Crown Colony Country Club in East Texas is preparing to reopen following a restoration overseen by architects Trey Kemp and John Colligan.
“With the game of golf growing and renewed excitement from the membership, the board of directors started the process of analysing opportunities for the restoration of the golf course in the summer of 2023,” said Wes Danner, chair of the club’s restoration committee.
Kemp and Colligan developed a masterplan to restore the original vision of architects Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge and founder Arthur Temple. As part of his research, Kemp played a round at Crown Colony with Devlin and spoke about the design and forthcoming restoration.
“The goal is to bring Crown Colony back to its glory days when it was ranked as the best golf course in Texas,” said Kemp. “It held this distinction in the 1990s and was highly ranked until the last five to ten years when the golf course started to show its age and things started breaking down.”
Contractor Sanders Golf started the project in April 2024 and includes restoring bunkers, grassing greens with TifEagle bermuda, adding several forward tees, improving drainage on three holes, tree removal and replacing five bridges.
The course’s existing 53 bunkers (Devlin and Von Hagge originally designed 69) were the biggest focus of the project. “One of the biggest time sinks for our crew was maintaining bunkers, particularly after the heavy downpours East Texas can experience,” said Danner. “We removed bunkers, so we now have 38 – an almost 30 per cent reduction – and they all have new drainage. This has removed around 3,000 square feet of sand from the course.”
Kemp said: “Our goal with reducing bunkers is to save time and money for the maintenance crew while keeping and even improving the strategy of the course. The bunkers are now more visible, playable and enhance the course’s aesthetics.”
For the club’s biggest and steepest bunker, alongside the fifth green, bunker lining from Bunker Solution was used to provide enhanced drainage and sand stability.
Over time the greens had shrunk, so Kemp and Colligan have restored them to their original sizes. “We also ensured that the green designs would accommodate a full turn of a greens mower,” said Danner. “Not only to allow for more precise cuts between greens and collars, but also to reduce the time it takes for our team to mow a tight turning radius area.
“In addition to restoring green surrounds, we also installed new drainage and irrigation. These new systems will be extremely beneficial during heavy rains and to ensure we can keep low areas next to greens mowed tight and only water exactly where we need to with the assistance of the new sprinkler heads.”
The course has been closed throughout the restoration. “With the reshaped bunkers sodded and new grassing greening up, members can finally see the vision of Kemp and Colligan,” said Danner.
“With the 50th anniversary approaching in 2029, our goal is to move through the multi-phase project to provide a superior golf experience to our membership and the community,” said Danner.