Dreams can sometimes come true. Any golf player dreams of being able to play on the same courses as the world’s best players. Well, in Texas that dream is not a utopia.
This week the Texas Children’s Houston Open is being held for the fourth consecutive edition at the Memorial Golf Park. This course is one of the 23 public courses that host a PGA Tour event during the year. Being a member is not an indispensable requirement to be able to play. However, being public access does not mean it is accessible to all budgets. For example, TPC Sawgrass is a course where “anyone” can opt to book a green fee, but with a small caveat, the reservation comes out to around 900 dollars. There are cheaper dreams.
However, in Houston it’s different. The tournament is played on a municipal course that has the peculiarity of being the cheapest course of the year on the PGA Tour. If you are a resident in Texas, you can play at the Memorial Golf Park during the week for 30 dollars. If you are a child you can complete a round for just 10$. Quite a luxury. Quite a bargain. On the weekend the price ‘shoots up’ to 38$. It’s hard to find 18-hole courses in Spain where you can play for that price. If you are on holiday in Texas or you are there for work, you will have to pay, depending on the day or time you play, between 90 and 140 dollars which is the price for non-residents. A figure not at all exorbitant by golfing standards.
The second cheapest course of the year is also located in the Texan state and is also another municipal course. In this case we are talking about TPC San Antonio – Oaks, the venue where the Valero Texas Open will be held next week. For a non-resident to play there it costs around 145$ dollars. Long live Texas.
Weeks like this when the PGA Tour heads to a municipal golf course are one of the best opportunities to try and repeat the same shots as the professionals. Undoubtedly this is a factor that brings the golf enthusiast much closer to the golf that every week they watch their idols play on television. To play where they do and try to reproduce those incredible shots.
Tony Finau, the defending champion of the tournament, spoke precisely about this yesterday: “It’s spectacular to play on a course that’s really open to everyone. I grew up playing on a municipal golf course, a par-3 next to an executive course in Salt Lake City. I love that we play on a public golf course. I think it’s important that this happens on the PGA Tour and that the locals have the opportunity to play on the same course as us, see the shots that we hit and have access to the same golf course that we play. I think it’s very special that we play here this week and I hope this golf tournament is held here for many years,” Finau celebrated.
Sahith Theegala has expressed the same sentiment: “It’s amazing that the week after this tournament anyone can go out and play and see how tough the golf course is and the conditions we play in. I think it’s important that fans see exactly what a PGA Tour test is like.
The player of Indian origin doesn’t stop there and goes a step further: “The Monday after the tournament there should be something like a fan challenge or… I think it would be amazing to see a scratch handicap go out and play on Monday, keeping the same conditions and see how many shots they would take. It would help them put into perspective how tough a PGA Tour golf course is. I would love it.” We take note.
A municipal course is precisely where the Ryder Cup will be held next year, Bethpage Black Course. Quite a milestone. If you are a New York resident you can play there for 50 dollars, if you are not a resident the green fee goes up to 130 dollars.
