Tag: Course Construction

Tiger Woods announces he will design new course in Texas, Bluejack Ranch

Check out Tiger’s letter to perspective members of new course near Fort Worth.

This story was updated to include information about Mark Brooks at the new club. 

Tiger Woods announced on social media Thursday that his course architecture firm, TGR Design, has signed on to build a course at a new residential community underway near Fort Worth, Texas: Bluejack Ranch.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the developers behind the project – Andy and Kristin Mitchell – also built Bluejack National north of Houston in 2016. That is the site of Woods’ first course design in the U.S., Bluejack National.

The name Bluejack, by the way, references a bluejack oak, a tree native to Texas with one present at Bluejack National.

Bluejack Ranch in Aledo will be about a 30-minute drive southwest of Fort Worth. It is planned to be a residential club on 914 acres of working cattle ranch, according to the club’s website. Plans call for it to open in 2026.

Course details were not included in the social post, but Golf.com reported that the plans include a full-size course built by Woods and his design partner, Beau Welling. There also will be a lighted 10-hole, par-3 course.

Fort Worth native Mark Brooks, winner of the 1996 PGA Championship among his seven PGA Tour titles, confirmed to Golfweek that he is a senior advisor to the project and will transition into running the club’s player development programs. The club will include a full golf and fitness performance center.

Woods is also working on a course named Trout National in New Jersey in partnership with baseball star Mike Trout, another at Marcella Club in Utah as well as his second 18-hole course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, called The Legacy. His first 18-holer in Cabo was El Cardonal at Diamante. He also did Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri.

Woods’ layout at Bluejack National near Houston is ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the No. 4 private course in Texas and ties for No. 75 among all modern courses in the U.S.

Woods wrote a letter to perspective members of Bluejack Ranch that is included on the club’s website:

Dear Members & Friends of Bluejack,

It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years since we embarked on my first U.S. course design at Bluejack National in Houston. The response to that golf experience has been truly gratifying, and when I hear how much Bluejack means to people, I feel incredibly proud of the TGR Design team.

Now, we’re bringing that same Bluejack spirit and passion to Fort Worth- a city celebrated not only as Cowtown but also as a golf town. With legends like Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the love for the game here is genuine. I’m grateful for the encore opportunity to reteam with Bluejack National and home-towners Andy and Kristin Mitchell to design a course around this incredibly special property and community.

Bluejack National’s success has paved the way for this next chapter at Bluejack Ranch. Our shared vision of creating a space where families can enjoy the game and have fun inspires us all once again at The Ranch.

It’s extremely motivating for me to contribute to the golfing legacy of Fort Worth, and I’m excited to see what we’ll build together. We’ll share more after our next design meeting in Aledo.

All the best,

Tiger Woods

Photos: Oakland Hills breaks ground on $96.5M construction project after massive fire that wiped out clubhouse

The project will be funded through insurance proceeds, member assessment and member dues.

Nearly two years after a devastating fire that caused $80 million in damage to the clubhouse and surroundings at one of North America’s cathedrals of golf, the smiles were wide on Wednesday when members from Oakland Hills Country Club put shovels in the ground to start a construction project that will bring new life to the facility.

The club in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills is home to two highly-rated golf courses. The South Course, designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, ties for No. 22 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The club’s North Course had previously been on the list, but slipped out in 2023.

The club has hosted 14 golf majors or USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Amateur, two U.S. Men’s Amateurs and three PGA Championships — including the 90th PGA Championship in 2008. The club has also hosted the 1922 Western Open, the 1964 Carling World Open, and the 35th Ryder Cup, in 2004.

The original clubhouse was designed by C. Howard Crane and opened in 1922. It had undergone several renovations and housed irreplaceable golf tournament memorabilia and art going back a century.

But on Feb. 17, 2022, a fire started when construction workers used a propane torch against a wall while rebuilding a patio. The fire spread quickly, the roof soon collapsed and within hours the facility was rendered a near total loss.

Oakland Hills Country Club fire
The Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on fire on Thursday, February 17, 2022. (Photo: Eric Seals-USA TODAY NETWORK)

That backstory led the smiling faces on Wednesday as the club broke ground on a new project entitled the “Next 100 Project,” which will include a replica clubhouse, a new greens and grounds complex, changes to the practice range and updated parking. The $96.5 million project was approved by the club’s membership this month and will be funded through insurance proceeds, member assessment and member dues.

The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

“Today is a momentous day for Oakland Hills members and staff who stand together, much like we did nearly two years ago watching flames rise from our clubhouse, but with a renewed excitement for the future,” Oakland Hills President K. Dino Kostopoulos said. “The ‘Next 100 Project’ is the result of significant planning by the entire Oakland Hills family that will define the Championship golf experience for generations to come at our Club and beyond.”

Here’s a look at some renderings of the updated facilities as well as pictures from Wednesday’s groundbreaking.

Cabot Highlands reveals routing plan for new Tom Doak course in Scotland

Tom Doak is building a second 18 at the gorgeous Scottish property formerly known as Castle Stuart.

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A 400-year-old castle. Crisscross fairways. Stunning ocean views reaching from water’s edge to higher and farther back. A giant rolling hill. A front nine loaded with par 4s, then a more conventional back nine with two par 3s and two par 5s. Expect humps, bumps, hollows and fun bounces, all along the northern Scottish coastline not far from Inverness.

Tom Doak’s routing for the yet-to-be-named second course at Cabot Highlands was released by the resort’s Canadian-based ownership group this week. It’s a sure bet the famed American designer utilized his vast knowledge of Scottish golf design – accumulated through years of on-the-ground study of the country’s greatest natural links – to create this much-anticipated layout that should open to preview play in 2024 and fully in 2025.

Cabot Highland Scotland Doak
The routing plan for the new Tom Doak-designed course at Cabot Highlands in Scotland shows No. 1 to the left before the layout crosses an estuary and plays to a far point along the coast to the right, then returns to an 18th hole that crisscrosses the first hole. (Courtesy of Cabot)

There’s just one thing: The second course at Cabot Highlands won’t sit on traditional links land. Instead of a totally natural golf site, this property has been farmed for decades, much of it pressed smooth as it rolls past the castle and down that gorgeous hill toward an estuary and the Moray Firth beyond.

That means Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team have been tasked with creating much of the shot-making drama. On a piece of land that has seen farm tractors instead of greens mowers, they must interject the fun and intricate terrain features that make up the best of Scottish golf.

Doak, of course, knew this when he accepted the job. His stated goal from the beginning: Take what the land offers, don’t overcook anything and, when in doubt, take a drive along the coast for a design refresher at some of the best links courses in the world. It might be St. Andrews to the east, or Royal Dornoch on the opposite side of the firth. Just along this little section of seaside, there’s a wide sampling of classic Scottish links courses to provide inspiration.

Tom Doak Cabot Highlands Castle Stuart
Tom Doak discusses his new course at Castle Stuart/Cabot Highlands near Inverness, Scotland. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

“The good thing about trying to do this in Scotland instead of in Florida is, if you’re ever not sure, you drive right over there (pointing out window), or drive up north, and go have a look at a few other courses,” Doak said during a tour of the land in late 2022 as he worked on the routing. “You know, I think most architects, we do too much. The things that are cool about the contouring here (in Scotland) is that it’s small scale and it’s wrinkly, but there are large expanses of fairly flat stuff in with that. It doesn’t just keep going with jittery contours forever. Even the most complex golf courses have big areas of relatively flat areas. …

“You think about it, we’re working on something now that we’re trying to bring in some links contours, so it’s almost like we’re going around and looking at things and sampling (other courses). Like, ‘We could do something like that little stretch somewhere else.’ “

Castle Stuart Cabot Highlands
Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen designed the original 18 at what was then named Castle Stuart in Scotland. Rebranded as Cabot Highlands in 2022, the highly ranked layout plays along the Moray Firth. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

A similar recipe already has proved successful at Cabot Highlands, which was known as Castle Stuart until 2022 when Cabot purchased it. The original course on the property – which is still called Castle Stuart Golf Links – was designed on similarly farmed land, and that cliffside layout by Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen that opened in 2009 has climbed to No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of modern courses in Great Britain and Ireland. It’s a layout that’s never feels overdone, with manmade features that appear natural in their jaw-dropping setting.

Doak’s course is intended to complement that original layout and secure for the resort a spot on even more must-play lists.

The routing map shows seven par 4s on the front with an 18-hole par of 72, the layout sweeping from a high point across land formerly occupied by the driving range, down past the castle then around and over the estuary. It extends to a point that, from the clubhouse, appears to be miles away across a small bay. It’s an out-and-back routing that doesn’t return to the clubhouse until No. 18, the line of play for which crisscrosses that of No. 1 in one huge and shared fairway. For much of the journey, Moray Firth and the surrounding mountains will provide plenty of eye candy.

And Cabot isn’t stopping with the new course. The company is pumping in capital to make the entire property even more appealing, with an expansion of the clubhouse underway and new real estate opportunities.

It’s all part of a rapid expansion for Cabot, which took off with two incredible courses in Nova Scotia and now has ongoing projects with a new cliffside thriller in Saint Lucia, a major renovation in Florida and a fresh mountain layout in western Canada. Cabot Highlands was the company’s first acquisition in Scotland, and the second 18 there is the first course Doak has built for the company.

“In the historic home of golf, we looked to Tom to create something special, and perhaps unconventional by modern standards,” Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of Cabot, said in the media release announcing the routing. “His vision of resurrecting an old true-links style course will serve as a great complement to the beloved (and original) Castle Stuart Golf Links. We hope to create an awe-inspiring destination anchored by incredible golf that will stand the test of time for generations to come.”