Unique nine-hole track routed on edge of quarry will be centerpiece of exclusive community
JARRELL, Texas — Dirt moving and the routing of the playing corridors are now underway at Atlas Ranch, the unique Roy Bechtol-conceived and -designed nine-hole par 3 course that will act as the centerpiece of a master planned community set about 45 minutes north of Austin.
Bechtol’s golf course will be a set of par 3s that measure from 80 to 120 yards and be a key amenity for the neighborhood that could grow to as many as 4,000 homes over the next decade.
“Atlas Ranch’s golf course will offer holes that can be played in real competition and will be a refined but intricately designed practice ground for short game work,” Bechtol said. “It will surely be a gathering place for the community’s families and their friends and guests.”
Atlas Ranch under the blade
The course at Atlas Ranch is routed on the edges of a former quarry that defines the expansive property. Bechtol has left many of the grass-covered dirt and rock piles intact on the course’s edges, making the track a unique experience among others that are mostly flat and built in undefined pasture and prairieland.
Bechtol’s design will limit the grassing of the course to the corridors themselves and use the native grasses and trees and nooks and crannies and rock piles to make it special.
“Atlas Ranch is unique in the fact that the property has real character, allowing us to build a course that takes advantage of its attributes without forcing anything,” Bechtol said. “Golfers will be able to use a few wedges and a putter and really test their game while having fun. We will make sure the greens complexes are challenging while not being too difficult.”
One of the most important aspects of the golf course at Atlas Ranch will be the total use of effluent water to irrigate the nine holes and its adjacent greenbelt. Construction crews are “repurposing” the site’s dirt away from what was originally planned as an effluent field.
“Atlas Ranch will be one of the most unique effluent discharge projects seen in golf,” Bechtol explained. “Effluent that would normally be wasted will now be cleansed by the photosynthesis of plants and grasses. We all know how important water is as a resource in Texas and the course at Atlas Ranch will use only the gray water from the neighborhood and what Mother Nature provides as far as rain.”
Bechtol’s design at Atlas Ranch comes as one of his other noted short course designs — the Spieth Lower Forty at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin — continues to draw acclaim for its playability and challenge. The six-hole Spieth Lower Forty was designed by Bechtol and PGA TOUR professional Jordan Spieth and has become a valuable amenity for the peerless UT Golf Club.
Home sales in Atlas Ranch should begin late fall of 2025 and the course at should be ready for play after the growing season in the Spring of 2026. Civil construction and infrastructure work is being done by JL Gray Construction of Round Rock, Texas while the shaping and golf course envelope is under the direction of Verde Sports Construction of McKInney, Texas.
