The Sunday House Tradition
Originally a place in town for Fredericksburg’s first German farmers, Sunday Houses now offer a rural retreat for Texas city dwellers.
Golf’s Next Generation Tees Off
Denver Schneider plans to make a career of golf, thanks to the foundation provided by Boot Ranch and Fredericksburg’s Junior Golf Foundation. Learn how a program started more than 15 years ago by Hal Sutton has flourished thanks to a community that cares about kids.
Hosting the Texas Amateur
Boot Ranch is this year’s venue for the state’s oldest and most prestigious amateur championship from August 6th through 9th. The field will include 132 players who will earn entry through an exemption category or 18-hole sectional qualifying at one of 12 sites across Texas in the weeks leading up to the championship. The format is 72 holes of individual stroke play. All contestants will play 18 holes on August 6-7. Then the field will be cut to the low 54 players and ties heading into the final rounds on Saturday and Sunday.
Boot Ranch course designer Hal Sutton narrates the PROMOTIONAL VIDEO for the tournament.
Natural Beauty for the Ages
Texans enjoy many blessings from the state’s abundant natural resources. While oil and gas have created great wealth, it’s native stone that provides the riches for an incredibly distinctive and resilient built environment.
The early German settlers in Fredericksburg took full advantage of the ubiquitous white limestone beneath their feet, leaving a legacy of homes and commercial buildings prized by current residents and tourists alike. Today, quarries blanket the Hill Country and West Texas, producing a diverse palette of limestone, sandstone and granite prized by architects and designers.
At Boot Ranch, you’ll see the full gamut of stone colors and patterns used in home building, creating a harmonious collection of one-of-a-kind residences that complement the rugged beauty of the land. Our Sunday Houses alone catalogue the wide range of stone choices available.
The three newest Sunday Houses (8, 9 and 10), are being built with Lueders caramel limestone—a warm brown mix that complements the nearby Ranch Club. This dense stone is quarried in the Lueders Basin of West Texas near Abilene, where it is layered by mother nature in ledges of varying colors.
Sunday Houses 4 through 7 are built with Jerrell White limestone from Williamson County north of Austin. The original Sunday Houses (1, 2 & 3) are dark San Saba sandstone laid in a random flagstone pattern. Together they’re a great portfolio of historically inspired Hill Country architecture.
Small Towns, Big Money
In its February 2020 issue, Texas Monthly calls Fredericksburg the New Aspen. Read the whole story here:
Home Earns Five Design Awards
Yesterday, judges for the 2019 Hill Country Parade of Homes bestowed five awards to Big Sky Builders for the home they built to showcase their Summer Homes collection designed for the Metzger Park neighborhood in Boot Ranch. The five-bedroom home was designed by architect Don B. McDonald, with interiors and furnishings by Donna Figg, the award-winning duo responsible for Sunday Houses 4 through 9 at Boot Ranch.
(left to right): Interior designer Donna Figg, Sina and Ron Burns of Big Sky Builders and their partners Sandra and Bill Gilliland
For two weekends – October 11-13 and 18-20, Boot Ranch will welcome hundreds of Parade of Homes ticket holders who are touring the 14 homes on Parade. Tickets are available at Boot Ranch Realty.
The awards won represent five of the seven given in the “Homes Over $1.5 Million” category. They include:
- Best Master and Bath Suite
- Best Interior Design & Decor
- Best Architectural Feature
- Best Craftsmanship
- Best Unique Feature – Great Room Trusses
The home is offered for sale for $2,045,000.
Metzger Market Now Open
The long-abandoned Metzger family homestead at Boot Ranch has been meticulously restored and transformed into Metzger Market, an artisan general store for Boot Ranch members and guests. The Market includes a coffee bar, hand-dipped ice cream, wine, beer, gifts and food products.
Architect Don B. McDonald took a light touch on changes to the structure—striving to retain its character and authenticity while renewing its structural integrity and introducing modern mechanical systems. Designer Donna Figg’s interior concept is of a modern bistro with a mix of reclaimed grey wood for nostalgia juxtaposed with clean black and white finishes. Centurion Custom Homes handled restoration and construction.
The adjacent stone outbuilding has been refitted with mailboxes to serve the whole community. Outdoor seating, a kid’s play area, restrooms and ample parking for golf carts and cars make this a lively stopping off point.
Nestled between the golf practice park and Hole #9, the Metzger homestead dates from the mid 19th century. It was home to German settler Peter Metzger, his wife Anna and nine children on a 160-acre tract Metzger purchased from the State of Texas in what was then known as the Palo Alto community, 4.5 miles north of Fredericksburg.
In February 1865 two of the Metzger daughters, ages 18 and 13, were walking home from town after dark and encountered a small band of Kiowa Indians. The elder girl, Anna Marie called “Emma” by the family, resisted capture and was killed. The younger girl, Anna, was enslaved by the Indians and eventually reunited with her family in November of 1865, escorted home by her brother Joe and three friends. She married Fredericksburg resident Charles Wartenbach in 1870 and lived in Mason County until her death in 1917.
The Texas Historical Commission has approved an official Texas Historical Marker for the Metzger House site, thanks to the efforts of Boot Ranch team member Lynn Sample who is an active volunteer with the Gillespie County Historical Society.
Hal Sutton Goes Back on Tour
Hal Sutton is more than just the golf course architect for Boot Ranch, the exclusive private club community in the Texas Hill Country. The 14-time PGA TOUR winner is now the club’s brand ambassador on the PGA TOUR Champions circuit.
Sutton, 60, whose original design at Boot Ranch debuted in 2006, will wear the Boot Ranch logo and has filmed a commercial to be shown this spring during select PGA TOUR and PGA Champions television broadcasts.
Sutton is scheduled to make his return to competition this weekend at the Oasis Championship in Boca Raton, Fla., his first tour start since May 2017. Sutton has played only six tour events in the past three years while focusing on course design projects and teaching academy.
Follow Sutton on the PGA TOUR Champions as he plans to play in every tournament he can through early September. The tour dates are:
FEB 8 – 10: Oasis Championship (The Old Course at Broken Sound, Boca Raton, FL)
FEB 15 – 17: Chubb Classic (The Classics at Lely Resort, Naples, FL)
MAR 1 – 3: Cologuard Classic (Omni Tucson National, Tucson, AZ)
MAR 8 – 10: Hoag Classic (Newport Beach CC, Newport Beach, CA)
MAR 29 – 31: Rapiscan Systems Classic (Fallen Oak, Biloxi, MS)
APR 19 – 21: Mitsubishi Electric Classic TPC (Sugarloaf, Duluth, GA)
APR 26 – 28: Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge (Top of the Rock, Ridgedale, MO)
MAY 3 – 5: Insperity Invitational (The Woodlands CC, The Woodlands, TX)
MAY 9 – 12: Regions Tradition (Greystone G&CC, Birmingham, AL)
MAY 23 – 26: KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (Oak Hill CC, Rochester, NY)
MAY 31 – JUN 2: Principal Charity Classic (Wakonda Club, Des Moines, IA)
JUN 7 – 9: Mastercard Japan Championship Narita Golf (Club-Accordia Golf, Narita-shi, Chiba, JPN)
JUN 21 – 23: American Family Insurance Championship (University Ridge GC, Madison, WI)
JUN 27 – 30: U.S. Senior Open Championship Warren Golf Course (Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN)
JUL 11 – 14: Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship (Firestone CC, Akron, OH)
JUL 25 – 28: The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex (Royal Lytham and St. Annes, Lancashire, ENG)
AUG 16 – 18: DICK’S Sporting Goods Open (En-Joie GC, Endicott, NY)
AUG 23 – 25: Boeing Classic (The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, Snoqualmie, WA)
AUG 30 – SEP 1: Shaw Charity Classic (Canyon Meadows G&CC, Calgary, AB, CAN)
SEP 13 – 15: The Ally Challenge (Warwick Hills G&CC, Grand Blanc, MI)
SEP 20 – 22: Sanford International (Minnehaha Country Club, Sioux Falls, SD)
SEP 27 – 29: PURE Insurance Championship (Pebble Beach Golf Links, Monterey Peninsula, CA)
“We cannot think of a better person than Hal Sutton to represent Boot Ranch on the professional golf tour,” said Emil Hale, general manager of the club. “Hal shares the same vision as our membership, that passion for the game of golf and culture of friendship that results in experiences to be remembered forever.”
In 2017, Sutton oversaw a $2 million renovation of the bunkers and greens on the Boot Ranch golf course and 34-acre practice park, which incorporates natural Texas Hill Country elevation changes, slopes and valleys, and indigenous vegetation. Sutton’s focus in this project was to enhance the playability without altering the experience. “My key was to figure out a way to challenge the best players while offering higher-handicap golfers the chance to play golf and have more fun,” explained Sutton.
Sutton also was instrumental in helping Boot Ranch members revive the nearby Fredericksburg community’s junior golf and high school golf programs. His expanded new role continues that support through the return of the “Birdies for Billies” program that benefits the Junior Golf Foundation of Fredericksburg. Funds are raised through Boot Ranch pledges for each birdie and eagle Sutton makes on tour this year. (“Battlin’ Billies” is the nickname for Fredericksburg high school’s athletic teams.)
“Connecting to the community, embracing the people, and giving back is important,” Sutton said. “I want kids to understand the game I love so much. Learning the golf swing helps, but getting kids outdoors and onto the golf course is the greatest teacher of all.”
Nominated last year for the World Golf Hall of Fame, Sutton was ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for more than 100 weeks during his PGA TOUR career.
Boot Ranch: Four Good Reasons
Golfweek writer John Turner is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but his first job was in Kerrville, Texas. He returned to Texas for a few days at Boot Ranch and had this to say about the experience:
Hosting the Nimitz Golf Classic
Boot Ranch hosted 154 players, including 10 warriors, for the 9th Annual Nimitz Golf Classic on June 8th to benefit the Admiral Nimitz Foundation and Combat Marine Outdoors. The two-day event raised more than $300,000, according to Gen. Michael Hagee, USMC (Retired), President and CEO of the Nimitz Foundation which operates the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg.
This is a golf experience you won’t see anywhere else—complete with vintage aircraft flyovers, tanks, jeeps, and reenactors dressed in WWII uniforms protecting the fairways. In addition to donating the course for the event, Boot Ranch also contributed a live auction prize at the previous night’s dinner gala. Thirty-two Boot Ranch members played in the tournament, and several also anted up for the chance to be passengers during the flyover.
The golf highlight of this year’s tournament came on Hole 10 when baseball legend Nolan Ryan’s tee shot landed on the green and rolled to a stop, four feet from the cup. Nolan sank the putt for an Eagle on the Par 4 hole.
To learn more about the foundation and the museum, visit www.pacificwarmuseum.org.
