TXO (Wolf Point Ranch)

Wolf Point Ranch lies around ten miles inland from the small port town of Point Comfort, on the eastern shores of Lavaca Bay, where a large petrochemical plant dominates the skyline. In this rather industrial environment, it’s hard to imagine that a natural, largely lie of the land golf course exists less than a 15-minute drive away.

Houston-based Mike Nuzzo designed the 18-hole layout in 2007 for Al Stanger, a local rancher, setting out the fairways within a massive 1,600-acre property that enjoys only a couple of metres of elevation change across the entire site. Live oak trees and Keller Creek are integral parts of the routing, with the wandering water course having an effect on eight of the holes.

To add variety to a somewhat featureless landscape, sixty bunkers of various shapes and sizes were added, with almost half of these sand hazards positioned as fairway traps. Half the greens have no sand protection within ten metres of the putting surface and three other greens are completely devoid of bunkers.

The entire project cost around $3 million, with a third of that sum spent on irrigation. Long grass wasn’t used to penalize players as the design brief was to construct a golf course for the client that would be varied, interesting and challenging for him playing there every day.

The owner supplied his own heavy equipment crews and scrapers were hired to excavate a 14-acre lake, using the fill to create the small hill that the clubhouse now sits on. A bridge contractor was brought in to take care of several creek crossing points and a shaper worked for six months to create contours and tie the fairways into their surroundings.

Green sites are built from native sands, requiring minimal sub-surface drainage, with a specialized dwarf Bermuda grass chosen for putting surfaces which Tom Doak has called “the best set of greens in Texas”. Small tees are sited close to the preceding green and (no doubt delighting purists) there are no cart paths to be found on this easy walking layout.

Wolf Point’s owner, Al Stanger, sadly died in July 2016 due to injuries sustained following a fall. Since the accident, course maintenance was cut back and a 475-acre parcel (including the golf course) went on the market in January 2018 for $7,700,000, which seemed a small price to pay for a golf course dubbed the “St. Andrews of Texas” and only one of eighteen courses featured in Tom Doak’s “Gourmet’s Choice” in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses Volume 2.

In November 2019, GOLF's "expert raters" listed Wolf Point in the next fifty of its World Top 100 for 2020/21. Golf course rankings and ratings clearly create desire and sell properties; in February 2020 Wolf Point sold through Concierge Auctions LLC for almost $10.7 million. We believe that Zach Peed II, President of the Dormie Network, was the highest bidder and the property has recently been renamed "TXO".

Mike Nuzzo commented as follows: “Al found me on Google – he says he considered working with Greg Norman, but thought I’d be more attentive.

Dianna [Al's wife] surprised Al on their way into Houston for dinner by stopping at a golf store and picking up a gift of golf clubs – that was when he started playing again, this was 6 months before he called me.

It was Dianna’s idea for Al to build his own course. Al was working on the ranch taking down all the trash trees to make it as pretty as possible. He was essentially an operator working many hours a day clearing the ranch. He’d come home with tired hips and ready for bed.

One day Dianna said since you spend so much time out there clearing trees, why don’t you just have someone build you a golf course – it would seem to be more fun. Al loved the idea.

Wolf Point was by far my first original project, I did spend 6 years as an understudy/apprentice to other architects/builders/owners/superintendents.

I was the one that took Al’s notes of a course to play every day without wasting time looking for lost balls to mean St. Andrews, with wide fairways, and #2 Pine Valley was my favorite green in the world.

That was how I pitched Don Mahaffey, the general idea St. Andrews of Texas, not to actually build a St. Andrews.”