The land and the plan
Kingwood was developed by a joint venture of King Ranch and Friendswood Development Company, an Exxon subsidiary, on a roughly 14,000-acre tract along the San Jacinto River 1. The venture bought the land from Foster Lumber Company on December 28, 1967 12. Golf was part of the plan from the start: The Clubs of Kingwood traces its founding to 1971 3.
Building 54 holes, then 72
The first course, designed by Joe Finger and now called the Island Course, opened in 1974 34. The Lake Course followed in 1977, designed by Bruce Littell (Invited spells it Littel) 35. The Forest Course opened in 1983, making Kingwood a 54-hole golf center, according to Invited’s history 3. The Deerwood course across Kingwood also dates to 1983; GolfPass and Top100GolfCourses credit Joe Finger, Ken Dye and Byron Nelson 6.
Villages grew up along the fairways; Kingwood Greens, for example, backs to the Forest Course 14.
A senior tour stop and a movie
From 1988 to 1994 Deerwood hosted the Doug Sanders Kingwood Celebrity Classic on what is now PGA TOUR Champions. Winners included Chi-Chi Rodriguez (1988), Lee Trevino (1990) and Bob Charles (1993) 7. Scenes from the 1996 film Tin Cup were filmed in Kingwood 3. Invited places the final scene at Deerwood, while its Kingwood pages point to the Forest Course and the Island 18th, where a Tin Cup pelican statue stands 411; Club + Resort Business says Deerwood’s 13th appeared in the movie’s U.S. Open scenes 8. Both clubs were likely used; we could not find a source that settles it.
Five courses, then four
In 2012 the Houston Chronicle called Kingwood Country Club the largest private club in the Houston area, with about 3,300 members and five golf courses at the time 9. An early-2019 Invited release still described 90 holes at two locations 11. Today the official pages list three 18-hole courses at Kingwood Country Club (Lake, Forest and Island) plus Deerwood, 72 holes in all 12. We found no dated announcement explaining the fifth course’s retirement, so we don’t speculate about it.
Harvey and the rebuild
Hurricane Harvey flooded the clubs in 2017. In a 2019 interview the general manager said the golf course took almost 18 feet of water and the clubhouse almost six; he put the restoration of Kingwood and Deerwood at more than $50 million 10. The courses reopened on December 26, 2017, the fitness center in April 2018, and the new clubhouse soft-opened in February 2019 10. Deerwood finished its own clubhouse reinvention in early 2019 11.
Kingwood Cove, a separate public course in Forest Cove that opened in 1967, closed in 2017 after Harvey 13.
Common questions
How many golf courses are in Kingwood?
Four 18-hole private courses operate today: the Lake, Forest and Island courses at Kingwood Country Club, and Deerwood. Oakhurst Golf Club, a public course, is just outside Kingwood in Porter.
Was Tin Cup filmed in Kingwood?
Yes. Scenes from the 1996 film were filmed at The Clubs of Kingwood. Sources differ on which holes appear in the final scene.