Houston golfers have to find an alternate place to work on their swing this winter
A Houston city ordinance finalized last week authorized $1.52 million in renovations for the Memorial Park Golf Course Driving Range. The work will be funded in partnership with the Astros Golf Foundation. Houston officials told Chron the driving range at the Memorial Park Golf Course is expected to close as early as the end of November and as late as mid-December. The repair timeline is more uncertain. If Houston can avoid a rainy winter, repairs can be completed as quickly as eight weeks. Suffer wet weather, and the renovations could last “as long as three months.”
The driving range at Memorial Park Golf Course debuted alongside a host of other course improvements and additions in 1995, nearly 50 years after the course first opened in 1947. Three decades later, the driving range is now “in critical need of repair,” per the ordinance. “Prolonged heavy rainfall,” in Houston created “severe ground sloping,” which was exacerbated by, “insufficient drainage and irrigation infrastructure.” A string of repairs will now follow, including:
- Regrading the driving range floor to soften severe slopes and improve surface water runoff
- Installing new drainage infrastructure to enhance subsurface drainage and water flow
- Replacing the irrigation system to ensure consistent and effective moisture management
The late-October ordinance also notes the entire 12.5-acre floor of the driving range will be drained, irrigated and sodded, then replaced with new, more solid footing. Houston moisture wreaked havoc on one of the city’s oldest and most-popular driving ranges in recent decades. Months of repairs are now necessary.
Memorial Park Golf Course hosted the PGA Tour’s Texas Children’s Houston Open in March, and the course also hosts a variety of charity and local golf events each year. The Astros Golf Foundation will act as the “Range project manager” for the impending renovations, handling payment for contractors and various other project costs…