Dallas Golf Blog

Nationwide Tour Championship at TPC Craig Ranch

By Art Stricklin

 

 

MCKINNEY

–The Tournament Players Club at Craig Ranch, built to host golf championships when it opened three years ago, grabbed it biggest one to date, with the hopeful promise of more to come, with the official announcement of the 2008 Nationwide Tour Championship, Nov, 6-9.

 First reported this summer, it will be the first Nationwide Tour event in the

North Texas

area, the second in

Texas

after the 2006 event at The Houstonian in

Richmond

, and will form a late-season professional golf triangle which will include Barona Creek in

San Diego

in a three-year rotation.

 “It’s a great day for Texas Golf,” said The Woodlands PGA Tour member Roland Thatcher.

 Most significantly for the

North Texas

area, it will include the active involvement of the Dallas-based Salesmanship Club, the operators and organizers of the hugely successful PGA Tour Byron Nelson Championship, which has topped the $100 million dollar mark in charity contributions in a 30-year span.

 For one week, we’re going to have the 60 greatest Nationwide Tour players in the country here in our city and at the TPC-Craig Ranch course,” said Andy Stern, chairman of the Salesmanship Club’s Charitable Golf Division. “We will have our members with these players all through the year and it will be a great partnership now and in the future.”

 

McKinney

developer David Craig has made no secret of his desire to bring the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Championship to his TPC course, and said he views next year’s tournament as a good showcase for his course.

 “We have never made any secret that we built this venue to host championships, and for 2008, the Nationwide Tour Championship is the perfect tournament we can have here,” he said.

 “We cannot have anything larger until we get more infrastructure in and get our luxury hotel built, and that will be 2011 at the earliest,” Craig added.

Nationwide Tour President Bill Calfee also said that the addition of the TPC-Craig Ranch in

McKinney

would complete the three-way rotation for future Nationwide Tour Championships.

It will return to The Houstonian Golf Club outside of

Houston

in 2009 where it will be run by the Houston Golf Association, organizers and operators of the Shell Houston Open. In 2010, it will be back at Barona Creek in

San Diego

with an association of The Century Club, the longtime operator of the PGA Tour’s Buick event at Torrey Pines.

Calfee said he hoped the event would return to the rapidly growing Craig Ranch development in 2011.

The 72-hole event, which will be carried live all four days on the Golf Channel, will be the first ever held on a TPC layout, this

Colin

County

par 71 green grass gem designed by Tom Weiskopf, and the first to offer a $1 million total purse.

“I would say the Nationwide Tour Championship has no rivals in terms of (golf) drama anywhere,” Thatcher added. “In terms of getting the No. 25 spot (and earning a PGA Tour card) it can all come down to one putt, and that’s what you’re going to see showcased next year.”

Recently promoted 2008 PGA Tour member Brad Elder went to high school in

Plano

, just a few minutes south of the current Craig Ranch facility, and said he was amazed that the TPC facility would now host the Nationwide Tour’s best in 2008.

“It’s just a great area where a lot of the (local) Nationwide Tour players already practice. I don’t get out there enough, but it’s be going to be an incredible course for the Tour Championship.

This is the first time the Salesmanship Club, the longtime charity leader on the PGA Tour with more than $100 million total in charity contributions through its annual Byron Nelson Championship, has participated in another professional event. But it was a chance they couldn’t pass up.

Salesmanship President Randy Engstrom said all money raised next year would go toward the club’s programs which benefit kids and family services in the

North Texas

area.

It will also give club members a chance to establish ties with future PGA Tour stars for the next decade in a rapidly changing Tour environment, where the club must stage its trademark PGA Tour event without tournament namesake Byron Nelson and with a substandard date on the Tour schedule.

“You will see the red pants (Salesmanship Club members) at several tournament next year,” Engstrom said.

Another factor in the success of the 2008 Tour Championship and beyond is the energetic work of charismatic developer Craig.

It was his vision and drive which has turned the once barren

North Texas

farmland into a thriving full-service community, which now includes professional baseball fields, a world class training facility led by Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson and a

Cooper

Aerobics

Center

facility led by famed doctor Kenneth Cooper.

“I remember the first time David took me on a tour of this facility. He was pointing out a hotel there and a training facility here, and I thought he was crazy because there was frankly nothing there,” said Calfee.

“But David Craig is a “can do” person, and he is passionate about doing it right and doing what it takes to make it right. It was his vision to have the first million dollar purse here.”

“It will be a week long party,” Stern added of the ’08 event.

The TPC Craig Ranch opened its fairways and greens to members and guests as a private golf facility on

September 16, 2004

. Designed by PGA Tour legend and world-renowned golf course designer Tom Weiskopf, the course stretches to 7,438 yards from the PGA Tour tees and plays to a par 71 (all other sets of tees are par 72). Routed along the beautiful white-limestone based Rowlett Creek, the TPC Craig Ranch was designed to challenge some of the game’s best competitors while still providing an enjoyable round for the average player.

 There is a massive stone clubhouse which overlooks the 18^th hole along with several dining options and large locker rooms for men and women.

 The second stage of the 2008 Qualifying School took place at Craig Ranch for the second straight year, but come next year, North Texas golf fans will see the game’s next wave of stars at a facility which seems destined to star all on its own.

North Texas' Colt Knost Wins US AM & Pub Links

SMU's Colt Knost became only the 2nd man to ever win the US Public Links and US Amateur Titles in the same year, yesterday at Olympic Club near San Francisco.  Colt, who is from Pilot Point, just north of Dallas-Fort Worth, played golf for the SMU Mustangs, and plans to turn pro in a few months. 

Congratulations to Colt for a tremendous accomplishment.

You can read the complete US Amateur story here.

FC Dallas Foundation Golf Tournament a Success

We would like to thank the FC Dallas Foundation and all of the FC Dallas players for hosting a great event at Castle Hills Golf Club yesterday.  As an event sponsor, Dallas Golf sent 5 representatives to enjoy a day at the course with FC Dallas.   Pictured from left to right are Dusty Grey, John Terry, John Cartlon, Chris Smith (me), and John Bishop.  My group featured Drew Moor, starting center fullback for FC Dallas.  Drew is a very good golfer and was a super nice guy to spend the day with.  Since John Carlton and I are soccer nuts, we tore Drew's ear off talking about the MLS Season, David Beckham, and the US National Team, to name a few soccer topics.  Our group didn't fare well in the tournament, but we had a great time and got to know one of the rising stars in the MLS.   Checkout some video of Drew Moor in action on the golf course.   

What I took away from the day was that professional athletes are successful because they come through in the clutch.  Several times our team put the ball in Drew's hands, and he delivered.  He birdied 2 holes consecutively, using only his shots in the scramble format.  He flagged a 5 iron from 185 yards on a par-3, and roped a 5 wood from 220 yards to a back right pin position and made a 15 foot downhill putt for another birdie.  It was impressive for someone who makes their living at one sport, to be downright good in another.  For some reason when you think "professional athlete", you get a vision of an overly muscled block-headed jock.  That isn't the case with any of the FC Dallas squad.  They are all unassuming, normal looking guys, but they happen to possess a VERY specialized skill.  Dallas Golf was proud to be associated with each of them and their Foundation Event.

We hope you'll help us support the FC Dallas Foundation in their effort to serve the DFW Metroplex through the creation and support of programs, events and organizations that benefit the overall good of our community, and positively advance the lives of disadvantaged youth through the sport of soccer.

We encourage you to get involved in your community, too.  Whether through golf, or soccer, or any other type of volunteer work, get our and support others who are less fortunate that you are.  The work will repay you many times over.