Tapatio Springs Resort features plenty of elevation changes, and its high point of 1,900 feet makes the course a target for occasional fierce winds.

Six shooters Ted McClure

Several miles up Interstate 10 from Fair Oaks Ranch, another tournament venue, and about five miles deep into the woods lies Tapatio Springs Resort, a 20-year-old planned community complete with a hotel/conference center that caters mainly to group and corporate outings.

The foremost amenity at the resort is a 27-hole championship golf facility that poses a number of options and challenges for the player. At 1,900 feet, Tapatio Springs is easily the highest of the six GCSAA tournament courses, and the resort's three nines accordingly feature a lot of elevation changes, as well as an imposing array of post and red oak trees and the seemingly ever-present Frederick Creek.

"The lay of the land is what stands out here for the golfer," says Ted McClure, superintendent at Tapatio Springs the past 10 years. "And, we get quite a bit of wind up here that puts more demands on the shot-making."

Three-star golf
Designed by Bill Johnston, the Valley and Lakes nines opened with the resort in 1981. McClure came on 10 years later and re-grassed the greens to Tifdwarf. The third nine, the Ridge Course, was originally an executive short-course layout until it was revamped into a stunning full-fledged venue that reopened in the fall of 1999.

Although maintenance of the Valley and Lakes courses is basically straightforward, McClure's staff has a number of challenges at the new Ridge course. The greens feature the flashy MiniVerde ultradwarf and a seldom-used fairway cultivar, TifSport -- as well as an irrigation system that uses effluent water.

"Reclaimed water is the way a lot of us are going to have to go," says McClure, a 10-year GCSAA member who came to Texas by way of Tennessee's Cumberland Mountain region more than three decades ago. "Water has been a major factor up here like anywhere else around San Antonio the last five or so years. We just do the best we can until we get a rain."

But with the effluent come some problems, such as sodium buildup, McClure notes. Another maintenance challenge is an increasingly large herd of deer that call the resort property home. "They graze like cattle," he says. "They can give us some trouble during the overseeding germination."

GCSAA's event actually will be nothing new to McClure and his longtime top aide, Russell Stewart, who keep a veteran crew busy grooming both the three-course setup that has up to 65,000 rounds annually and the resort property itself.

"We're under the gun most of the time here because of large groups from the hotel and conference center coming to play," McClure says. "Our staff has a lot of things going on when you figure they have to take care of the courses, the clubhouse and hotel grounds, and the roadways and right-of-ways around here. We get pretty spread out at times."

Fueled by a number of large groups who take advantage of Tapatio Springs' hotel and conference center, nearly 65,000 rounds annually work their way over this 6,500-yard layout.

GCSAA hasn't decided which 18-hole configuration at Tapatio Springs will be used in the tournament. McClure says normally the route taken is the Valley course and one of the other two.

Parker place
McClure's career in golf course management, Texas style, began in 1972 shortly after graduating from Southwest Texas State. He was superintendent at Lago Vista Country Club, just west of Austin, for seven years and also ran an irrigation company at the same time. In 1979, he took the Austin Country Club job and another seven years later moved on to San Antonio's Horseshoe Bay Resort.

Now at Tapatio Springs nearly a decade, McClure, like The Quarry's Burger, owes much to the resort's owner, Jack Parker.

"I'm hoping this is the place to stay," says the 57-year-old McClure. "You have problems and challenges anywhere you go, but this has been a good place to work and it's been a lot easier because Mr. Parker is a great person to work for. Whatever you need, he's always willing to listen and do what he can to get it for you. As any superintendent knows, you can't beat that."