CASE STUDY: TENISON HIGHLANDS, CITY OF DALLAS, TEXAS

    In 2001, the City of Dallas realized the need to renovate and update its aging Tenison West Golf Course. The golf course, just minutes from Downtown Dallas and the convention center, had begun declining over the years and was not an option for convention business due to poor conditions. Poor drainage and irrigation, major turf issues, a single water source for irrigation, an absence of bunkers, numerous safety issues and a poorly-located golf cart facility equaled diminishing rounds, player dissatisfaction and excessive operational challenges.
     To address these issues, the public course hired Weibring-Wolfard Golf Design to provide a master plan for the future of the golf course. The plan included new routing, greens tees and bunkers, drainage and irrigation infrastructure, integrated lake system and re-configured staging area and golf cart facility. With the newly installed drainage system, the majority of the golf course drains into the lake storage system where it can be re-used thus eliminating most rain event closings. Using the Weibring-Wolfard Master Plan Process, the company’s design team completed the project on budget and on time.
     The newly named Tenison Highlands saw immediate results from the work completed by Weibring-Wolfard. The course’s elevated image allowed management to increase fees while maintaining a 50,000+ round level. With the increase, the course saw a greens fee revenue increase substantially after the renovation. The end results of the Weibring-Wolfard hands-on approach was the successful restoration of the Tenison Highlands golf course with newly implemented financially sound changes and improvements that directly and positively affected course economics.