Champions Golf Club

Jack Burke Jr. and Jimmy Demaret co-founded Champions Golf Club in 1957 on a piece of Houston, Texas northwest-suburban land. Burke Jr. (1956 Masters and PGA champion) and Demaret (three-time Masters champion) routed the original Cypress Creek Course themselves, drawing on their championship-tournament experience. The club operates two courses — Cypress Creek and Jackrabbit — and Cypress Creek is the championship-rotation routing. Champions Golf Club has hosted the 1967 Ryder Cup (U.S. won 23.5-8.5), the 1969 U.S. Open (Orville Moody), and the 2020 U.S. Women's Open (A Lim Kim).

The Cypress Creek Course plays around 7,200 yards par 71 from the championship markers, with bermuda fairways and a slope in the upper 140s. The yardage is moderate by modern standards, but the routing's small green complexes — Burke Jr. and Demaret designed them for the equipment of the 1950s — defend against modern equipment through angle of approach rather than length alone. The mature pine canopy through the property has grown to championship-narrowing dimensions over the club's 65-plus year history. The seventeenth hole is a 198-yard par-3 across a natural creek; the eighteenth, a 462-yard par-4 with a green set against the clubhouse, is the routing's tournament-defining closing hole.

Champions Golf Club is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The membership is regional Houston business and professional families. The 1967 Ryder Cup, 1969 U.S. Open, and 2020 U.S. Women's Open institutional history is the primary identity, and the Burke Jr.-Demaret founding context gives the club its distinct Texas-golf character.

Houston climate gives Champions Golf Club a playing season of February through November, with the firmest conditions in October. The course closes through brief winter cold snaps. The mature pine canopy keeps the routing cooler in mid-summer than the open Houston-suburban courses.