| In 1900 there were only five Texas courses,
yet today there are over 900. The vast size of the state
combined with the wide-open spaces and the warm climate
have enabled the sport to boom here over the last 100
years. It’s been reported that today up to 6 million
people enjoy the game of golf in Texas. |
| 1895 |
Englishmen H.L. Edwards and Richard Potter
build a 6-hole course on a farm at the corner of Haskell
and Cole streets in Dallas. |
| 1896 |
Dallas Golf & Country Club, a 9-hole course with
sand greens, opens along Oak Lawn Avenue. |
| 1898 |
Galveston Country Club opens a 9-hole course with sand
greens where the San Luis Hotel now stands. |
| 1898 |
Austin Mayor Lewis Hancock leads a group that builds
a 9-hole course on the banks of Waller Creek in Austin,
the first of many locations for the Austin Country Club. |
| 1903 |
Houston Country Club is founded |
| 1906 |
Men’s amateur organizations and state championships
are established. Beaumont Country Club opens. |
| 1907 |
San Antonio Country Club founded |
| 1910 |
El Paso and Corpus Christi Country Clubs founded |
| 1911 |
Tom Bendelow builds Rivercrest Country Club in Fort
Worth |
| 1912 |
Tom Bendelow builds Lakewood Country Club in Dallas.
Glen Garden in Fort Worth opens |
| 1914 |
Corsicana Country Club opens. Temple and Taylor Country
Clubs are formed |
| 1916 |
Women’s amateur organizations and state championships
established. Texas’ first public golf course opens
in San Antonio with A.W. Tillinghast’s Brackenridge
Park |
| 1918 |
Paris Country Club opens (Paris, TX). San Antonio’s
Riverside Park course opens. |
| 1919 |
A.W. Tillinghast designs Cedar Crest Country Club in
Dallas |
| 1921 |
A.W. Tillinghast designs Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas |
| 1922 |
Texas PGA formed by John Bredemus and Willie Maguire.
Inaugural Texas Open held in San Antonio at Breckenridge
Park. First prize is $5,000. |
| 1923 |
Houston opens the public 16-hole Hermann Park Golf
Course. |
| 1924 |
Tenison Park and Stevens Park public courses open in
Dallas. |
| 1927 |
PGA Championship held in Dallas at Cedar Crest Country
Club. |
| 1936 |
Fort Worth’s Colonial Country opens after magnate
Marvin Leonard hires John Bredemus |
| 1941 |
Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth hosts the first
Texas venue to host the U.S. Open |
| 1944 |
Dallas’ Lakewood CC hosts the first Dallas Open,
won by Byron Nelson |
| 1945 |
Byron Nelson wins 11 consecutive tournaments and becomes
the AP’s Athlete of the Year for the second straight
year. |
| 1945 |
Houston Golf Association created |
| 1946 |
First Houston Open is held at River Oaks Country Club,
won by Byron Nelson over Ben Hogan. |
| 1948 |
The golf cart is invented at Houston Country Club. |
| 1949 |
North Texas State University, led by coach Fred Cobb,
wins the first of four NCAA championships. |
| 1951 |
LPGA hosts Weathervane Women’s Open tournament
at Dallas’ Lakewood CC. First prize is $750. |
| 1952 |
Dallas’ Northwood CC hosts U.S. Open, won by
Julius Boros. |
| 1954 |
Houston businessman Charles Washington takes first
golf shot by a black man at Memorial Park, breaking the
color barrier. |
| 1955 |
Former Duke fullback Mike Souchak breaks PGA’s
72-hole record with a 27-under-par 257 in the Texas Open
at Brackenridge Park, San Antonio. |
| 1959 |
Ben Hogan wins his final PGA Tour victory at Colonial. |
| 1963 |
23-year-old Jack Nicklaus endures a heat wave to win
the PGA Championship at Dallas Athletic Club. |
| 1967 |
Ryder Cup matches held in Houston at Champions Golf
Club |
| 1968 |
Lee Trevino wins the U.S. Open, the first of his five
major championships. |
| 1968 |
San Antonio’s Pecan Valley hosts PGA Championship,
won by Julius Boros. First prize is $25,000. |
| 1969 |
U.S. Open is hosted at Houston’s Champions Golf
Club, won by Orville Moody. |
| 1971 |
Ben Hogan plays his last round as a professional when
he injures his knee at the Houston Champions International. |
| 1975 |
Texas Lee Elder is the first black man to play in the
Masters tournament in Augusta, GA. |
| 1978 |
Texas Golf Hall of Fame established in the Woodlands,
TX. |
| 1978 |
Seeds for Senior PGA Tour established via the Legends
of Golf tournament organized by Jimmie Demaret and Fred
Raphael. |
| 1984 |
Ben Crenshaw wins the first of his two Masters titles. |
| 1985 |
LPGA Hall of Fame opens in Sugarland, TX. |
| 1987 |
University of Houston’s legendary golf coach
Dave Williams retires after producing more than 80 professional
golfers. |
| 1992 |
Tom Kite wins U.S. Open. |
| 1995 |
Legendary Austin CC pro and golf’s most famous
teacher, Harvey Penick, passes on, spurring Ben Crenshaw
to his miraculous second Masters title |
| 1997 |
Justin Leonard wins the British Open. |
