In 2021, the Houston Open moved from the private Golf Club of Houston to the municipal Memorial Park after significant investment from Houston Astros owner Jim Crane and his Astros Golf Foundation. Crane’s group funneled enough cash into the muni track to get esteemed designer Tom Doak on board, with Brooks Koepka as a player advisor.
Now, the course’s busy driving range will get a big investment as well, although it will mean the facility will be closed through the beginning of the new year.
According to the Houston Chronicle, a city ordinance has authorized $1.52 million in renovations for the two-tiered range, which was built in 1995, and just as the course was improved through a partnership with Jim Crane and the Astros Golf Foundation, so will the range. The expectation is that the facility will close around Thanksgiving and could be open by February, if the weather cooperates.
Here’s more from the Chronicle:
The driving range at Memorial Park Golf Course debuted alongside a host of other course improvements and additions in 1995, nearly 50 years after the course first opened in 1947. Three decades later, the driving range is now “in critical need of repair,” per the ordinance. “Prolonged heavy rainfall,” in Houston created “severe ground sloping,” which was exacerbated by, “insufficient drainage and irrigation infrastructure.” A string of repairs will now follow, including:
— Regrading the driving range floor to soften severe slopes and improve surface water runoff
— Installing new drainage infrastructure to enhance subsurface drainage and water flow
— Replacing the irrigation system to ensure consistent and effective moisture management
The late-October ordinance also notes the entire 12.5-acre floor of the driving range will be drained, irrigated and sodded, then replaced with new, more solid footing. Houston moisture wreaked havoc on one of the city’s oldest and most-popular driving ranges in recent decades. Months of repairs are now necessary.
Memorial Park had always been the crown jewel of the Houston public golf scene. Originally built as a nine-hole course in 1912, an extensive redesign by John Bredemus (who had co-founded the Texas Professional Golfers Association in 1922) led to its “official” 18-hole opening in 1936.
From 1947 to 1963, the course hosted a PGA Tour event 14 times. Arnold Palmer won it once and Jack Nicklaus had a second-place finish. Famously, 1965 PGA Championship winner Dave Marr asked that his ashes be spread at Memorial Park — even though he never won there, he credited the track for shaping his career.
