| Course History
The History of the Tenneco Facility
Built in 1956 The Tenneco facility was the vision of CEO Gardiner Symonds. Tenneco Oil and Gas Company had head offices in downtown Houston and had the need for a gas control facility on the outskirts of the Houston Area. In 1952 Tenneco acquired approximately 350 acres in Hockley Texas. As an avid golfer and fisherman Mr. Symonds set out to develop the land around the gas control facility as a recreation facility for all Tenneco employees. To begin the project Mr. Symonds created man made lakes around the property and began to stock them with bass, catfish, and perch. Over the years Tenneco continued to stock the lakes and created an environment every outdoorsman would love to fish. Even today 53 years later it is common for members of the facility to catch 4 to 6 pound bass on a daily bases.
In 1956 Tenneco contracted the services of golf course architect Ralph Plummer to construct the first 9 holes of what would become a 36-hole facility. By the end of 1956 Tenneco had its first 9 holes of golf and a clubhouse on top of the hill overlooking the course. The original 9 holes that Plummer designed is what is know today as the Oaks Course Back 9. By the end of the late 1950’s Tenneco had completed another 9 holes and now had a complete golf and recreation facility know as the Tenneco Employee Recreation Facility. Ralph Plummer was a well-known golf course architect and was also contracted to build Champions Golf Club. Hiring a well know architect was the first sign that Tenneco would spare no expense to make their facility the best in the state of Texas.
In the early 1960’s Tenneco became well known for their 4th of July Celebration and BBQ at the Hockley Facility. Estimates from former Tenneco employees on the number of guest attending the celebration are near 4000 people. With the popularity of the BBQ more and more employees began to use the facility to play golf, fish, and have family picnics on the weekends. In the early 1970’s Tenneco began to expand its facility and started construction on an additional 9 holes of golf. To complete the second golf course, and to continue the tradition of getting the best available for Tenneco employees, Tenneco contracted the services of world-renowned golf course architect Tom Fazio and purchased an additional 140 acres on the north side of Magnolia road. In the 1970’s the fee for a Tom Fazio golf course was $40,000. Today a Tom Fazio design can cost as much as 1 million dollars.
Throughout the great years of the oil boom in Texas, Tenneco and the recreation facility became the place to be if you were a Tenneco employee. With the profits of a large successful Oil and Gas company like Tenneco the officers of the company continued to built the facility and spare no expense to make it happen. The company each year would pay the expense to keep the facility in operation, as a fee to the employees to use the facility they were charged a $6 to $12 monthly fee to use the facility. A small price to pay for a 36-hole golf and family recreation facility. In the years after 1960 and in addition to the new 18 holes Tenneco built an extensive clubhouse, added 16 acres of lake areas, additional irrigation control facilities, a waterfront park facility, a 3000 square foot museum of the oil and gas industry, an on site fresh water facility, an on site waste water treatment plant, and employed as many as 75 people to operate this grand facility. Tenneco also purchased all the necessary equipment to maintain the golf courses as a high quality golf facility. Equipment owned by Tenneco to operate the facility is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Throughout the years Tenneco also made necessary upgrades and renovations to all structures to bring them up to current standards. It is estimated that the main clubhouse was renovated as many as 6 times.
Throughout the years the Tenneco facility became more and more popular with the employees and on any given Saturday and Sunday the grounds of the facility were filled with golfers and family members enjoying the water, park area, and swimming pool. In the early 1990’s due to unknown regulations Tenneco was forced to separate the golf courses to 1 public course and 1 private course. The public course was renamed The Links Course at Tennwood, and the private course became known as The Oaks Course. The Tennwood facility, as it would become to be known, operated in this capacity until the mid 1990’s. As the oil and gas business began to face hard times in the 1990’s Tenneco began a downfall that would change the face of the Tennwood facility.
The depression in the oil and gas business of the 90’s forced Tenneco to be sold to El Paso Gas in 1995. El Paso was forced to make a decision on what to do with the Tennwood Recreation Facility. As a result the decision was made to sell all the property to private investors with the exception of the gas control facility. In late 1995 the first private owners took over operations of the facility. The first order of business- Change the name and create a new image, second order of business was change the facility from a private Tenneco employee facility to a semi private open to the public golf course. The result was Houston Oaks Golf & Country Club, a semi-private golf facility in Hockley Texas. As private owners of the facility they did not have the financial backing of a large oil and gas corporation to operate the facility efficiently. The result had a negative impact on the facility. The conditions began to fall off and use of the facility became slower and slower due to conditions and lack of funds to make the facility work. Between 1995 and 2001 the facility changed ownership 3 times. All owners running into the same problem of having a large facility that required experienced people to operate and most of all large amounts of money to maintain the existing structure of the Tenneco facility. In December 2001 the facility was purchased by a group of investors led by Fred Caldwell of Caldwell Watson Real Estate Group. The vision of Mr. Caldwell is to revitalize the facility and create a residential family environment around the original 18 holes designed by Ralph Plummer in 1956. Moving into the future with the backing and vision of current owners the old Tennwood facility will become one of the best family recreation facilities in the state of Texas. | 
