May 2, 2026 • 11 mins
Originally aired on May 2nd, 2026. Doug's insightful interview with Craig Hicks, for your listening pleasure.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As most of you already know, the decision was made
about a year and four months ago to change black
Horse Golf Club from two daily fee courses into one
daily fee the North and one private course the South.
And now that the dust has kind of settled from
the change, I wanted to bring in a man who
was part of that decision, the man who is general
(00:21):
manager of black Horse Golf Club, and that would be
mister Craig Hicks.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome aboard, Craig, Thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Man. Morning, Doug. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm doing all right.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
More importantly, how are you guys doing after the last
two days?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Geez? That is just brutal. There's not much so that
you love to do outdoors that doesn't get impacted by
some rain. And we got five and a quarter oh
my day, and that's the stuff. It's been a wet
spring so far, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Are you able to even get him out on cart
path only this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Or no? We did on the north course, the off
course not quite ready, you know, you're right there on
Cypress Creek.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, no, kidding, comes out of the bank.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
We were lucky last year didn't have that thing come
out of the bank at all. But this year we're
let's just say we're one for one here on this deal.
So pretty cool thinking about you this morning when I
was over there watching that. I'm over there looking that's
got fish, you know, one of the one of the
creeks spills out right there, just over the cart path
behind the eleventh Green.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, and a big old.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Fish flopping around right here on the cart path. Oh
my god.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, that is not something you see every day. Holy cow. Man.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Is there any hard and fast rule when you can
put carts back on fairways or is that something you
just have to monitor with eyeballs and footsteps.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah. I think it's definitely a feel thing, right, you
got to put you got to put eyeballs and people
out there to check it. Look. I always say that
there's probably sixty to eighty percent of people that you
wouldn't have any problem with. You could probably let everybody
off a little sooner, but there's always that Oh yeah,
you that just don't make the right decisions. Sometimes you
got to protect against that because at the end of
(01:59):
the day, you want to protect the product.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, and one one casual mistake by somebody who's not
paying attention can tear up a lot of turf real fast.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Can it? Certainly? Certainly can?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
All right, So let's let's go back a year and
a half when to win, somebody somewhere in Escalante first said,
you know what, let's make one of those black Horse
courses private. I think I know the answer, But what
was what was the motivation for that?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, I'd say, let's back up four and a half
years when I started. That was that was the goal
right four and a half years ago, probably even before
I before I became part of the club, to get
one of those one of those courses private, uh, specifically
the South Course, but just to be able to have
a place for in the Cypress area Bridgeland that a
(02:48):
member could call home and come out and play on
and be able to get on that golf course and enjoy.
And what we've done with that golf course this year
in January did a two million dollar bunk renovation, had
Trip Davis's architect team come down. Kyle with that team
just a brilliant mind to spend out there on the
golf course with him and see how he sees land
(03:10):
and sees shapes without without it being in existence, and
he puts it in his mind, and he draws it
on paper, and then he hands that paper to the
shaper and the shaper goes out there. This was so
cool to watch a shaper going use an excavator. He
actually edged a sprinkler head with an excavator. I mean,
it was just the precision that he's got have. But
(03:33):
they just wrapped that project up and so we got
brand new bunkers with revetted edges, with the stack of
Zoisa going up. The best way I can describe it
is when you watch the Open Championship and you see
those spaces that just look like they've got stacks of
side in there and almost like a little furry edge,
if you will. So we've got zoija stack side on
these things. And now you talk about all this rain
(03:54):
we've had, you know the typically when you get five
and a half inches of rain and it falls ato
inches an hour. Yeah, you're gonna have a lot of
work to do to clean up bunkers, put faces back together.
Not these these things have held intact, just absolutely beautifully,
just super well designed. They play great. The feedback has
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Amazing what little technology can do for you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Huh, little technology Bunker solutions great, great, stuff, right, that's
the carpet stuff. Everybody always says a carpet I don't
know if I like carpet bunkers. That's that's what it's
designed to do. If you put it in there and
you get the grain going the right way. And then
again the math that they use to set the percentages
(04:35):
on the slopes, all that stuff put together is what
helps hold that sand up there on that face. Ultimately,
get your ball to hit on the face, roll the bottom,
you play out of a nice flat bottom, no problem,
piping up on the green your putt, and then one,
two or three and move on.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Man, I'm gonna get up there as soon as it
dries up. I want to come up and take a
little lap around. What was going back to you about
a year and a quarter ago, Now, what was the
initial reaction to announcing this to members.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
That we were we were you were going to take that
south course private?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
You know, I think it was something that a lot
of them had now for the ones that had been there,
they had been hearing about it for a long time.
And yeah, I don't know if about time is the
right word or but you certainly could feel as like,
all right, here we are We're finally here, and the
reaction from some of the people that I always felt
(05:30):
like just drove past the front entrance to go to
like a Houston Oaks or something like that. Right, it's like, hey,
now I've got a place that's private right here in
the backyard, now that we can just slip right over
here to just off the edge of the ridgelands right
here in Cyprus. So it's it's been it's been really good.
So my Michael shift instantly shifts to how do we
(05:51):
get the whole place that way? Right in that mode,
but certainly enjoying have that south course private, the pace
of play, you know, you start thinking about members being there.
We average twenty to twenty five minutes faster pace wow
on the south course, so that part's nice. Conditioning, everything
(06:13):
is just at at a higher level than the north.
So it's been really good. And like I said, we've
got some really good stuff going with our agronomy department,
the two guys down there. We got a director of
agronom we're getting ready to bring in that's going to
come to a really really great job of continuing to
just improved total turf quality. Right, I mean, that's when
(06:36):
we want. We want great railways, we want fast greens.
We've got great phenomenal bunkers now and some of the
best aesthetics and Houston. I put our layout on that
South course, especially up against any layout in town.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh wow, Yeah, I want to come out and see
what you've done to the place. I really do. It's
been a while now, and I'm on.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I was kind of hold I was holding off because
I didn't want to come out prematurely. But it sounds
like it's not premature anymore. You're ready to show it off,
aren't you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I'm ready to show you and I got Uh. We've
got a few other things we're working on to try
to continue to do even work over there. I mean,
just another example, we're doing a bunch of bridge work.
So the owners have have started the investment in that
South course in particular, and good. We continue to ask
for more to keep elevating it, and we keep getting it.
So I'm super thrilled.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Greg Hicks from black Horse Golf Club. You got any
North South rivalry tournaments going yet?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now? No North South rivalry. We do have a big member,
big member member coming up. Yeah, uh this month and
uh we actually got our South Grand reopening, so we're
going to really showcase the bunker. So maybe we get
you up here one of those days.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely let me know when I'll come up for that.
For sure. I'd love to, man, I want to see
the place. I do, absolutely do.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Craig Hicks from black Horse Golf Club, he's the general manager.
He also a pretty good fisherman. That's what was it
was flopping on the on the on the bridge or
part path or whatever it was. Was it a Was
it a big carp That's what I'm guessing.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's that's my guess. I couldn't I couldn't get I
was still about probably thirty forty yards away. But okay,
when you see them like that pop around that day,
that's generally I think a pretty good guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That when at out at Blackhawk we had a big,
big rain a while back now, and there were when
it finished at between fifteen and sixteen that little bridge there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I don't know if you're familiar enough to remember.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Where it is, but that there's a spillway there and
the water had rushed over the spillway so fast and
there were about a half a dozen carp stuck with
that water rushing fast, it had pushed them over the
top and they were trying to fight their way back
like Sam and going upstream, and.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Most of them probably didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
The good news is, though, all they did was just
get washed into Oyster Creek and you have a happy
life somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
That's right. That's it. I feel like that does happen
a lot when you get these high water events in Houston.
It just moved some wildlife from one local to another.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So well, yeah, you know what I saw the first
that I don't. I don't know if you've seen him
at your place yet. Saw a coral snake out there
the other day, a real live coral snake, not a
milk snake, not a king snake, the real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Like, Oh, I don't know that. I don't. I don't
know that. I'm gonna go looking for that one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
No, don't. This one was. This one was on Fairway
cut grass. I don't know why he was there.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I don't know what he was doing there, but he
was on Fairway cut grass on close to a cart
path too.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Man, you're lost summer.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That's just proof everybody likes the Fairway dog. That's also
proof that when people find the fairway that they also
feel lost up coops right, they were not always we're
not always fairway finders.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Unfamiliar territory. That's what it is. That's right, Creig Hicks,
You're you're a treat man. I love talking to you.
I'll see soon.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I appreciate anybody. If anybody comes up to the club
and and wants to take a look at that south course,
just ask any one of us in there. We'd be
happy to show you all around.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Fantastic, Thank you, Craig. Okay, yes, sir man, ideos great guy.
Everybody likes the fairway. Even the coral snakes like the fairway.
That coral snake was lost, and he knew it.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
He knew it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He was, I say, he, I don't know, but it was.
It was number one. It was big for a coral snake.
That's why at first I had to I had to
double check the color pattern to make sure that it
was the real deal.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And it was. But dog gone he was. He was
a feisty little beast man.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
When I got kind of close to him and was
making my observations, he didn't turn and run away. He
turned and came toward me, and I thought, well, that's unusual.
Maybe he just doesn't he's not getting he's not getting
my vibe. I'm not gonna I'm just I'm checking out
who you are and what you are. So I backed
(10:59):
up a little bit, and he started to move away,
kind of parallel to me a little bit. And then
I walked another step in front of this snake and
I looked down at him, and now here he comes
again at me. Dude, you gotta you better mind your
manners man. So anyway, we agreed to disagree on who
(11:20):
had the right of way in the fairway.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There it was. It was tight cut grass.
As most of you already know, the decision was made
about a year and four months ago to change black
Horse Golf Club from two daily fee courses into one
daily fee the North and one private course the South.
And now that the dust has kind of settled from
the change, I wanted to bring in a man who
was part of that decision, the man who is general
(00:21):
manager of black Horse Golf Club, and that would be
mister Craig Hicks.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome aboard, Craig, Thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Man. Morning, Doug. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I'm doing all right.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
More importantly, how are you guys doing after the last
two days?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Geez? That is just brutal. There's not much so that
you love to do outdoors that doesn't get impacted by
some rain. And we got five and a quarter oh
my day, and that's the stuff. It's been a wet
spring so far, for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Are you able to even get him out on cart
path only this morning?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Or no? We did on the north course, the off
course not quite ready, you know, you're right there on
Cypress Creek.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, no, kidding, comes out of the bank.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
We were lucky last year didn't have that thing come
out of the bank at all. But this year we're
let's just say we're one for one here on this deal.
So pretty cool thinking about you this morning when I
was over there watching that. I'm over there looking that's
got fish, you know, one of the one of the
creeks spills out right there, just over the cart path
behind the eleventh Green.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, and a big old.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Fish flopping around right here on the cart path. Oh
my god.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
No, that is not something you see every day. Holy cow. Man.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Is there any hard and fast rule when you can
put carts back on fairways or is that something you
just have to monitor with eyeballs and footsteps.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah. I think it's definitely a feel thing, right, you
got to put you got to put eyeballs and people
out there to check it. Look. I always say that
there's probably sixty to eighty percent of people that you
wouldn't have any problem with. You could probably let everybody
off a little sooner, but there's always that Oh yeah,
you that just don't make the right decisions. Sometimes you
got to protect against that because at the end of
(01:59):
the day, you want to protect the product.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, and one one casual mistake by somebody who's not
paying attention can tear up a lot of turf real fast.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Can it? Certainly? Certainly can?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
All right, So let's let's go back a year and
a half when to win, somebody somewhere in Escalante first said,
you know what, let's make one of those black Horse
courses private. I think I know the answer, But what
was what was the motivation for that?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, I'd say, let's back up four and a half
years when I started. That was that was the goal
right four and a half years ago, probably even before
I before I became part of the club, to get
one of those one of those courses private, uh, specifically
the South Course, but just to be able to have
a place for in the Cypress area Bridgeland that a
(02:48):
member could call home and come out and play on
and be able to get on that golf course and enjoy.
And what we've done with that golf course this year
in January did a two million dollar bunk renovation, had
Trip Davis's architect team come down. Kyle with that team
just a brilliant mind to spend out there on the
golf course with him and see how he sees land
(03:10):
and sees shapes without without it being in existence, and
he puts it in his mind, and he draws it
on paper, and then he hands that paper to the
shaper and the shaper goes out there. This was so
cool to watch a shaper going use an excavator. He
actually edged a sprinkler head with an excavator. I mean,
it was just the precision that he's got have. But
(03:33):
they just wrapped that project up and so we got
brand new bunkers with revetted edges, with the stack of
Zoisa going up. The best way I can describe it
is when you watch the Open Championship and you see
those spaces that just look like they've got stacks of
side in there and almost like a little furry edge,
if you will. So we've got zoija stack side on
these things. And now you talk about all this rain
(03:54):
we've had, you know the typically when you get five
and a half inches of rain and it falls ato
inches an hour. Yeah, you're gonna have a lot of
work to do to clean up bunkers, put faces back together.
Not these these things have held intact, just absolutely beautifully,
just super well designed. They play great. The feedback has
been amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Amazing what little technology can do for you.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Huh, little technology Bunker solutions great, great, stuff, right, that's
the carpet stuff. Everybody always says a carpet I don't
know if I like carpet bunkers. That's that's what it's
designed to do. If you put it in there and
you get the grain going the right way. And then
again the math that they use to set the percentages
(04:35):
on the slopes, all that stuff put together is what
helps hold that sand up there on that face. Ultimately,
get your ball to hit on the face, roll the bottom,
you play out of a nice flat bottom, no problem,
piping up on the green your putt, and then one,
two or three and move on.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Man, I'm gonna get up there as soon as it
dries up. I want to come up and take a
little lap around. What was going back to you about
a year and a quarter ago, Now, what was the
initial reaction to announcing this to members.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
That we were we were you were going to take that
south course private?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
You know, I think it was something that a lot
of them had now for the ones that had been there,
they had been hearing about it for a long time.
And yeah, I don't know if about time is the
right word or but you certainly could feel as like,
all right, here we are We're finally here, and the
reaction from some of the people that I always felt
(05:30):
like just drove past the front entrance to go to
like a Houston Oaks or something like that. Right, it's like, hey,
now I've got a place that's private right here in
the backyard, now that we can just slip right over
here to just off the edge of the ridgelands right
here in Cyprus. So it's it's been it's been really good.
So my Michael shift instantly shifts to how do we
(05:51):
get the whole place that way? Right in that mode,
but certainly enjoying have that south course private, the pace
of play, you know, you start thinking about members being there.
We average twenty to twenty five minutes faster pace wow
on the south course, so that part's nice. Conditioning, everything
(06:13):
is just at at a higher level than the north.
So it's been really good. And like I said, we've
got some really good stuff going with our agronomy department,
the two guys down there. We got a director of
agronom we're getting ready to bring in that's going to
come to a really really great job of continuing to
just improved total turf quality. Right, I mean, that's when
(06:36):
we want. We want great railways, we want fast greens.
We've got great phenomenal bunkers now and some of the
best aesthetics and Houston. I put our layout on that
South course, especially up against any layout in town.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh wow, Yeah, I want to come out and see
what you've done to the place. I really do. It's
been a while now, and I'm on.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I was kind of hold I was holding off because
I didn't want to come out prematurely. But it sounds
like it's not premature anymore. You're ready to show it off,
aren't you.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I'm ready to show you and I got Uh. We've
got a few other things we're working on to try
to continue to do even work over there. I mean,
just another example, we're doing a bunch of bridge work.
So the owners have have started the investment in that
South course in particular, and good. We continue to ask
for more to keep elevating it, and we keep getting it.
So I'm super thrilled.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Greg Hicks from black Horse Golf Club. You got any
North South rivalry tournaments going yet?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now? No North South rivalry. We do have a big member,
big member member coming up. Yeah, uh this month and
uh we actually got our South Grand reopening, so we're
going to really showcase the bunker. So maybe we get
you up here one of those days.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely let me know when I'll come up for that.
For sure. I'd love to, man, I want to see
the place. I do, absolutely do.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Craig Hicks from black Horse Golf Club, he's the general manager.
He also a pretty good fisherman. That's what was it
was flopping on the on the on the bridge or
part path or whatever it was. Was it a Was
it a big carp That's what I'm guessing.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's that's my guess. I couldn't I couldn't get I
was still about probably thirty forty yards away. But okay,
when you see them like that pop around that day,
that's generally I think a pretty good guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That when at out at Blackhawk we had a big,
big rain a while back now, and there were when
it finished at between fifteen and sixteen that little bridge there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I don't know if you're familiar enough to remember.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Where it is, but that there's a spillway there and
the water had rushed over the spillway so fast and
there were about a half a dozen carp stuck with
that water rushing fast, it had pushed them over the
top and they were trying to fight their way back
like Sam and going upstream, and.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Most of them probably didn't make it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
The good news is, though, all they did was just
get washed into Oyster Creek and you have a happy
life somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
That's right. That's it. I feel like that does happen
a lot when you get these high water events in Houston.
It just moved some wildlife from one local to another.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
So well, yeah, you know what I saw the first
that I don't. I don't know if you've seen him
at your place yet. Saw a coral snake out there
the other day, a real live coral snake, not a
milk snake, not a king snake, the real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Like, Oh, I don't know that. I don't. I don't
know that. I'm gonna go looking for that one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
No, don't. This one was. This one was on Fairway
cut grass. I don't know why he was there.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I don't know what he was doing there, but he
was on Fairway cut grass on close to a cart
path too.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Man, you're lost summer.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That's just proof everybody likes the Fairway dog. That's also
proof that when people find the fairway that they also
feel lost up coops right, they were not always we're
not always fairway finders.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Unfamiliar territory. That's what it is. That's right, Creig Hicks,
You're you're a treat man. I love talking to you.
I'll see soon.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I appreciate anybody. If anybody comes up to the club
and and wants to take a look at that south course,
just ask any one of us in there. We'd be
happy to show you all around.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Fantastic, Thank you, Craig. Okay, yes, sir man, ideos great guy.
Everybody likes the fairway. Even the coral snakes like the fairway.
That coral snake was lost, and he knew it.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
He knew it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He was, I say, he, I don't know, but it was.
It was number one. It was big for a coral snake.
That's why at first I had to I had to
double check the color pattern to make sure that it
was the real deal.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And it was. But dog gone he was. He was
a feisty little beast man.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
When I got kind of close to him and was
making my observations, he didn't turn and run away. He
turned and came toward me, and I thought, well, that's unusual.
Maybe he just doesn't he's not getting he's not getting
my vibe. I'm not gonna I'm just I'm checking out
who you are and what you are. So I backed
(10:59):
up a little bit, and he started to move away,
kind of parallel to me a little bit. And then
I walked another step in front of this snake and
I looked down at him, and now here he comes
again at me. Dude, you gotta you better mind your
manners man. So anyway, we agreed to disagree on who
(11:20):
had the right of way in the fairway.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
There it was. It was tight cut grass.
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