The Lakes At
Castle Hills The son of former Cowboys owner Bum Bright has revitalized a championship course and is turning it into one of DFW’s premier golf clubs
SP2 / MAY 2012 TEXAS LINKS
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The Lakes at Castle Hills
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S
cott Williams knows all about perception versus reality. For more than a decade, he invested in his community’s perceived upscale golf course while, in reality, it deteriorated to embarrassing levels. A former member who left the club with the sourest of tastes, Williams recently rejoined and has never been prouder or more excited about the myriad improvements. This is a story of rebirth. It’s about how the son of a former Dallas Cowboys owner got help from one of the most famous golf instructors in the world to breathe new life into the Lewisville golf club that had a world of potential only to be thwarted by outsourced management. Newly named and recently re-opened, The Lakes at Castle Hills is fighting a reputation of being an average public club with iffy conditions known more for hosting charity tournaments than anything else. That’s the perception. ‘From the valet until the end of the day, we have The reality is so you in good hands. We don’t want to be the same radically different that as Vaquero, but if we’re mentioned in the same the only true way to see what’s really going on conversation as them, then that’s awesome. there is to visit the place They’re the leaders in this area for the member yourself. The Northern experience and customer service. That’s what Texas PGA did and came away so impressed that it we’re aiming for here.’ will play its two most —Dan Parker, Director of Golf prestigious events at Castle Hills. For the first time in the history of the section, the Bright Realty Texas State customer service that rivals any in the Metroplex, the term “new and Open and Texas Women’s Open will be played on the same course. improved” hardly begins to paint the picture of what’s happening at The club also will host qualifiers for the HP Byron Nelson The Lakes at Castle Hills. Championship (May 10), U.S. Junior Amateur (June 11) and U.S. Williams’ story provides proof. Mid-Amateur (Aug. 13). In late October, it will host a first stage As a charter Castle Hills resident with a young son starting out in of the PGA Tour Qualifying School. the game, Williams regarded the convenience of the affluent neighborOnce you’ve experienced the changes, it’s easy to see why the hood’s centerpiece golf course and its entertaining layout as too enticclub is landing such prominent events. ing to ignore. So he paid his dues and played his golf, all the time From the valet service and all-inclusive green fees (unlimited watching the product decline. restaurant-quality food and non-alcoholic beverages, plus GPS on He bought his first membership in 2001 when Wesley was 5 carts and unrestricted range access) to the new greens sprigged years old. Even though Williams had plenty of issues with the cycle with the same MiniVerde Bermuda grass used at Atlanta Athletic of management groups, he supported the club. Like so many of his Club, site of the 2011 PGA Championship, and a level of attentive fellow members, Williams hoped the promises made about privatiza-
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marks. That led to choppy fairways and chewed-up greens. Worse still, the emphasis on customer service was lost in the management shuffle. “There were always promises to take it private,” Williams said. “It was supposed to be a significant high-end golf course for the area. The canvas was always there—it’s a great layout— but the way the course was managed over the years…it didn’t make the investment as worthwhile.” Before the club’s current owner, Bright Realty, bumped out the last of the underachieving management and ownership groups and took back control of the club in 2010, the club bottomed out. The challenging and diverse Jay Morrish-designed course that was built in 1998 for $14 million and once commanded weekend green fees of $99 could be played for $25 with coupons. Tough to live on a perception of upscale when your reality is bargain-basement. “I just dropped out all together,” Williams said. “I wanted my son to have a place to play, but we used the golf academy mostly. The quality of the course degraded over time. It wasn’t worthy of the membership offers they had.” Williams wasn’t alone. Scores of members left. A new breed of coupon-cutting golfers descended and created a new perception for the club. Chris Bright didn’t like it one bit. The son of H.R. “Bum” Bright, the former Dallas Cowboys owner and Bright Realty founder, he decided enough was enough. As a partner in his dad’s company and the real estate director of it, Bright spent a chunk of his life developing the elegant 2,500-acre master-planned community in the thriving North Dallas section of Lewisville. Bright, his two sisters and brother spent childhood weekends and holidays on the land in the 1950s and ’60s. Back then it was the “Family Farm,” where Bright and his siblings learned to fish, horseback ride and put in a hard day’s work. The family ran cattle and grew corn, cotton and soybeans. Bright Realty’s vision for Castle Hills was a community with the small town charm Bright knew as a child while affording
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tion and improved playing conditions would come true. During the next 10 years, the perception was Castle Hills’ public golf course was on the verge of becoming a vastly improved high-end private country club. The reality Williams and others experienced was one management group after another coming through and failing on those vows. Instead of enhancements, operation costs were cut. Green fees were lowered, which demanded higher volume. The club became a haven for corporate and charity tournaments—upwards of 90-100 events a year—and that was a reality that incensed members. Not only did the heavy tournament play make it difficult for members to use their own course, it also took a toll on the conditions. Many of the guests weren’t familiar with filling divots and fixing ball
The Lakes at Castle Hills
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COURSE REVIEW
The Lakes at Castle Hills
‘When we’re finished, 17 of the 18 holes will have water. It’s all about making the experience better and more memorable for our members and guests. This course always had tons of potential. We’re just now realizing it.’ —Chris Martinez, General Manager
residents the luxuries of a metropolitan setting. “Most people will tell you they’d love to live in a small town,” Bright said. “Unfortunately, living in a small town makes it difficult to make enough money for most of us to live. We want the small town connectivity and feel in the middle of an urban environment.” Bright Realty accomplished its mission. The community features stately homes priced from the high $200,000s to more than $3 million set in a friendly, active neighborhood with more than 20 parks, ponds and amenity centers. It won the 2012 “Community of the Year” by the National Association of Home Builders. Castle Hills earned the same award in 2007 and ’11 from the Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas. It’s a place where families live in peace. Where children walk to the park to play. Where neighbors stop and talk to each other. It’s a little slice of Mayberry perched in the shadows of one of the biggest cities in America. The only thing lagging was the community’s golf course. The perception of it being upscale was so far gone by 2010 that it finally provided Bright his reality check. It was time to make drastic changes. “We did not believe the course was being maintained in a way that was consistent with the neighborhood,” he said. “The course wasn’t presented in a way that was helpful to the overall community and development.” Bright bought the club in October 2010. His first order of business was to bring in his own management team. A lifelong member at Dallas Country Club, where every member’s needs are met, Bright realized he wouldn’t get the kind of service and oversight the club deserved from large-scale management groups. Instead, he would oversee it himself by hiring the best available general manager
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The Lakes at Castle Hills
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in the business. No longer would he outsource the daily operations. Charlie Adams, a former SMU golfer and one of Bright’s Saturday morning playing partners at DCC, is a longtime friend of Hank Haney. Adams facilitated a meeting between Bright and Tiger Woods’ old teacher. On a cold December day, the two men walked the course at Castle Hills and Haney asked Bright about his intent with the club. Bright told Haney of his plans to catapult The Lakes at Castle Hills to a level on par with the best clubs in the Metroplex. Bright wanted playing conditions and service to reach Vaquero Club heights. That struck a chord with Haney, a Vaquero member and resident. “At the end of the meeting,” Bright recalled, “Hank said, ‘You don’t really need me. You have your vision of what you want to do. You just need someone to tell you it’s OK to do that. I’m telling you that it is. If you have this vision and the resources to get it done, then that’s what you should do.’” Haney also told Bright to accomplish the mission he needed a superstar general manager to run the business and the best superintendent available. Haney then recommended Chris Martinez for GM and Brian Honea for superintendent. Martinez had been seasoned in the art of catering to every member’s whims right here, right now for years. With a resume that includes positions with Four Seasons Resorts in Las Colinas, Vaquero Club and elite private communities of El Dorado Golf & Beach Club and Querencia in Cabo San Lucas, Martinez is more than well-schooled in running exclusive clubs that provide infallible service. Honea’s background was no less impressive. He was the superintendent at the finely manicured all-men’s club at Preston Trail from 1994-2000 before moving to Gentle Creek Golf Club in Prosper for the next seven years.
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The Lakes at Castle Hills
With Martinez and Honea on board at The Lakes at Castle Hills, Haney couldn’t resist buying in as well. He put his name on the club’s expansive golf academy, which includes a 510-yard natural turf (no mats) driving range and a 12,000-squarefoot green for putting, chipping and bunker practice. The academy also features indoor hitting bays with state-of-the-art technology for motion-capture analysis and custom club-fitting. One of the most unique elements of the academy, situated about 700 yards southwest of the main ‘With the great support of Bright Realty in creating truly a clubhouse, is the three-hole practice course. Complete world-class golf facility, coupled with the latest teaching with an uphill par 3, a technologies, we have a chance to make learning golf a narrow, downhill par 4 and great experience here at The Lakes at Castle Hills. We are 600-yard par 5, each features oversized greens with three proud to include The Lakes at Castle Hills Academy as one pin placements. Golfers can of our premier teaching and training centers in Texas.’ loop the course multiple —Hank Haney times and play to different colored flags to hone their games away from the traffic on the main course. Haney, a former SMU golf coach and longtime Dallas resident, was so proud of his academy at The Lakes at Castle Hills that he had The Golf Channel film episodes of The Haney Project there. “With the great support of Bright Realty in creating truly a world-class golf facility, coupled with the latest teaching Parker, the perfect fit for The Lakes’ director of golf, said his technologies, we have a chance to make learning golf a great team’s mission is pretty simple. experience here at The Lakes at Castle Hills,” Haney said. “We “We want you to have fun and leave your worries behind,” he said. are proud to include The Lakes at Castle Hills Academy as one “From the moment you drive in the parking lot, we have someone of our premier teaching and training centers in Texas.” paying attention to all your needs. From the valet until the end of the Last May, Bright Realty closed the club completely. It began day, we have you in good hands. We don’t want to be the same as wholesale renovations with a promise of re-opening as an upscale Vaquero, but if we’re mentioned in the same conversation as them, semi-private club that would eventually go fully private. then that’s awesome. They’re the leaders in this area for the member Former members like Williams had heard that story before. experience and customer service. That’s what we’re aiming for here.” “I was certainly watching from the sidelines,” he said. “I even Head pro Scott Fahey came over from Stonebriar County Club, went down and played before they shut it down. They already had where Martinez also served as Director of Golf for a short stint. new staffing. I saw an immediate and high-end customer service “The ownership has been incredible,” Fahey said. “They are orientation. It made me raise my eyebrow. I said, ‘This sure feels committed to putting out the best product possible. It’s great for our different.’” members that the owners are willing to spend the time and money Martinez brought in two more big guns to fill the director of to make this a premium golf facility.” golf and head professional positions. Martinez had worked with To date, Bright Realty has put in more than $3 million in capital Dan Parker at Vaquero Club in Westlake and El Dorado in Cabo improvements, including all new maintenance equipment and a fleet San Lucas. Like Martinez, Parker had extensive experience workof Club Car’s top-of-the-line Precedent carts with touch-screen GPS ing for Mike Meldman at Discovery Land Properties, a company (you can email your scorecard to yourself or a friend), overhead storthat specializes in the highest-end luxury golf communities. age compartments and ball and club washers. Several other significant
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view more of the course. “We wanted a cleaner feel,” Honea said. “So we cleaned up all the exterior parts of the golf course that had grown up. Now you can see the whole course from where you are.” Clean is the perfect word to describe the new look of The Lakes. Every surface area—from the edging on tee boxes, cart paths, even the aprons between the fringe and the putting surface—is pure and seamless. The more modern and fresh look of the golf course isn’t the only reason why The Lakes at Castle Hills is now charging $130 to play it during the week and $160 on weekends. There’s a litany of enhancements around the club and in its atmosphere. The Lakes is on pace to do only about 15,000 rounds this year, and that’s just fine with management. “We’re focused on quality, not quantity,” Martinez said. Memberships go for $25,000 with monthly dues of $250. Once the club reaches 175 members—they’re at about 30 percent of that now—the doors will close and The Lakes at Castle Hills will be fully private. Bright said he plans to cap the membership at 450. For now, however, the public can play the plush course and
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improvements are ongoing with more in planning stages. After consulting Carter Morrish, the son of the original course architect and a member of Jay Morrish’s design team, Bright and Martinez started by renovating three and adding five lakes and most recently three tee boxes. The most significant of the water feature additions is apparent on the 12th hole. Bright and Martinez enhanced the 601-yard downhill par 5 by adding not one lake, but four of them. Each lake adjoins the next with cascading waterfalls framed by large rocks. Once a rather non-descript par 5, the beauty of the water features transformed it into one of The Lakes stunning signature holes. Construction is underway between the fifth and sixth holes to create another set of cascading lakes. “When we’re finished, 17 of the 18 holes will have water,” Martinez said. “It’s all about making the experience better and more memorable for our members and guests. This course always had tons of potential. We’re just now realizing it.” The three new tee boxes are being added to modernize The Lakes and give it more length. The par-3 seventh will stretch from 207 to 228 yards; the par-4 11th goes from 370 to 407 yards, and the par-5 18th
will grow from 522 to 570 yards. Maxed out, the course could play up to about 7,700 yards. Most members and guests will never see it from that length, Bright noted, but the new tees give flexibility to the Northern Texas PGA, Texas Golf Association, and other governing bodies when setting up for their championships. Two of the more striking changes at The Lakes concern something you’ll see in the bunkers and something else you won’t see much of anywhere. First, Honea and his grounds crew redid all the bunkers on the course and replaced the sand with highend “premium white” crushed quartz. It’s the same angular, heavier rock used at Colonial Country Club, one that rain water slides off more easily and sticks to the steep walls so that the traps maintain their integrity. As for what you won’t see, Honea cleared out more than six acres of brush from between trees and around the course perimeter. The clearing—Honea said he’ll take out another six acres of undergrowth before he’s finished— created a “park effect” throughout the course. Honea also trimmed most of the trees to about the six-foot mark, which allows the course to “breathe,” while golfers can
SP8 / MAY 2012 TEXAS LINKS
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The Lakes at Castle Hills
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The Lakes at Castle Hills 699 Lady of the Lake Blvd. Lewisville, TX 75056 www.thelakesatcastlehills.com 972-899-7400 Designer: Jay Morrish General Manager: Chris Martinez Director of Golf: Dan Parker Opened: 1998 Re-Opened: September 2011 Fairways: 419 Bermuda Greens: MiniVerde Bermuda Par: 72 Yardage: 7,152 yards (Turret tees) 6,607 (black tees) 6,191 (silver tees) 5,481 (bronze tees) Rates: $130 weekdays; $160 weekends. Price includes valet, golf cart, GPS, unlimited range, food and non-alcoholic beverages.
‘It’s a place my son and I can go and be comfortable and welcomed. The staff takes care of you. It’s a great customer experience. Everyone you run into greets you by name and makes you feel welcome. It feels like a new culture, and the mission seems to be making the customer happy. That’s something that drives loyalty.’ —Scott Williams, Member, The Lakes at Castle Hills
experience member-like service. The entire culture has changed at the club, and it starts before guests leave their cars. Valet is included in the green fees, as is unlimited food and beverage. The army of staffers has a singular directive: Cater to whims of every visitor. “From the moment they get on the property, we don’t want golfers to pick up their bags unless they want to,” Parker said. “Golf is hard enough. We don’t want our members or guests to have to worry about anything but hitting their ball.” During their trip around the challenging, yet playable course, guests will notice another change. Bright re-branded the image of the club to be consistent with the surrounding community. His dad, Bum, had a passion for the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and the street names inside Castle Hills reflect it. The Lakes clubhouse, for instance, is on Lady of the Lake Boulevard.
The theme now carries over to the course. The tee markers are swords stuck in stones, save the back tees, which are turrets. The tee box area for the first hole—a short, tree-lined par 4 called “Excalibur”—has a life-sized sword impaled into a stone. The popular 15th hole, a par 4 that plays just 329 yards from the turrets, was dubbed “Sir Percival” after one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. Many of the holes on the rolling terrain at The Lakes require thought off the tee. The 15th can be played in any number of ways: short-iron, short-iron; hybrid, wedge; or driver and take your chances. “The 15th is my favorite hole out here,” Parker said. “I’ve made everything from a 2 to a 7.” Once golfers leave the expansive clubhouse—Martinez wants his members and guests focused only on golf. The full-time range attendant cleans clubs, lasers target flag distances and thoughtfully answers any questions about the course. The club is going away from
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using cart girls and will instead offer four precisely placed “Oasis Stations” stocked with snacks, drinks, sunscreen, Band-Aids, towels and even ice cream. “We don’t want any distractions on the course,” Martinez said. “Anything a golfer might need during the round is available at our Oasis Stations.” Williams, the one-time former member who re-joined, attests to that. He said the quality of course conditions is on par with such well-established club as Stonebriar and Gleneagles Country Clubs. The service, Williams added, was “unrivaled” compared to what he’s experienced elsewhere. “It’s a place my son and I can go and be comfortable and welcomed,” he said. “The staff takes care of you. They don’t nickel and dime you to death. It’s a great customer experience. It’s not just Chris Martinez and Dan Parker, either. Everyone you run into greets you by name and makes you feel welcome. It feels like a new culture, and the
mission seems to be making the customer happy. That’s something that drives loyalty.” Another critical element of the new experience is the food. Martinez said many golf courses have reputations of serving “bar food” and other less-than-stellar fare. The Lakes at Castle Hills wants to be different—better—and thus Bright hired nationally renowned executive chef Calbert McDonald to add restaurantquality flare to the all-inclusive cuisine. Formerly of the prestigious Hartford Club in Connecticut, Calbert is known for his creative use of fruit and vegetable garnish and lavish food sculptures. “Having Calbert on board to oversee our entire food operations is vital to what we are trying to achieve in the area of customer experience and satisfaction,” Martinez said. “Calbert is one of the best creative chefs I have ever seen.” In addition to the physical alterations to the course and culture
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throughout the club, there is plenty more to come. In September, Bright Realty breaks ground on a clubhouse expansion to create a 5,000-square-foot, two-story fitness center and golf teaching/development center, family-style resort pool, tennis courts; all are scheduled to open in May 2013. Ensuing construction phases call for tennis shop, a new cart barn and a complete clubhouse makeover that will include new locker rooms with card rooms, pro shop, spa, kids’ club and movie theater. Past that, Bright has plans to build 75 townhomes for purchase adjacent to the driving range between the clubhouse and the Hank Haney Golf Academy. “We’ll have two of those townhomes available for use by our members,” Martinez said. While Bright, Martinez and company work toward those lofty expansions, the club continues to work toward shedding the past
perception left over by previous management companies. The best remedy to experience the new reality of The Lakes at Castle Hills remains simple. Go see for yourself. Williams and his son Wesley did, and they’re two of the happiest golfers in the Metroplex. “What do I like the most? It’s a lot of things,” he said. “It’s the quality of the course conditions. It’s the friendliness and extreme attention to detail from everyone on the staff—right down to the driving range and cart attendants. Your cart is ready and waiting with your clubs before you get here. They know you’re coming before you get there. There is a standard they follow and they try to cater to unique needs of their customers. They make you feel special.” That’s a reality that would make any member proud. TL
The Bridges at Castle Hills is a premier retail, dining and entertainment mixed-use project just north of The Lakes off Highway 121. Completion is expected in mid-2014.
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While Bright Realty has already completed many of its renovations, it still has many additional enhancements coming online in the next year to offer all the accoutrements of a high-end private club.
