Lochinvar Golf Club

Lochinvar Golf Club opened in 1980 among the tall pines and oaks near Houston, and it holds a special place in design history as the first Jack Nicklaus course built in Texas. Houston businessman Curtis Hankamer assembled the property and brought in Nicklaus, then early in his architecture career, to shape a walkable men's club away from the crowds. The layout plays over gentle terrain with wide fairways framed by overhanging limbs and water threading its edges, mixing a parkland feel with occasional links touches such as grass bunkering and rolling contours. Its best-known hole is a long par five with a snaking hazard down the left and a well-guarded green that dares players to go for it in two. The club has stayed low-profile and private.