‘There’s nothing like it’: Harlingen transforms Tony Butler Golf Course into ‘championship’ venue

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HARLINGEN — After a year of construction, city officials are unveiling the iconic Tony Butler Golf Course’s $5.5 million transformation into a championship course running across more than 200 acres of vibrant greens, rolling fairways and sprawling water features.

The golf course’s biggest project in its 95-year history comes after about six years of planning and a series of setbacks amid soaring construction costs.

After former Mayor Chris Boswell’s administration planned the project, Mayor Norma Sepulveda’s office worked to fund its construction, aiming to draw more players to help pull the golf course out of a 10-year long deficit.

“They wanted a championship course — we got a championship course,” Jeff Hart, the golf course’s general manager who pushed for the project, told commissioners during a Wednesday meeting.

“It’s a difficult course,” he said. “It’s a much prettier course — and aesthetics mean a lot in a golf course.”

Opening on Nov. 23, the golf course is drawing record numbers of players, pulling in $54,675 during its first 10 days, Hart said.

“Everybody tells me they love it,” he said in an interview Thursday. “It’s basically the same layout but lots of changes. Everything’s pretty much new now.”

Hart, who’s overseen six golf course renovations during his career, said the project’s turned Tony Butler into the Rio Grande Valley’s finest course.

“I don’t think there’s anything like it in the Valley,” he said. “It’s a different design. It’s more like an English links course.”

”The course is much, much more of a challenge than it was before,” Hart said. “There are a lot of peaks and valleys. There are new water features. The ponds have been expanded. There are a lot more different shots required.”

Much of the project aimed to transform the golf courses’ greens, which Blume expanded from about 3,000 to 6,000 square feet, Hart said.

“They’re faster and much more undulated,” he said, pointing to new sand-based greens.

Across the greens, Blume installed paspalum turf, a salt-tolerant grass replacing champion Bermuda.

“The ball will hold better because the root structure goes straight down,” Hart said. “It’s not going to hit and bounce forward. It will hit and stop when it hits the greens.”

Along the greens, Blume designed five tee boxes, while the old course featured two.

“There are multiple sets of tee boxes, so it accommodates all skill levels,” Hart said.

As part of the design, Blume overhauled the golf course’s irrigation system, the project’s cornerstone, installing about 14 miles of underground, high-density polyethylene piping while replacing a 40-year-old network of leaking PVC pipe.

Meanwhile, a computerized central control system operates the new irrigation system.

Outside the pro shop, the course now features 74 new Yamaha golf carts.

Launching the project on Sept. 25 2023, the day officials closed the course, Missouri-based contractor Mid America Golf and Landscape completed construction in August.

Since then, Hart’s been working with city crews to touch up details while building about a mile’s worth of concrete golf cart paths.

“We’ve got a lot more work to do to get it in the shape we want,” he said. “We’re mowing it and rolling it. It just needs to grow in. The course still needs to mature. The roots need to grow deeper. By spring, we ought to see a lot of difference in the way the course is going.”

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