The proposed Childress Hall is a golf club in Childress, Texas is at the intersection of State Highway 21 and Farm Road 1021. Construction on the Tom Doak course began in November 2023. The site has 2 proposed golf courses from Tom Doak and Gil Hanse that have been planned. Construction on the Hanse designed golf course will start in 2024. The site will also have 2 additional par 3 short courses. The land is dunes topography with native prairie grasses. As described in hiring for an assistant golf course superintendent position on TurfNet, the dunes location is ideally situated on the Prairie Dog Town Fork of The Red River on the western side of the property and runs to the sand dunes on the eastern side of the property.
Longtime Renaissance principal and design associate Eric Iverson is onsite building the new golf course and is featured in the Doak's image below presenting the punchbowl 5th hole green. Iverson worked as a design associate and shaper at Tara Iti Golf Club which has an exceptional punchbowl green at the 3rd hole. Doak posted an informal aerial from his flight into the site in March 2024 showing several greensites including the interesting 5th hole.
Childress Hall has hired Heritage Links to lead golf course construction with Eric Greytok as the onsite grow in superintendent course manager to oversee the build out and shaping phase of the golf course. As Penn State turfgrass science graduate, Greytok is one of the industry leaders in grounds maintenance. In 2000, Greytok was the golf course superintendent for the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Greytok also led the 2004 U.S. Amateur and the 2006 U.S. Open as golf course superintendent at Winged Foot. Greytok began his career as a spray tech rising to assistant superintendent at Merion Golf Club under Paul Latshaw. He also spent time at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and Congressional Country Club in Washington, D.C.. This PSU Turf Club presentation from Greytok highlights course management practices. Golf architect Doak previously worked with Greytok on Oregon's Remington Ranch where Greytok supervised construction on Wicked Pony Golf Course.
The sand dunes in West Texas from the Monahans Sandhills State Park to Wichita Falls are a type of barchan dune. Barchan dunes are crescent-shaped dunes that are formed by winds that blow in one direction. The wind blows the sand grains upwind depositing on the downwind side of the dune. The dune is constantly moving with the tips of the crescent moving forward.
The sand dunes in West Texas are made up of quartz sand which is a hard, durable type of sand. Quartz sand was originally deposited by rivers that flowed through the area millions of years ago. Sand was picked up by the wind and blown into dunes. Some other geological features of the sand dunes in West Texas to note are Transverse dunes which are aligned perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction. They are the most common type of dune in the area. Parabolic dunes are U-shaped and have a blowout in the middle which are formed by winds that blow in two directions. Star dunes have multiple arms formed by winds that blow from different directions.
Spring and autumn are pleasant seasons to visit Childress. The weather is mild with a moderate amount of precipitation. Spring and autumn temperatures in Childress are relatively mild. Average high temperature in the spring is 84°F versus the average high temperature in the autumn being 79°F. The typical amount of precipitation in Childress during spring is 3.5 inches with the typical number of days of precipitation at 10 days. Rainfall in the autumn averages 2.5 inches with 7 days of precipitation.
Doak and Hanse previously were joint, co-architects early in their career at Stonewall - Old Course in Eastern Pennsylvania. No other property in the world has original golf courses from Doak and Hanse together at the same site. The golf courses will attract visitors from all over the world to Childress and will help boost the local economy.
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