For Jack Burke Jr., it is not enough for the Champions Golf Club
merely to possess two of the Southwest’s most admired golf courses. For a club
to be worth its salt, it first and foremost must succeed as a club. Members and
employees alike must be totally committed to making every aspect of the club as
good as it can possibly be. From the pro who’s giving a lesson to the assistant
selling a sweater to the locker room bartender mixing a scotch and soda, he or
she must possess dedication and zeal. Yet Burke demands exactly that from his
members as well.
Champions isn’t a club where members fly in once or twice a year
and barely interact with one another. Rather, it’s a club where the members take
pride in their comradeship, their golf ability (275 men play to single-digit
handicaps) and their passion for the spirit of the game (many members walk and
carry their own bags, even in summer).
Champions was the brainchild of two of the finest professional
golfers the game has produced, Burke and Jimmy Demaret. Burke waged an
incredible campaign in 1956 when he won both the Masters and the PGA
Championship, but already he was weary of life on the road, of driving endless
miles and sleeping at anonymous motels. He wanted to find something to do that
would be fulfilling, yet would keep him home more with his wife and
children.
Burke hooked up with fellow Houston resident Demaret, a three-time
Masters champion and one of the most popular golfers in history. Their shared
was to bring a first-class, large-scale golf club to Houston.
Late in 1956, the duo purchased 500 acres of densely forested land
some 20 miles north of downtown Houston. In those days, there was absolutely
nothing within miles of the site, except for more oaks, more pines and more
sweetgums. Yet somehow they knew the city would grow out to meet their 500-acre
plot. They chose architect Ralph Plummer, but they left nothing to fate. They
hit countless shots in the dirt, from every potential tee box in every kind of
wind to gain a full measure of the course’s playing value before it was even
grassed. The course opened for play in 1959 and was an instant success.
Cypress Creek was named for a natural water feature which snakes
through the property, notably affecting play at holes 4 and 13. Perhaps the most
amazing design feature was its total absence of sand bunkers. Not one was in
play on opening day.
Influential friends such as Ben Hogan and Dan Jenkins were early
proponents of the course and club and in short order, Champions attracted the
1966 Houston stop on the PGA Tour, the 1967 Ryder Cup and the 1969 U.S. Open,
won by Orville Moody.
Overall, the course is flat, and the most pronounced feature is
the huge, gently rolling greens. Burke says, plain and simple, the course favors
long hitters and good putters. Champions opens with a bang, throwing a pair of
par 4s in the 450-yard range right off the bat.
The marquee hole on the front side is the par-3 4th, which can
stretch to 230 yards and plays over and alongside a curvature of Cypress Creek.
The back nine opens and closes with monstrously long par 4s, but in the middle
is Champions’ version of Amen Corner, and it’s a dandy.
The club’s other course, the George Fazio-designed Jackrabbit, is
considered by some as the tougher of the two. Nevertheless, Burke partner
Demaret acknowledge that having a pair of outstanding courses and a superior
practice facility was only part of the equation. What they set out to do was to
create a club worthy of bearing the name “Champions.” They have succeeded
admirably.
Cypress Creek Course
Par: 71
Yardage: 7,301
Year founded: 1958
Architect: Ralph Plummer
Jackrabbit Course
Par: 71
Yardage: 7,021
Year founded: 1964
Architect: George Fazio
