“Forget about the golf, pretend it doesn’t even exist here; this is going to be one of the finest resorts anywhere in the state or the country, for that matter,” says Blake Rowling, whose holding company, TRT, owns Omni Hotels and Resorts and who personally guaranteed the $525 million for the project.
It will be hard to totally forget about golf because come May 2, 2023, this 660-acre former empty pasture in far North Frisco, Omni PGA Frisco, will bring together a world-class resort and golf on a size and scope never before seen in this region — or just about anywhere else.
The massive complex will include everything: two championship golf courses, a 500-room Omni Resort, 13 restaurants, entertainment and golf venues, plus shopping, offices and even a three-mile walking track to work off all that fun. Plus, everything in the vast facility will be open to the public, and Frisco residents, whose city owns the land where everything is located, will receive a discount on golf.
It will be still harder to forget because the PGA has already scheduled 26 major golf tournaments here, including the PGA Seniors Championship, which will take place this May; two future PGA Championships, one of golf’s four major championships; and a likely upcoming Ryder Cup match, one of golf’s biggest events between the U.S. and Europe.
The project officially got underway in early 2019 with an agreement between the city of Frisco, the PGA and TRT/Omni and continued through the global pandemic and now-booming recovery. But the complex deal was nearly a decade in the making since the Northern Texas PGA started looking for an urban golf park to aid their impressive junior golf program, which had produced major golf champions like Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris.
The deal didn’t happen right away but ultimately came together through the tireless work, contacts and funding of three main individuals: Northern Texas PGA executive director Mark Harrison; Frisco attorney David Ovard, who came up with the original idea of his town having its own golf course for local schools and residents; and Rowling, who teamed up with his billionaire father, Robert Rowling, to fund the hotel and golf project, along with the restaurants and event space.
Blake Rowling, who has a foursome of young kids himself and is a huge golf fan, says the idea of funding the Omni PGA Frisco project came from a trip he took with his family to South Texas. “We took the kids down for a resort, did the water park and the pools and had a big time, but it’s a long way down there. I was thinking, why don’t we have this here in North Texas?”
As a golf fan, Rowling was sold, knowing that there hadn’t been a major golf championship in Texas since the 1960s. But as someone in the hotel and resort business, he saw potential.
“From a hospitality perspective, there is a lack of resorts here,” says Rowling. “There are a ton of resorts in the Central Texas area, but not here, so with the lack of resorts here in the dead center of the country, with the proximity of DFW and Love Field airports and what’s going on in Frisco, it made total sense.” Rowling is bullish — and with good reason, adding, “This is a flagship project where golf will be available to all, plus the entertainment aspect of this campus, aside from the 18-hole golf courses, will be exceptional, and people will be drawn here who have never picked up a golf club.”
Jeff Smith, the regional vice president and general manager of the new Omni PGA Frisco Resort, agrees that while the public golf and the PGA Championships it brings to the site will get much of the outside attention, the vast majority of the people who stay in the 500-room resort, with 49 suites, four pools, a huge spa and 10 ranch houses, may have little to no interest in golf.
“This has to work with everybody, non-golfers and golfers, to have a great experience,” says Smith. “Some may like golf, some may not, but that’s OK. It will be an incredible place for everyone.”
“It’s an entertainment district unlike anything in DFW, especially anything surrounding golf,” he adds.
The resort and outdoor PGA Village will have 13 restaurants open to all, including the high-dollar Trick Rider steakhouse located in the hotel with a huge 1,500-pound, 4,000-piece crystal horse statue that came over from Europe and was assembled on-site. There will also be a Ryder Cup Grille in the golf clubhouse, named for the PGA’s most famous event, which is to be held in Frisco as part of the master agreement, likely in 2041, provided certain financial metrics are met. Other restaurants include an outdoor Ice House, Lounge by Topgolf and The Apron, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with Margaret’s Cones & Cups, The Toast and Tee Coffee Collective, the Green Cactus Cafe, two pools bars (there are four pools in total, including one on the roof of the hotel) and Fields Overlook, located between the front nine holes on the Welling-designed Fields Ranch West course.
All of this is designed to draw local Collin County residents and other visitors to the sprawling complex for a good time — and maybe to discover the game of golf.
“It’s a resort destination, not a golf destination, but still very golf-centric,” Rowling says. “We will have golfers from all over the world come here, but also golf-centered Fortune 100 companies, where there may be only 10 golfers, but we want to make sure it’s still the place for them.”
TRT Holdings and the Rowlings personally guaranteed more than a half-billion dollars to see the project come alive, even through a global pandemic that shut down hotel construction for a year; that, explains Rowling, was the only way the Frisco City Council would go forward with the deal. Other parties put in millions as well.
According to Frisco attorney David Ovard, who was instrumental in the deal, Frisco contributed $35 million in bonds, along with changing the direction of Legacy Road so it would go around the course and not through it — something former Frisco city manager George Purefoy later confirmed. The Frisco Independent School District added a few million more to allow themselves a dedicated practice facility and the ability to access the courses for some of their matches. Both the PGA of America and the Northern Texas PGA raised money on their own to fund their modern, new on-site headquarters, but Omni, the City of Frisco and the FISD funded everything else.
“That’s just it,” says Harrison. “We don’t have any money in the golf course, not one cent.” But the stay-and-play golf packages are likely to be popular, and the Northern Texas PGA has an army of pros with access to members who like to travel. With everything open to the public — including the NTPGA Golf Park, The Ronny, at times — it will, no doubt, be a smash hit.
“Negotiating the deal certainly paid off in the end,” adds Purefoy. “Our motto is also ‘nothing seems too big to happen in Frisco.’”
The individual groups — the school district, the Community Development Corporation, where Ovard’s wife, Wren Ovard, was a member, and the city — all voted on the project, along with a thorough vetting from the Texas Attorney General. But as with the recently announced Universal Studios project just a couple of miles from the PGA Frisco facility, there was no citywide vote on the project.
“I don’t know how you could do a project this big if you had to take a vote on everything,” says Purefoy.
But there were plenty of roadblocks as well, and the biggest came when Frisco insisted that the PGA of America pay for emergency services during its premier events, something they were not used to doing in the past.
“We had a big meeting at City Hall; the PGA said, this is very important to us, and the city council also said, this is very important to us,” says Ovard. “They both looked at me and I said, ‘Guys, we don’t have any agreement on this.’ Finally, the PGA agreed to pay for this.”
“If we set a precedent with them, if we blinked dealing with them, we would have faced something else the next time,” Purefoy adds.
Heck, Jerry Jones thought he had a pretty strong argument against paying for emergency services, but, as Purefoy points out, even the Cowboys owner ended up paying for it.
But finally, the dealing, hard work, money-raising and vision-casting will pay off in early May when the entire facility opens to the public, local and worldwide, when the 1,000 employees, the majority from North Texas, welcome customers to a game-changing sports and entertainment facility.
“The vision on this from the PGA and others is just incredible; from one course to two, from a [PGA] headquarters to a resort to championship golf and entertainment,” says Smith. “It’s really just amazing.”
“This whole project has meant a lot to me and my kids and family,” Ovard adds. “I don’t usually toot my own horn and talk about what is in my background, but this is something I’m very excited and proud of.
“If you create a tax revenue generator like PGA Frisco, you will keep taxes low. We had to do some education with people and show them the benefits of the project, but we project all the tax revenues which the City of Frisco put in will be paid in seven years.”
Blake Rowling has done deals with his father throughout his entire life, including the nearby Omni at The Star in Frisco, but says this one will become a legacy for Frisco, Collin County and all of North Texas for years to come. “The people are not coming because they are golfers, per se, they are coming because that’s where the meeting is, that’s where the action or the entertainment is, and it will be a real game changer for North Texas.” And if they aren’t coming for the links but end up loving golf, even better.
