There are maybe a half-dozen public courses in America where you can play the exact fairways a PGA Championship will be decided on. One of them is in Frisco. Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco is a Gil Hanse-designed championship course that opened in May 2023, stretches past 7,800 yards from the tips, and hosts the 2027 PGA Championship. It is open to the public, walking-only with a required caddie, and green fees peak around $330 (as of 2026 — check current rates). Here is what it is actually like to play — and how to do it right.
This review covers the course itself in detail. For the wider 660-acre campus — the resort, the West Course, the short courses, the restaurants — start with our complete PGA Frisco visitor guide, and see how it all fits into the bigger picture of golf in Frisco, Texas.
Fields Ranch East at a Glance
| Essentials | Details (2026) |
|---|---|
| Location | PGA Frisco, 3255 PGA Parkway, Frisco, TX 75033 |
| Architect | Gil Hanse with Jim Wagner (opened May 2023) |
| Length | 7,800+ yards from the championship tees; multiple forward options |
| Access | Public; tee times bookable online, resort guests get priority and discounts |
| Green fee | Up to around $330 depending on season (2026 — check current) |
| Format | Walking-only with a caddie required per player; carts by medical exemption only |
| Closed | Wednesdays, for routine maintenance |
| Majors | 2027 & 2034 PGA Championship, 2025 & 2031 KPMG Women’s PGA, 2023 & 2029 Senior PGA |
How a Cow Pasture Became the Home of Modern Golf
In 2018, the PGA of America announced it was leaving Florida and moving its headquarters to Frisco — a decision that landed like a thunderclap in the golf world. The deal was a public-private partnership among the PGA of America, Omni Hotels & Resorts, the City of Frisco, and Frisco ISD, and the plan was audacious: build a world-class golf destination on 660 acres of North Texas ranchland and award it major championships before a single hole existed. Construction began in 2020. The resort and both courses opened in 2023, and within weeks Fields Ranch East hosted its first major, the Senior PGA Championship, won by Steve Stricker.
Hanse’s brief was genuinely difficult: build a course hard enough to test the best players alive, yet playable enough that a resort guest on vacation does not lose a dozen balls and half their dignity. Having played my share of “championship” courses that forget the second half of that assignment, I can tell you Fields Ranch East threads the needle better than most.
Course Review: What Fields Ranch East Is Really Like
Off the Tee: Width That Lulls You
The first thing you notice is space. The fairways are wide — genuinely wide, not “wide for a major venue” — and on most holes a reasonable swing finds short grass. That is the resort-friendly half of the design. The catch is that width is never neutral here. Every fairway has a better side and a worse side, and the difference between them is the whole game. Cross-bunkers and central hazards pinch the aggressive lines, so the player hunting a short approach has to carry or skirt sand that the cautious player can simply avoid. You will find the fairway all day. Whether you find the correct forty feet of it is another matter.
The opening hole teaches the lesson immediately. It is a par 5, a slight dogleg right with a bunker guarding the inside of the turn. Hug that bunker and you earn the good angle into a narrow green that slopes left-to-right and sheds anything approaching from the left. Bail away from it and your third shot has to land on a surface that seems actively uninterested in receiving it. Even the lay-up demands thought, because a careless one leaves a first bounce that kicks hard and right. One hole in, you understand the whole course.
The Bunkering: Hanse at His Most Aggressive
Reviewers who have seen every Hanse course in the country have called the bunker shaping here as aggressive as anything he has built, and I will not argue. The bunkers have pronounced noses and steep faces, which makes them deep, visually intimidating, and honestly penal — particularly around the greens. This is not the style of bunkering where a decent player splashes out to tap-in range. Short-side yourself at Fields Ranch East and bogey becomes your good outcome. The smart play, over and over, is to take the extra club, play to the fat side, and accept a longer putt.
Approach and Greens: Where the Course Bares Its Teeth
The greens are the examination room. Many are perched above bunkers and shaved runoffs, several are smaller than the scale of the property suggests, and all of them use orientation and internal contour to reward one angle and punish the rest. The surrounds work in tandem with the fairway width — this is the design’s central trick. A drive to the “wrong” side of a fairway is not lost; it is just holding a losing lottery ticket, because the green will not accept the shot that position demands.
When the wind blows — and this is North Texas prairie, so it blows — the course changes character entirely. Firm, windy Fields Ranch East separates a sharp iron player from a wild one as ruthlessly as any course in the state. Calm and soft, it will give up birdies in bunches to good approach play, which is exactly what the PGA of America wants from a major venue: low scores for the dialed-in, carnage for the loose.
The Back Nine and Panther Creek
The second nine drops into the basin of Panther Creek, and the water and lower ground give the closing stretch a different feel from the open, rumpled front. The creek holes add genuine risk-reward decisions late in the round, and the finishing holes are built for championship drama — you can stand on the final tee and picture exactly where the grandstands will rise in May 2027. Playing a course a year before a PGA Championship, with the infrastructure beginning to take shape, is a thrill in itself.
The Walking-Only, Caddie Experience
Fields Ranch East is a walking-only course, and a caddie reservation is required for every player. Carts are available only with an approved medical exemption, arranged in advance through the resort. This is rare in Texas — cart culture runs deep here — and it defines the day more than any single hole does.
Three honest observations about it:
- Take the caddie seriously. On a course where angles and green contours decide everything, a looper who knows the property is worth several shots. Mine read breaks I would have played double the other way. Caddie fees and gratuities are additional to the green fee, so budget for that on top (amounts vary — confirm when you book).
- Be honest about your fitness. It is 7,800 yards from the back, the property rolls more than the stereotype of North Texas suggests, and summer heat is no joke. From June through September, book the earliest time you can get and drink twice the water you think you need.
- Budget a full morning or afternoon. Pace of play on a busy resort tee sheet runs long — five hours is a realistic expectation, sometimes more. Do not book a 1 p.m. round and a 6:30 dinner reservation.
How to Score at Fields Ranch East: Five Tips From the Fairway
A few things I wish someone had told me on the first tee:
- Play one set of tees forward of your ego. The yardage on the card understates the effective length, because the walking, the wind, and the firm conditions all add club. The course has plenty of teeth from the middle tees; nobody is impressed by your bravery from the tips, least of all your caddie.
- The middle of the green is a strategy, not a cop-out. The pins here live behind noses of sand and beside runoffs. Thirty feet from the center of the green beats twelve feet of short-side sand every single time. Take your two-putt pars and move on.
- Ask your caddie about landing zones, not just lines. The firmness of the turf means the first bounce matters as much as the carry. Several approaches play best landing ten yards short of the number on your rangefinder.
- Respect the par 3s. They swing with the wind more than any other holes on the property, and the difference between the right club and one club short is often a deep bunker with your name on it.
- Save something for the Panther Creek stretch. The back nine’s risk-reward holes will tempt a tired swing into water. If the match is close, the smart miss wins the round late.
Booking, Costs, and the Fine Print
Tee times are booked through the Omni PGA Frisco experiences site, and you do not need to be a hotel guest to play — the course is public. That said, resort guests get meaningful advantages: earlier booking windows, package rates, and the sheer convenience of rolling out of bed onto the property. Peak-season green fees run up to around $330, with lower rates in the off-season and for resort guests (as of 2026 — always check current pricing before you plan).
Fine print worth knowing before you book:
- The East Course closes every Wednesday for routine maintenance (the West closes Tuesdays). Plan your trip days accordingly.
- Practice facilities are for players only. The driving range, warm-up putting green, and chipping green are reserved for golfers with a same-day tee time on East or West — they are not open to the general public.
- No coolers or lawn chairs on PGA Frisco grounds, and professional photography requires advance arrangement.
- Weather moves fast here. Spring rounds risk thunderstorms; the staff is quick with horn blows and equally quick to restart. Fall — October and November — is, for my money, the best golf weather of the year in Frisco.
If the East green fee stings, here is my honest framing: it costs less than half of what comparable major-venue publics charge elsewhere in the country, and the caddie walk makes it feel like a proper occasion. Play it once properly rather than twice grudgingly. For trip budgeting across your whole stay, our Frisco vacation planning guide breaks down costs by season.
Championship Pedigree: What Has Been Played Here, and What Is Coming
No public course in America has a forward calendar like this one. Fields Ranch East was awarded men’s, women’s, and senior majors before it even opened — a first — and the run so far has delivered:
- 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship — the course’s debut major, won by Steve Stricker just weeks after opening.
- 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship — won by Minjee Lee, the course’s first women’s major.
- 2027 PGA Championship — May 2027, bringing major championship golf back to North Texas for the first time in over 60 years. Grounds tickets and hospitality packages are already on sale through the PGA.
- 2029 Senior PGA, 2031 KPMG Women’s PGA, 2034 PGA Championship — the pipeline runs a decade deep.
Playing the course now means you will watch the 2027 broadcast differently. You will know exactly how mean that greenside bunker is, because you were in it. That is the whole pitch, really — and it slots Frisco’s golf story neatly alongside the city’s other big-league credentials, which we cover in the complete guide to sports in Frisco.
Beyond the East Course: The Rest of Fields Ranch
Fields Ranch West
The Beau Welling-designed West Course is the East’s friendlier sibling — same land, same conditioning standards, but built for enjoyment rather than examination. Carts are generally allowed (seasonal conditions permitting), the green fee is lower, and it will not eat your lunch the way the East can. If you have two rounds in you, play West first and East second; your scorecard and your ego will thank you for the warm-up.
The Swing and The Dance Floor
Two of the best casual-golf experiences in Texas sit right next to the big courses. The Swing is a lighted 10-hole par-3 short course where music, drinks, and flip-flops are all welcome. The Dance Floor is a 2-acre lighted putting course — one of the largest natural-grass putting courses in the country, co-designed by Hanse and Welling — where putter and ball rentals run about $5, or free if you bring your own. Both are outstanding with kids or non-golfers, which earns them a spot in our Frisco family vacation guide.
The Coaching Center and PGA District
The PGA of America Coaching Center is a 12,000-square-foot, two-story training facility with ten hitting bays, club fitting, a golf fitness studio, and lessons from PGA of America professionals — open to the public and worth a session if your game needs a pre-round tune-up. The surrounding PGA District is free to wander: restaurants like the Lounge by Topgolf, the Ice House, and Margaret’s Cones and Cups, plus shops from the PGA Shop to Vineyard Vines. It is a legitimate evening out even if you never swing a club, and it pairs well with the broader shopping scene in Frisco.
Planning Your Fields Ranch East Trip
PGA Frisco sits on the north side of the city at 3255 PGA Parkway, about 35 to 50 minutes from DFW Airport depending on traffic. There is no public transit to the resort, so plan on a rental car or rideshare — our guide to getting to Frisco covers the airport math. The obvious stay is the Omni PGA Frisco Resort itself, with its ranch houses, pools, and spa; if you want to compare it against the rest of the market, see our rundowns of hotels in Frisco and the city’s luxury hotels.
For dinner after the round, the resort’s Trick Rider steakhouse is the splurge, but Frisco’s dining scene ten minutes south holds its own against any suburb in America — the best restaurants in Frisco guide has the shortlist. And if your travel partners are not golfers, there is a full menu of things to do in Frisco within a 15-minute drive of the property.
Best Time of Year to Play
October and November are the prize: warm afternoons, calmer winds, firm-and-fast conditions that show the design at its best. April and May are lovely too, though spring storms can scramble a tee sheet with little warning. Summer is playable at dawn — book the first times out and be done by noon — and honestly punishing after 2 p.m., when walking 7,000-plus yards in 100-degree heat stops being sport. Winter rounds are the sleeper value: dormant bermuda turf plays firm, rates drop, and a sunny 60-degree January afternoon in North Texas is better golf weather than most of the country sees in June.
What to Bring (and What to Leave in the Car)
Bring a fresh glove, sunscreen applied before you arrive, and more balls than pride suggests — the native areas are lost-ball country. A rangefinder is useful but secondary to your caddie’s numbers. Leave the push cart at home — the caddie program handles your bag — and skip the cooler entirely, since outside coolers are not allowed on PGA Frisco grounds. Most importantly, wear broken-in shoes: five hours of walking in new spikes is a blister factory. Golf-course dress norms apply, so confirm any specifics with the resort when you book.
FAQ: Fields Ranch East
Can the public play Fields Ranch East?
Yes. Fields Ranch East is a public course. Tee times are booked online through the Omni PGA Frisco experiences site, and you do not need to stay at the resort — though hotel guests get earlier booking access and package discounts. Book well ahead for weekends, especially in spring and fall.
How much does it cost to play Fields Ranch East?
Peak green fees run up to around $330, with lower off-season and resort-guest rates (as of 2026 — check current pricing). Remember to budget beyond the green fee: the required caddie carries a separate fee plus gratuity, so the true cost of a round is meaningfully higher than the sticker rate.
Do you have to walk Fields Ranch East?
Yes. The East Course is a walking-only experience with a caddie required for each player. Carts are available only with an approved medical exemption requested in advance. The West Course generally allows carts, so players who cannot walk 18 holes should aim there instead.
How hard is Fields Ranch East for an average golfer?
More playable than its championship billing suggests — the fairways are wide and forward tees are generous — but the deep bunkering and demanding greens punish short-siding badly. Play the correct tees, aim for the middle of greens, and listen to your caddie, and a mid-handicapper will have a great day.
When is the PGA Championship at PGA Frisco?
The PGA Championship comes to Fields Ranch East in May 2027 — the first men’s major in North Texas in over 60 years — with championship week running May 11–23, 2027. The course returns as host in 2034, with the Senior PGA in 2029 and the KPMG Women’s PGA in 2031 between them.
Is the PGA District free to visit?
Yes. The PGA District — the restaurants, shops, The Swing, and The Dance Floor area — is open to the public with no admission charge. You pay only for what you do: about $5 for putter rental on the Dance Floor, tee times for The Swing, and food and drink as you go.
Final Thoughts
Fields Ranch East is the rare course that delivers on an enormous promise. It is a genuine major championship venue you can actually play, a walking-caddie experience in a state that mostly forgot them, and a design that gets more interesting the more you think about where you missed. Play it before May 2027 and the broadcast will never look the same. Then spend the evening on the Dance Floor with a drink, putting under the lights, and you will understand why Frisco now sits at the center of American golf.