PGA Frisco, and Nick Zickefoose, the superintendent looking after the East course. Those guys and their crews did an incredible job growing in and conditioning the golf courses. They never got distracted either.”
O’Donnell didn’t misspeak: There are two golf courses at PGA Frisco, the Fields Ranch East and the Fields Ranch West, a resort 18 designed by Beau Welling that officially debuted, alongside the Hanse layout, on May 2, 2023.
What’s more, once the Senior PGA is completed on Sunday, May 28, the day-to-day golfing clientele at PGA Frisco will be primarily municipal. The PGA of America holds a long-term contract as the on-site course operator and tournament host, as the new facility also serves as the PGA of America’s home base. (The organization recently moved its national headquarters here from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.) The Frisco facility also features a massive practice area, a golfing lounge from Topgolf, a 75,000-square foot putting course called The Dance Floor, a 10-hole short course, and a 500-room Omni-branded resort featuring myriad food & beverage options and expansive meeting spaces. An adjacent 2,500 acres are slated for further development under a master plan from Hunt Realty.
The PGA of America and Omni envisions a vast, multi-purpose, all-in-one golf destination — in the heart of Texas and, by extension, the country.
But the driver here has always been, and will remain, championship competition. The 2023 Senior PGA Championship comes first, followed by the KPMG Women’s PGA in 2025. The first men’s grand slam event, the PGA Championship, arrives in 2027. That sequence of tournaments will repeat starting in 2029.
“Everything that Gil [Hanse] created on the East course was championship driven,” says O’Donnell, whose firm has worked with Hanse Golf Design on a half-dozen previous occasions, including renovations preceding the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. “They can stretch this course to 7,850-plus yards. We grassed it with TifEagle on the greens and NorthBridge everywhere else. The decision to go with just two varieties means they can more easily tweak the fairway lines ahead of tournament events — or according to how they want specific hazards and bunkers to play. Or not! But the entire operation was created and remains uniquely equipped for maximum flexibility.”
About Heritage Links
Heritage Links, a Lexicon, Inc. Company, is the most trusted, active and decorated course builder in golf, equally skilled in the full range of contracting disciplines, including irrigation installation. Its notable original builds include Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, site of the 2017 U.S. Open, and the Fields Ranch East Course in Frisco, Texas. Its recent renovation resume includes private clubs (The Blessings in Fayetteville, Arkansas), public courses (Troon North GC in Scottsdale, Arizona), major championship prep (The Champions GC in advance of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, Southern Hills CC prior to the 2022 PGA Championship), and resorts like Prince and Makai courses at the Princeville Resort Kauai. The firm (www.Heritage-Links.com) is now engaged in course construction projects in 10 U.S. states.
