Seguin, Texas was looking for an experienced golf course architect to help guide them in the redesign of historic Starcke Park Golf Course on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Instead, they found three.
Once the proposal process was complete, the committee selected a unique collaboration of three golf course architects known for their creativity and successful track records: Brian Ross, Nathan Crace, and Todd Quitno have been given the official notice to start the project after the City Council approved their proposal in early March.
“Todd and I have been looking for a project where we could collaborate for a few years now,” said Crace, who is based near the Mississippi Gulf Coast as principal of Watermark Golf/Nathan Crace Design. “When this RFP came across my desk, I immediately called Todd and said ‘We need to see if Brian wants to collaborate on this.’ It felt like the perfect team for this project. When I visited and spoke with officials and some golfers at the course, it was easy to see everyone was excited about the project and committed to its success. I can’t wait to get back to Seguin and get started.”
“I live in Austin,” Ross said. “So I’m very familiar with the course and it’s a short drive from my office. Todd is great with the technical aspects of a renovation of this scope and how to make it work within a budget, and Nathan has over two decades of experience working with municipalities and public agencies. More importantly, we all share the same philosophy on design for a public course that sees the amount of play they see at Starcke Park and we understand how to blend creativity in the design without increasing long-term maintenance costs.”
Similar to the golf participation explosion since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, golf course renovation has spiked the last few years. As a result, the three architects say their firms are so busy with their own projects in different areas of the country, the Starcke Park project was the perfect opportunity for them to combine their strengths for the benefit of Seguin.
The three have known each other for years through their affiliation with the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Quitno and Crace are members of the ASGCA and Ross is a member of the ASGCA’s Tartan Program for architects who aim to apply for ASGCA membership in the next few years. The Tartan Program is a great opportunity for established architects to work with the next generation of golf course architects and younger architects to network with some of the best golf course architects in the world.
“I look forward to getting back to Seguin for the kickoff meeting so we can hit the ground running,” Quitno said from his Chicago office. “I visited the site with Brian several weeks ago and the people we met during our short visit were so engaging and full of enthusiasm for the improvement program, it was really inspiring. The site is great as well, with holes along the river and the heritage trees that frame many of the holes. It’s a really tranquil setting for a course that sits in the middle of a city.”
Originally designed in 1939 by Texas Golf Hall of Famer John Bredemus, Starcke Park Golf Course is an 18-hole par-71 layout carved through a pecan orchard on a bluff above the Guadalupe River. Many of the trees remain, helping to frame the holes that feature gently rolling fairways and elevated greens. Starcke Park is one of the last remaining true park-style golf courses in Central Texas and the only public course in a 20-mile radius of quickly growing Seguin.
A kickoff meeting for the project is scheduled for mid-March with planning expected to be ongoing through Fall 2023. If all goes well, the three hope to see construction begin in early 2025 with the course re-opening later that year.
For more information on the project, visit www.rossgolfarchitecture.com, www.quitnogolf.com, or www.watermarkgolf.com. For more information about the American Society of Golf Course Architects, visit www.asgca.org
