Dallas National Golf Club has been discussed several times on GCA. As a Founding Member of Dallas National and a personal friend of developer John MacDonald, I felt it was important to share some of my insight into the club.
First, I would like to say thank you to Tommy Naccarato, Ran Morrissett, and Lou Duran for assisting me in getting the pictures onto the website.
Tom Fazio described Dallas National as the best piece of land in America close to downtown. Roger Staubach, a successful real estate company owner and once a pretty fair NFL quarterback, called it “without a doubt the prettiest piece of land in Dallas.”
Which makes it all the more difficult to fathom how the 388-acre tract, located in a less than desirable part of town, that became Dallas National Golf Club could have sat unused, unnoticed and unappreciated for all these years.
It was a former quarry site owned by Lone Star Industries. During the early 1970s, the city rezoned the property because it sat on a geological fault line, preventing it from ever being mined for cement or used for single-family development.
This modest origin adds a romantic element to the evolution of Dallas National and, more important, what it has come to represent since it opened in August 2002.
Upon first gaze at the 7,326-yard course’s three plateaus, 200-foot elevation changes, immaculate zoysia fairways and $175,000 initiation deposit, it would be easy to classify Dallas National as another expensive Fazio undertaking.
With a supposed $30 million price tag, so goes the cynical reasoning, anyone could design and build a great golf course.
But such shortsighted logic would be a disservice to Fazio and developers John MacDonald and Potomac Golf Properties and a disregard of the property’s otherworldly uniqueness to Dallas and Texas heretofore known for producing legendary golfers but largely nondescript courses.
Fazio, in fact, takes little credit for what many have labeled his finest work, explaining with a shrug: “When I first saw the land and started doing some layouts, I knew automatically that it was going to be sensational. It’s not a surprise at all that it’s as good as it is because, frankly, it should be.”
MacDonald, a Golf Digest course-rating panelist and retired partner from Ernst and Young, had in 1998 talked to Fazio about potentially working on another piece of land in the Dallas area. Not long after, MacDonald happened to drive past the Lone Star Industries property and after repeated calls to the land’s owner, finally received a tour and was mesmerized by its possibilities.
Construction began in October 2000. Fazio was so certain of the project’s success that he did not bill MacDonald during the first two years. This also speaks volumes about Fazio’s tremendous generosity - he takes on projects for the love of the opportunity and it was obvious that he didn’t want to burden MacDonald who was having to personally fund everything.
When first-time visitors see the finished product, they are wonderstruck by its rugged beauty, birds-eye views of downtown Dallas and Texas stadium, the density of virgin cedar, elm and oaks and wildflower-covered hillsides mostly because they can’t believe these intangibles exist just 6 ½ miles southwest of one of America’s flattest major cities.
What seems equally surprising, given the tract’s 155-slope rating and undulations in the terrain, is that the earthwork Fazio required wasn’t anything like one would expect. Certainly, it helped that the land was set aside strictly for golf, so there were no residential, industrial or corporate compromises to work around.
Fazio simply allowed the three plateaus and two canyons to dictate the routing. His primary difficulty was the land’s severe contour and deciding how to bridge the difficult elevation-change areas. Since walkability was a prime objective, the use of eight high tier wooden bridges were required, but were just one of the several infrastructure issues that added to the cost of the project. Growing grass on limestone rock obviously doesn’t work so the importing of sandy loam topsoil was necessary for most of the entire course and practice areas. Another big cost!
In the end, he wound up with 12 holes atop the plateaus, six in the canyons, a course that seems to wind through three separate pieces of land. There are forest holes. There are plateaus in which one hits across plateaus and deep ravines. The canyon holes not only are cozily nestled amid limestone walls, trees and wildflowers, but a couple holes also have a South Carolina low-country feel.
With so many aesthetics to absorb, it became easy to overlook Dallas National’s nuts-and-bolts aspects, the bottom-line golf challenge, which can be summed in a word: balance.
Each hole is unique; none remotely resembles another. Despite the elevation changes, it isn’t up-and-down golf; only one hole plays uphill, and on no approach shot does a player ever have to add or subtract more than half a club.
In terms of shot-shaping, there are four dogleg-left holes (Nos. 7, 9, 14, 15), four dogleg-right (2, 11, 16, 18). There are two short par-4s, three medium, three long and two extra long. From the tips the par 3s measure 150 yards, 180, 225 and 245. There are plenty of risk/reward challenges with greensides on the edge of plateaus for those skillful enough to take the opportunity. The par-5 finishing 18th hole is a great example – go for it in two and you’ve brought double or worse into play.
Since the course weaves around and through the three plateaus and two canyons, it has almost a links “out and back” feel. Holes run almost evenly North, South, East and West, meaning players are less susceptible to be penalized by a particular wind direction. At the end of the day, you will have used every club in your bag.
Naturally, there’s the signature Fazio bunkers-irregularly shaped, deep and imposing from tees, yet picturesque, adding dramatic definition. The contours of the greens are equally dramatic and certainly have the opportunity for numerous complex pin placements. The shorter holes have some of the most complex greens and on the long and extra long par 4’s, Fazio has given you the opportunity to run the ball up to the green. For championship golf the pins may be hidden behind the strategic bunkers for the ultimate challenge. Ball position, both on your tee shot and approach shot is critical to managing these greens. Even though the fairways are wide, Fazio requires you to put your tee shot on the appropriate side of the fairway or otherwise it is not prudent to go for the flag – hit to the safe portion of the green; at best a 20 foot birdie opportunity and be satisfied with a par. Knowledge of the greens is critical to conquering this course. There are greens where underclubbing or overclubbing is smart – chipping up or back for par is easier than a 2 putt if you’re on the wrong side of the hole. The risk/reward element of most every green is huge.
The design and scenery (some of the best views are from greens back toward the tees) would have been enough to make Dallas National an elite course, but MacDonald wanted to ensure that it was the quintessential hardcore-player’s experience.
The greens are Crenshaw L-93 Bentgrass. The fairways are Cavalier zoysia, the first cut is Palisades zoysia. The green-collars and tee boxes are Diamond zoysia.
Every detail was created for the golf purist: A 130-yard wide practice range with tees on both ends and eight bunkered target greens, a short-game practice area unlike any in the world with 7 separate USGA specified bent grass greens totaling over 50,000 square feet all set in a grove of towering trees, a separate warm-up tee 30 yards from the No. 1 tee for players who arrive too late to go to the range and a caddy program second to none.
In other words, there are no design or amenity shortcuts, not on this once-in-a-lifetime North Texas tract that in many respects looks more like rural North Carolina, New York or Pennsylvania.
When MacDonald approached the city for permission to develop a course, there were audible whispers that it simply wouldn’t work because the property is located in the Dallas Oak Cliff sector, considered by some to be a less-than-desirable area.
Fortunately, MacDonald had enough golf course knowledge to know that the perennial ranked #1 course in the world, Pine Valley, wasn’t exactly in New Jersey’s garden spot. So his belief, “that if you create something great, people would get past their opinion about the location” turned out to be on target. Three years ago, few people in Dallas would have believed that this part of the city would become the favorite home club of many business and financial leaders as well as numerous world-class athletes. As for Dallas National today, it has sold out its’ local memberships. Mayor Laura Miller, an admitted non-sports fan, is lauding the club as the centerpiece of South Dallas’ revitalization.
Not bad for an unused cement quarry and a world-class golf course designer whose strong belief gave a first time golf developer the courage to take on a huge risk. For all this, the city of Dallas and the Members of Dallas National owe Tom Fazio special thanks.
***Pictures to follow***