From the space race to a cattle ranch.

From the space race to a cattle ranch. The amazing story of a designer who is reshaping the rules. 

The title of this blog is the introduction to a published profile about my past and our current work.  One never knows what a reporter is writing when talking over the phone, but Shaun got pretty close.

"Wolf Point is a fast-running teaser that brings to mind the best that the great old links can conjure up."  

"But the silver lining in this raincloud is that Mike Nuzzo has been unearthed.  A designer who brings a progressive practicality to the table and does so with great success."  

Click this link to read it in its entirety.

High praise from our recent visitor

The following is a message from our recent visitor and includes a message he forwarded on to a past partner:

G’day Adam & Paul, many thanks to you both for stimulating me to make it down to Wolf Point. WOW! It is kind of cruel that Mike’s first work, can’t be seen by enough people to catapult his career, but hopefully our project will do that for him!

I visited the most fabulous golf course in the middle of nowhere 90 mins from Houston, to meet with and review the architect’s work. It is called Wolf Point. It’s a non-descript, very plain property, where a aerospace engineer named Mike Nuzzo threw in his career to pursue his passion for golf course architecture and has, in my opinion, massaged enough movement in the landscape and tilts around the greens, to create a rival to Riviera, Kingston Heath and the Old Course as lessons in golfing greatness on flat, small properties.  And it was built for less than our last project and made very effective use of a wandering ravine and some nice stands of Oaks to create a must-play.

It is a golfing masterpiece. The course is magnificently & reasonably maintained for its clientele -- genius!


Many thanks to you Mike for reinspiring me towards great golf architecture!


Below is our visitor hitting a green side recovery to the 9th hole.  Be careful to keep it on the green from that angle towards the hole.

Take your daughter to the golf course week.

The PGA of America and the National Golf Course Owners Association are encouraging everyone to introduce daughters, granddaughters and nieces to the game of golf during Take Your Daughter to the Course Week, July 9-15. More than 1,000 participating facilities across the country will offer free green fees to girls accompanied by a paying adult, with many facilities also offering free clinics for young ladies.


Great idea, but it is kind of like telling parents to validate to their kids.  Every golf course should encourage children, daughters, women, seniors regularly -- some more than others.  But in general, children aren't welcomed at most courses.  There is no appropriate course for me to take my daughters to play in Houston - a fun pitch -n- putt.  (I did blow up an un-fun one and built a cool golf center in its place: Swanson's).


Thankfully I do on occasion get to take them to a course we built on the coast. There is lots of room for them to play. It is great to see them have fun enjoying all different aspects of the experience.

Validation of Wolf Point's double green at 8 & 18

Recently I had a business round at Wolf Point.  We play the 8th as a warm up hole to get to the first tee.  The 8th and 18th share one large 14,000 sft putting surface.  In describing my hesitation to build a double green, he said "it would have been silly not to have done so".  There have been so many gimmicky, goofy, ugly and unplayable double greens built in the modern era.  


It turns out that our double green was going to prove it's authenticity today. Pictured below was the first time we played the green on our regulation round.  My guest is putting from the 18th green towards my ball near the 8th hole.  His shot drew a little too much and the swale exaggerated his miss.  I took the pic mid shot, he wound up inside my ball.  Nice pars.
(click the pictures for the bigger versions)

On the last hole of the day my approach ran a little long into the swale and my guest's ran quite a bit further, again the swale exaggerating his miss.  Below is his next to last putt of the day, from the 8th green to the 18th hole.  Proof that this green complex is no gimmick.  Both greens are in play from both holes.  Maybe next time we'll play to the opposite greens.