for those who know...are there any examples of this arrangement, where the PGA Tour star actually got involved and genuinely showed interest and provided good input?

There's quite a few. Nicklaus was actively involved with Pete Dye at Harbor Town. Greg Norman at Medalist again with Pete Dye. Tom Watson was very involved at Spanish Bay and had many disagreements with RTJ2.  In the modern era, I've heard mixed reactions to Couples, Johnny Miller and Mark O'meara.


In this situation,  Tom won't have to deal with the Alpha dog in Jack Nicklaus and his associate Jim Lipe.

Gary,


From what i've heard, Jack taking any credit for Harbour Town is an exagerration at best.  Jack did go on to do some good stuff later, but it was long after his PGA Tour days were over... which was the point I was trying to make.


As for Greg Norman courses, I haven't played any but I've seen a couple close up and they are not my cup of tea...and I think many others in the tree house will agree with me...

[Tom_Doak]

Nicklaus visited Harbour Town a lot during construction- 19 times, I think he is quoted as saying, which is more than a lot of other courses that bear his name (pardon the pun).


Whether that qualifies him as a true co-designer or not is entirely a matter of whether you want it to.  When I asked Mr Dye about it years ago, he related how various things on the course were not his idea but came from George Cobb (who did the routing) and Alice Dye and Charles Price, and the only difference between their input and Jack's was that Jack is famous so you're more likely to give him credit.