MCKINNEY, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
TPC Craig Ranch will undergo $15 million in renovations intended to make it one of the preeminent courses in Dallas-Fort Worth and one of the top stops for players on the PGA Tour.
The McKinney course, owned and operated by Dallas-based Invited Inc., has hosted the CJ Cup Byron Nelson PGA tournament since 2021. Invited has brought on former PGA golfer Lanny Wadkins to oversee the first major overhaul of the course since it opened in 2004. Changes coming to the course will include new grass turf, tighter fairways, the addition and movement of bunkers, making some holes longer and irrigation and drainage upgrades.
Bob Morse, president and chief operating officer of Invited, said the company wants TPC Craig Ranch to be "one of the premier golf courses in all of Dallas."
"Our goal is to take the Craig Ranch reputation to an extremely high level in the Dallas marketplace," Morse said. "Dallas has got really great golf. ... The competition is pretty stiff, and we want to make sure we're in that dialogue."
Though it ranks tied as the fourth-toughest course in Dallas-Fort Worth, Wadkins and Morse said TPC Craig Ranch needs upgrades to "elevate" it and accommodate for how the game of golf has changed in the last 20 years.
Tom Weiskopf, the late former professional golfer and course architect behind TPC Craig Ranch, did not design it as a championship golf course, Wadkins said. Pros today hit the ball farther than ever and need more of a test than the course currently provides, he said. He also noted TPC Craig Ranch saw the second-most birdies of any course on the PGA Tour during the Byron Nelson tournament this past May.
"That means the course is probably just playing a little too easy for these guys," Wadkins said.
Taylor Pendrith won this year's Byron Nelson with a total score of 23-under par, while Jason Day won the prior year's tournament with the same score. Lee Kyoung-hoon won back-to-back tournaments in 2021 and 2022, the first two years the Byron Nelson took place at TPC Craig Ranch, with scores of 25-under and 26-under, respectively.
The Byron Nelson took place for years in Las Colinas before moving to Trinity Forest Golf Club, southeast of downtown Dallas, in 2018. Not played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament moved north to TPC Craig Ranch in 2021.
For Wadkins, Byron Nelson has a special place in his heart because he won the tournament in 1973 when it took place at the Preston Trail Golf Club. Wadkins, who has lived in Dallas for 46 years, said TPC Craig Ranch has the "bones" to be a "really, really good golf course" with the upcoming improvements.
"The players love a good, solid test of golf; they don't want it to be a putting contest," he said. "They want it to be something to test every bit of their ability from driving in the fairway and quality iron play and everything else that goes into shooting a round of golf. They want that, and that's what we intend to give them."
One of the first things happening involves changing the grass of the golf course from zoysia, which it has currently, to TifTuf Bermuda grass. The new grass will play firmer and turn green earlier in the spring, which will benefit both members and pro players.
"We want to give the best conditions we can give to our members year-round and at the same time we want the conditions during tournament week to be as pristine as they possibly can be," Morse said.
Next, Wadkins said he will lengthen some holes by moving back tees that will only be used for tournament purposes. Currently 7,438 yards, Wadkins said the course should be about 7,600 yards after the changes.
"The PGA Tour will never set it up at 7,600 but what they'll do is they'll use the length in certain places," Wadkins said. "... By us lengthening some of these holes, particularly the downwind holes, we're going to be able to give them some options."
Wadkins also said he plans to add some fairway bunkers that do not currently exist on the course and move others closer to the greens. The new fairway bunkers will primarily affect PGA Tour players to make it more challenging for them.
"Unless the members hit it a long way, they're probably not going to have to mess with them too much," Wadkins said.
The tighter bunkers around greens will force the pros to hit better shots while making conditions better for the average players, he said.
"A lot of the bunkering around the greens right now is way away from the greens, which, quite honestly, that hurts the average player more than it does the Tour player," Wadkins said. "I think by bunkering around these greens properly for Tour play, it's actually going to enhance the experience to the members when they play."
Wadkins in particular highlighted changes coming to the 18th hole. The green will be moved down alongside a creek and the hole will be lengthened. The hole has played as an "easy birdie" for most of the Tour players in prior years, Wadkins said. He wants to turn the hole into a "demanding par 4" to create an exciting finish for the tournament.
"If a guy needs to make par to win the golf tournament, his work is not done," Wadkins said. "He's going to have a big-boy golf hole to finish on."
With all of the changes, Wadkins said he expects it will take a score in the range of 10-under to 15-under par to win the Byron Nelson in the future. He said he does not intend for the course to "beat the players up," but he wants "exciting holes" and penalties for not playing good shots. Wadkins said he wants to make TPC Craig Ranch "one of the must-play courses for the PGA Tour."
"I think it's going to have a great look and it's going to be what you'd see on a lot of the modern golf courses today," Wadkins said. "We're bringing it into today's golf world, if you will, and it's going to be quite a test."
