FRISCO, TEXAS | The Miranda Lambert song coming out of the speakers by the two-acre putting green aptly named The Dance Floor spoke to her fondness of what also is my favorite hard liquor and how nobody loves her like tequila does. I smiled as I considered the can of Texas Ranch Water in my hand and the fact that its main ingredient was that very same spirit. This is a pretty good way to work on my flatstick play, I thought as I took another sip of that elixir. And it made for a very enjoyable sort of cocktail hour.
“Beau (Welling) and I designed both those for fun, and we had a lot of fun working together on it,” architect Gil Hanse said of the layout with holes varying in length from 45 to 100 yards. “So did our shapers. It was the first time Beau and I have ever collaborated, and I hope it is not the last.”
Other amenities at PGA Frisco include a sports bar and Lounge by Topgolf, a PGA Coaching Center that will provide lessons and custom fittings and various retail outlets one of which is a PGA Shop. There is also an indoor-outdoor venue called Ice House, which is modeled after the sorts of airy barns that rose around ranches throughout central Texas a century or so ago. In addition to offering a wide range of beers, wines and cocktails, it also boasts six hitting bays, so patrons can also bang balls onto an expansive practice range.
I easily can imagine after my round on the Fields Ranch East Course earlier this day and the hour or so I have spent on The Dance Floor how recuperative an early evening massage would be – and how much I would relish after that a proper rib-eye in Trick Rider...
Next up in the play-list queue is Willie Nelson, and I go back to my putting as I listen to him recount a particularly painful breakup in “The Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning.” Between strokes, I look over at the four-bedroom ranch houses going up behind the easternmost part of the green, and beyond them to the clubhouse and then the 500-room hotel. Omni officials say the design inspiration for these structures, as well as the meeting and event spaces, “leans heavily on clean architectural lines embellished with a mix of stone, wood and metals, resembling the modern ranch-style homes found throughout Texas.” That sounds about right to me as I gaze at what is taking form here. Truth be told, however, it is hard to get a real sense of what they will all look like when the work is done.
The same holds true for the spa and salon that will be a part of PGA Frisco and the 12 dining venues that will operate here. But I easily can imagine after my round on the Fields Ranch East Course earlier this day and the hour or so I have spent on The Dance Floor how recuperative an early evening massage would be – and how much I would relish after that a proper rib-eye in Trick Rider, which will be the upscale dining option here, or a beer and a burger in the Ryder Cup Grille.
That would make what already has been a pretty good golf day even better.
Top: The Dance Floor