The Clubs at Houston Oaks first opened in Hockley, Texas under the name Tennwood Golf Club.
Tennwood’s origins are nothing short of fascinating. First developed by the Tenneco Oil and Gas Company, it served as the company’s worldwide gas control facility and recreational getaway through the 1980s. Over the years, many golfers and their families have enjoyed the property, held grand picnics and fireworks shows, and spent time relaxing under the property’s countless oak trees.
Interestingly, after the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, Tenneco built an extensive underground bunker facility from which it maintained and monitored the company’s global gas operations. The bunker was also used by The El Paso Corporation, which owned the property in the 1990s. Still intact, the bunker is located near Houston Oaks’ administrative buildings. The current owners have renovated it, and it now serves as a hotel for members. The underground Bunker 55 has been renovated into a premier Wine Cave that hosts wine lockers, meeting space, and lounge.
One of the many other facilities of historical interest is the Clubhouse. Tennwood’s main clubhouse burned down a couple of years ago. The owners of Houston Oaks have built a new 30,000-square foot clubhouse in the same area where the original clubhouse was once located, and it is something to behold. Like the majority of the other facilities and accommodations on the property, it is lavishly decorated with antiques from around the world. Its floors and other structures are made from reclaimed lumber brought in from torn-down barns across the country. The wood is cut, prepared and repurposed right on the property!
Though there are several points of historical interest specific to the property, perhaps the most notable ones have to do with the land itself. The century-old oak trees throughout the property and the many of lakes, which today, are fully stocked with fish and serve as popular fishing and water play spots, seem to tell their own stories of the land and the people who've loved and honored it.
The current owners kept the club a semi-private golf facility until May 2010, when they converted it into the exclusive private membership club that it is today. Now featuring a number of mouth-watering eateries, a variety of lodging accommodations, real estate opportunities, full-scale sports facilities, including a baseball field and basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, there has never been a better time to become a member of Houston Oaks.