Hermann Park to close for a year, turned into a par 63 Course (front Par 3/back par 36)

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One of Houston’s most well-known public golf courses is getting a major facelift.

Hermann Park Golf Course will undergo a $30 million renovation, the city of Houston and the Astros Golf Foundation announced Aug. 7. This project will completely redesign the course itself and add a new driving range, club house, First Tee complex, adaptive golf learning facility and maintenance facility. Additionally, the project will include drainage upgrades and tree relocations at the golf course and along the walking trail.

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The project will be funded by the Astros Golf Foundation and the Hermann Park Conservancy and is in conjunction with the conservancy's 20-year master plan. The renovation is expected to break ground in September — pending Houston City Council approval — and the golf course is anticipated to reopen in October 2026. However, the driving range is expected to open prior to that, while the club house will open at a later date.

“It’s a project that’s bigger than the golf course,” Giles Kibbe, president of the Astros Golf Foundation, told the Houston Business Journal. “It’s a great improvement to Hermann Park as a whole.”

This is the second time the Astros Golf Foundation has invested millions into a local golf course. The organization led a more than $30 million renovation of Memorial Park Golf Course after Houston Astros owner and Chairman Jim Crane took over the Houston Open in 2018 with plans to move it to the park. The multiphase project included a redesign of the golf course, a new maintenance facility, storm water irrigation system, driving range and First Tee complex.

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In order to make room for all the improvements, the Astros Golf Foundation will completely redesign the Hermann Park Golf Course.

At 5,700 yards and sitting on 100 acres, the grounds are smaller than the average golf course of 6,600 yards on 120 acres, Kibbe said. Because of that, the front nine of the golf course will only be par 3s, while the back nine will be at the regulation length of 3,400 yards. The greens fees will not be increased as a result of the renovations, Kibbe said.

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“(Jim Crane) wants the average golfer, the beginning golfer and the really good golfer to go out to a city golf course, be able to pay low greens fees and play at a great golf course in first-class condition,” Kibbe said. “That’s what we’ve done at Memorial, and that’s what we’re going to do at Hermann Park.”

Like at Memorial Park Golf Course, the expanded driving range at Hermann Park Golf Course will help increase revenue, which will go toward maintaining the facilities in first-class condition, Kibbe said. Similarly, the Hermann Park course will feature a First Tee course, though it will be smaller than the one at Memorial Park.

In conjunction with the First Tee program, the renovation will add an adaptive golf learning facility in partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital. The facility will allow individuals of all ages being treated for, recovering from or dealing with major illnesses or injuries to learn and play golf, Kibbe said. Participants will be able to take a shuttle from the Texas Medical Center to the golf course in order to do so.

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