Lanny Wadkins spent a lot of time TPC Craig Ranch since its debut in 2004. The course, which sits on the northeast edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, was host when Wadkins’ son Travis passed through the Q-School, and this marks just one of several trips the 21-time PGA Tour winner has made to the property since it opened for play.
And while most golf course architects insist they don’t care what PGA Tour players get out of the courses they build or renovate, the straightforward Wadkins speaks candidly about one of his goals in reworking the property originally designed by Tom Weiskopf. TPC Craig Ranch has hosted the Byron Nelson CJ Cup in each of the past five years since the event moved from nearby Trinity Forest.
TPC Craig Ranch, host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson CJ Cup, has been renovated by Lanny Wadkins’ design firm.
After Scottie Scheffler matched 31-under 253 through 72 holes on Tour this year, executives at Invited — formerly known as ClubCorp — enlisted Wadkins’ help to revitalize the course and give it some teeth. The course is now reopened for play and will have a new look when the Tour returns to town in May.
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“Basically, the guests said they didn’t want 30 under to win anymore,” Wadkins said. “And I told them, don’t worry.
“I would say I thought about the Tour, especially the length and the bunkering. We have about one, two, three holes that play downwind and the bunkers don’t even start until 315 or 320 yards. So, you know, it’s definitely the Tour in mind. If I had put them where they normally would have gone, they would have knocked them down, without even seeing them.
TPC Craig Ranch, host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson CJ Cup, has been renovated by Lanny Wadkins’ design firm.
“I thought about the fairway bunkers to tighten up the property somewhat. Craig Ranch is a large property, so we created four waste bunkers on holes 3, 5, 10 and 16, so that when the plantings that we did with the native grasses, the Texas sage and other things grow, it will make it look a lot more intimate and really have a lot more character. It will be a lot more intimidating from the start.”
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This was important to the course owners, who had seen scores decline more and more. In the five years the event has been held at TPC Craig Ranch, winning scores have been under or under 23. Before 2018, across 10 different courses, the winning score had never reached as low as 20 under.
But the renovated Craig Ranch should play hard and fast. Since the grass is tougher, greenkeepers should be able to keep it longer for members’ play, but cut it before the tournament, which would make the round more difficult.
And more importantly, Wadkins refigured all of the bunkering and green complexes.
TPC Craig Ranch, host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson CJ Cup, has been renovated by Lanny Wadkins’ design firm.
“Before, most of the bunkers at Craig Ranch weren’t really suited for putting surfaces. They were set back, which is really a hindrance for guys who don’t play as well. So you injure limbs,” Wadkins said. “Our bunkering is mostly against the greens, at least around the greens. The greens have a lot more movement than before.
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“We have a green that mimics No. 14 at Augusta on No. 11. So it’s a big false front that you have to get over, but there’s a lot of room there. So the one thing we’ve done is most of the places where the holes are going to be placed, they’re only 1 or 2 percent. So they’re very, very puttable and very fair, but there’s movement in the rest of the greens. So, I think this will be the most important thing they will notice. The bunkers will be deeper.
Although Craig Ranch is fairly flat, it is not short, as the private club has previously played to 7,414 yards with a par 72 on Tour. The distance hasn’t changed drastically, but the trash bunkers and narrower fairways should provide more of a challenge for pros.
“My basic principle with Tour pros, I want them to get on the tee and think a little bit. I don’t want them to stop there and say, ‘Hey, I’m just going to hit it as far as I can, chase it down and hit it again.’ It won’t work there. So they have it, if they hit it in the fairway, they can play whatever they want. But I wanted them to play with purpose.”
“With some of the shorter holes, we were really able to achieve that. They have to think. You can’t just sit there and let it go.”
TPC Craig Ranch, host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson CJ Cup, has been renovated by Lanny Wadkins’ design firm.
David Pillsbury, CEO of Invited and former executive vice president of tournament business affairs for the PGA Tour, said the goal of the renovation was to create something that could stand the test of time.
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“What we wanted to do was really twofold. It was time to freshen it up. Tom’s design was a really good design, but even though the golf course was contemporary at the time, and it’s a beautiful piece of land and a big open golf course, we needed a refresh,” Pillsbury said. “My goal was to make it timeless. Unique and timeless and put some bite back into the golf course.
“It was a bomb and a caliber, and the pros could hit a corner from anywhere. They’re not going to be able to do it there. They’re going to have to think about every shot.”
This article was originally published on Golfweek: Lanny Wadkins says PGA Tour course TPC Craig Ranch will play harder
