In the annals of golf development, shiny new builds generate the lion’s share of attention. The fascination with modern, state-of-the-art golf courses boasting substantial yardage and renowned contemporary designers runs deep as a drive that appears to soar over an endless fairway towards an uncharted horizon.
Newly opened Fields Ranch, the centerpiece of Omni PGA Frisco Resort’s $520 million development in the Blackland prairies of North Texas, even landed a pair of majors, scoring the 2027 and 2034 PGA Championships months before the first tee shots were even hit.
But Dallas based TRT Holdings, the owner of the Omni hotel chain, seems to grasp the timeless truism that old gems can also sparkle anew. The fountain of youth being a major capital investment. The finishing touches on a $150 million property-wide upgrade currently being applied at the Omni Homestead Resort are set to be completed by the fall. The makeover spruced up all aspects of the grand ole hotel from gussying up the guest rooms to revamping the restaurants and making myriad façade improvements.
The major refresh coincides with the property’s highly touted Cascades Course, one of two eighteen-hole tracks on the property, celebrating its centennial this year. The mountain stunner wends through Falling Springs Valley in the foothills of the Allegheny range, taking players on a trip back to the golden age of golf back before bulldozers, when the grunt work of course construction was accomplished with horses and scrapers and a sloped setting meant challenging uneven lies would abound.
William Flynn, a golden age architect from the Philadelphia school of golf course design, was the mastermind behind the course. A maverick with a background in agronomy and construction, he brought a rare 360 degree view of course creation and innovation—he holds the patent for the famous wicker basket pins used at Merion.
