How A Texas Oil Billionaire Hit A Gusher In Hotels

06.04.2024 - 11:21 / forbes.com

The only beneficiary of Covid was golf,” shrugs Robert Rowling. Which is fortunate considering the $500 million that he invested into the game during the pandemic. “It’s one of those rare instances where reality transcends the vision,” he says of the Omni PGA Frisco, which he built between 2021 and 2023 on 660 acres on the former Fields Ranch in Frisco, Texas, 30 minutes north of Dallas by toll road.

The designers of the two championship courses, Beau Welling and Gil Hanse, left behind hints of the old ranch. Fence posts, gates and barbed wire sprinkle the 36-holes. Cart paths are crushed granite. Trickling through the courses, Panther Creek provides the topography for challenging play. The property includes a 500-room resort and spa, 10 guesthouses (Dolly Parton has already stayed in one), and a members-only clubhouse, all done in “Texas Modern” style. Since the spring of 2022, Omni has served as the headquarters of the PGA of America, the 30,000-member strong organization of teaching professionals (not to be confused with the PGA Tour, which solely focuses on professional tournaments).

“If you had told me thirty years ago that I would be building an Omni in Frisco, I never would have believed it,” says Rowling, a thin, tanned 71. But already they have hosted the Senior PGA Championship, and will have the Women’s PGA Championship in 2025, the PGA Championship in 2027, and Ryder Cup after that.

If you want to see the real action, says Rowling, watch the beginners — like the throng of kids swinging putters on a massive two-acre green called the Dance Floor. Nearby, the 10-hole, par-3 course is lit until 10 p.m.; its halfway house is a vintage truck painted turquoise sponsored by Casamigos tequila. On a warm February weekend this year Omni maxxed out its Ice House bar and grill, seating 700 parties. There’s typically a waiting list to rent out one of the six indoor practice range spots, which come with full food and beverage service. “At most places golf is an amenity. It’s different here. It will make money,” says Rowling, sipping on a frozen margarita from a styrofoam cup.

And these 660 acres are only the beginning. The resort will eventually anchor the $10 billion, 3,200-acre master-planned Fields Ranch development, financed by the family offices of Rowling’s Dallas billionaire friends Ray Hunt and Trevor Rees-Jones. It will feature 10,000 homes (including some $10 million mansions overlooking the course, already sold), a 600-unit condo tower (under construction), and 18 million square feet of retail and office space.

Omni Frisco is the latest megadevelopment from Rowling’s TRT Holdings, which the oilman founded in Dallas in 1989. The company has its fingers in a bunch of pies – it owned Gold’s Gym