To make room for U.S. 281, San Antonio gave up ten acres of Brackenridge Park Golf Course and rearranged the back nine. The Alamo City Golf Trail dates the redesign to 1968. Its account describes the work: designers shortened long par fours, added ponds, and filled sections of the river. Alamo City Golf Trail history
In 2008, architect John Colligan and design associate Trey Kemp set out to recover A.W. Tillinghast's earlier layout. They had an old course plan and about 113 acres in which to rebuild it. Restoration account
Tillinghast designed the course around the San Antonio River and a waterworks canal. Historian Lewis F. Fisher describes the river bends he had to accommodate on seven of the nine southern and southwestern holes. For the eighteen-hole course that opened in 1916, Tillinghast also had to work around three public roads. Fisher's history
The Cultural Landscape Foundation names the twelfth and thirteenth as the holes cut off by U.S. 281. Those are historical numbers. On today's course, 12 and 13 are back-to-back par fives on the western side of the property. The operator notes that hole numbers may have changed. Landscape history, current course map and scorecard, operator's historical illustration
San Antonio brought in Johnson and Dempsey and Associates, George A. Hoffman, and course manager Murray Brooks for the 1968 redesign. They had to fit the back nine onto the smaller property, connecting holes across the remaining ground. Alamo City Golf Trail history
For the restoration forty years later, Kemp used a plan from the clubhouse. According to a project account published in November 2008, he scanned the drawing and placed it over a 2007 aerial photograph. The design team offered the Municipal Golf Association–San Antonio two options: follow the earlier routing or use the 1968 version. The association chose the earlier one. Restoration account
Fisher credits Colligan's team with restoring fifteen of the eighteen holes to Tillinghast's design and reopening river meanders. In his post-restoration reporting, Steve Habel identifies the recovered routings as holes 1–14 and 18. He names 15–17 as the exceptions the team had to adapt because of the highway. Fisher's history, Habel's restoration account
Colligan and Kemp rebuilt greens and bunkers as they recovered the routing. Shaun Tolson describes their use of rectangular greens and bunkers with flat sand floors beneath grass faces, with allowances for modern maintenance and equipment. Tolson's restoration feature
At the par-three 10th, you play across two bends in the river, a feature Habel describes after the restoration. The operator's current map shows the same crossing, and its scorecard lists 183 yards from the blue tees. By reopening the river channel, Colligan and Kemp put water back into the path from tee to green. Habel's hole description, current map and scorecard
The 15th is a shorter par three: 133 yards from the same tees. Habel reports that the designers created a small tee across a bridge beside the River Walk expansion. In that corner, Colligan and Kemp had to fit a new shot into the land San Antonio still had for golf. Habel's account of the 15th, current scorecard
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