The Dallas golf course, which is built on top of a landfill and designed by Coore & Crenshaw, could open as soon as September 1, despite challenges such as the environmental sensitivity of the area, multiple layers of bureaucracy, and complications from record rainfall.
After three years, Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas is getting poised for its unveiling. The Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw-designed course is on schedule to open by early fall, perhaps as soon as September 1, the Dallas Morning News reported.
When the curtain is pulled off the former dump, Dallas will have a marquee course with dunes, sandy waste areas and native grasses swaying on the rolling hills, the Morning News reported.
“I don’t want to sound like a promotional machine, but it was very interesting to walk out there and remember the conversation we had when we first came out here to look at the land,” said Coore, who returned for two days of inspection about two weeks ago.
“Interestingly enough, of all the courses we’ve done, this one is probably the closest to what we envisioned. Amazingly similar in the sense of how the holes fit. It was just fascinating to see how it came together from the very beginning when it was a landfill.”
Record rains delayed the originally targeted spring opening, but the mild winter has hastened progress. The course is waiting for a strong grow-in for its zoysia fairways and Champion ultradwarf Bermuda greens over the next few months, the Morning News reported.
Routing of the 18-hole championship layout, the short-game area and the driving range were completed in December. The SMU golf teams are using the expansive practice areas. Eight holes of the main course are getting limited play—including from world No. 1 Jordan Spieth of Dallas, who’s a longtime student of Trinity Forest director of instruction Cameron McCormick, and fellow Tour player Hunter Mahan of Dallas, who is also a member, the Morning News reported.
In addition to McCormick coming on board with his teaching academy, Richie Hare has been hired away from the Vaquero Club in Westlake as director of golf, the Morning News reported.
Recently retired Tour player Harrison Frazar of Dallas helped form the Company of Trinity Forest Golfers, which manages the course, along with developer Jonas Woods and former AT&T executive VP Ronald Spears. Frazar has been involved in myriad activities, including consulting with Coore and Crenshaw on the course, the Morning News reported.
Despite the large scope of the work in an environmentally sensitive area, the multiple layers of bureaucracy involved, the uncertainty inherent in building on a landfill and the complications from record rainfall, the layout is complete; and the finished product varies little from the original diagram, the Morning News reported.
Because the course is built atop a landfill, developers could not dig new water hazards or plant more trees. Dirt was brought in to create a spattering of dunes that complement the meandering hills formed by the landfill’s settlement over three decades, the Morning News reported.
The layout measures 7,300 yards from the tips and plays to a par of 71 with 11 par-4s, four par-3s and three par-5s, the Morning News reported.
The project, which includes trails, has had its share of problems, particularly environmental issues. A city contractor improperly drained much of a wetland pond near the Trinity River, and a copse of bur oak trees near a trail by the Trinity was mistakenly cleared, the Morning News reported.
Although drainage was “a major undertaking” according to Coore, other potential problems were minimized because the landfill had been settling for more than 30 years and had low levels of methane gas, the Morning News reported.
“We had a lot of fun with this,” Coore said. “It was one of those projects that, because of the landfill, it had the potential to be unpleasant. It required extreme attention to detail, but it was fun to see it come to life.”
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