If you were watching Golf Channel on Monday night to follow the college tournament, you might have wondered a bit about the course.
The Abilene Christian Intercollegiate, being played for the first time, is hosted at Halbert National, located in Granbury, Texas, which is about 40 miles from Fort Worth. Halbert National is a private golf course owned by a billionaire named David D. Halbert.
There are no members of this golf course, as Halbert built and maintains this course for himself and his family. According to a story in Forbes, Halbert's wife once said she wished there was a place to play golf where no one could watch her. That sprung Halbert into action, who built a course that he said he wanted to be "nicer than Augusta," according to the Forbes story.
Halbert hired Tom Fazio, with whom he was already friends. The annual upkeep at the track runs about $3 million. That's walk-around money for Halbert, the founder of A.I. genomics company Caris Life Sciences.
The course tips out at 7,542 yards and this week is hosting four men's teams (Texas A&M, Arizona, SMU and Houston) and four women's teams (Oregon, Arizona State, Tennessee and Baylor).
Golf Channel's coverage started Monday and continues Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 p.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET.
Todd Kelly is the assistant managing editor of Golfweek.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: $50 million Tom Fazio private course in Texas with 0 members hosting college tournament
