Courtesy of PGA Frisco (3)
Since opening for play not quite two and a half years ago, PGA Frisco has been one of the focal points of the golf world. And that circumstance is unlikely to change any time soon.
Even before its East and West courses were completed, the resort, which serves as headquarters of the PGA of America in Frisco, Texas, was scheduled to host a plethora of championship events through 2034.
In late May of 2023, just weeks after it formally opened, the East Course was the setting for the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. The following year, it hosted the PGA Professional Championship and, this past May, it was the site of the much-discussed KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Now, Roger Meier is ready for what’s next: the 2027 PGA Championship and an assortment of other high-caliber tournaments in years to come, including a second Senior PGA Championship in 2028 and the return of the PGA Championship in 2034.
Meier’s title is senior director of golf course maintenance operations. His team of 85 includes Brcye Yates, the managing director of golf courses and grounds, East Course superintendent Nick Zickefoose and West Course superintendent Kyle Bunney.
Meier himself has worked for the PGA of America since 2010. He was originally hired to manage Valhalla, in Louisville, but moved to Texas in November 2019. He was involved in the construction of both golf courses at PGA Frisco — the East designed by Gil Hanse, the West by Beau Welling.
“My biggest part was really construction methodology,” Meier says. “What things were going to look like, from irrigation, to drainage, sand trapping, grass selection. They leaned heavily on me for that, but that I was also relying heavily on our partners here; Omni Hotels and Resorts, and Scott Abernathy, the CEO and director of agronomy, building a relationship with him and working together on how we were going to execute this. It’s a very, very challenging site, with a flood plain and very heavy soils.”
What made PGA Frisco suitable for championship play immediately after opening?
While the golf courses were theoretically ready for play in 2022, the rest of the property’s infrastructure was not because of COVID-19-related delays. The grand opening was slated for the spring of 2023, and the golf courses remained idle in the interim save for limited play for stakeholders, allowing Meier and his team to do some fine tuning.
The eighth hole of Fields Ranch East.
“Quite frankly, it was actually very beneficial for us on the golf course side of things,” Meier says. “My goal with the team was, let’s make sure we hit the benchmarks that were set for us originally. We actually did play a little bit of golf in the fall of ’22, a little preview with some key stakeholders. But it was a benefit for us. It was advantageous because we basically had a year, the golf course was grown in and it gave us a year to do some really good agronomic work.
“It was closed, we had no play and so we had free rein to do what we needed to do: finish grow in, take care of the finer details, extra topdressing, verticutting, those types of key agronomics to get us in a really good position for when we opened the doors. It was very beneficial for us to basically extend it a year of extra growing and maturing. Most golf courses are on a pretty tight schedule, a 12- or 15-month construction schedule, where you’re growing in, construction, growing, and open the doors, and you come out of those situations with a lot of stuff that still needs to be tended to. It gave us a great opportunity to polish the penny, so to speak.”
Between the two golf courses, the team maintains approximately 150 acres of turf and four acres of sand.
Both courses feature TifEagle Bermuda greens and NorthBridge Bermuda elsewhere.
“We did a lot of homework on that,” Meier says. “The NorthBridge is a relatively newer grass. I think it’s starting to get some traction. It was bred at Oklahoma State University.”
Among NorthBridge’s key characteristics is a tolerance for colder temperatures. Cold tolerance was a priority for Meier because of winter weather patterns. The property is situated roughly 30 miles north of downtown Dallas and weather conditions are challenging.
The first hole of Fields Ranch East.
“We can have huge temperature swings,” Meier says. “We have cold fronts coming out of the north that drop us below freezing in matter of 24 hours.”
Already, Meier is looking ahead to 2027 and an opportunity to host another PGA Championship. Preparations are already under way. At the top of the priority list is protecting a golf course that is open year-round and endures heavy play from unpredictable winter weather.
“We’re strategically putting a plan together for [2026],” Meier says. “What does that look like? As far as our ability to protect the golf course? Covering areas of the golf courses we need to cover. Protecting greens with covers but also other areas. We’re very exposed out here. It’s sort of a links-style golf course. We’re open, we’re exposed to the wind, and so wintertime is super critical for us.
“We’re hoping to be paying a lot of attention in the winter months to areas we need to protect to make sure we don’t face any winter injury or winterkill, because that’s a real threat here, a big concern. We’ve been paying a lot of close attention to that as well. Protecting the golf course in the wintertime is going to be really important.”
When the calendar turns to 2027, tournament preparations will ratchet up a notch.
“As we approach the event we’ll limit the amount of golf just so it’s manageable from a wear and tear standpoint,” Meier says. “And then we’ll work to have a closure a couple weeks before the event.
“It’s getting your frequencies, protecting the golf course leading into it, managing the play, managing the wear and tear on the golf course, protecting it from that standpoint, and then a couple weeks out it’s all about the frequencies, the repetition.
“You may be mowing fairways three days a week in a normal business. For a championship, you’re mowing every day if not twice a day. It’s just all about frequency and getting those playing surfaces really conditioned and groomed for those events.”
Rick Woelfel is a Philadelphia-based writer and senior Golf Course Industry contributor.
