A Hole in One

Arlington and Texas Rangers team up on world's first MLB golf course

Golf and baseball both require you to swing.

Photo courtesy of LPS Foundation

The City of Arlington and Texas Rangers are partnering up to create a new golf club that will be the only Major League Baseball-branded golf course in the world. Called the Texas Rangers Golf Club, it'll open in north Arlington in summer 2018.

The club is a rebranding of the former Chester W. Ditto Golf Course which will receive new features and amenities, including a new club house. This collaborative branding partnership affords the opportunity for Arlington to offer a destination golf course not only for residents but for visitors to the Rangers ballpark, Texas Live!, and other entertainment district attractions.

"As the world’s only MLB-themed golf course, this course is sure to be a 'bucket list' item for baseball fans across the globe, especially our Rangers fan right here in Arlington," says Mayor Jeff Williams.

The course is at Brown Boulevard and Collins Street in north Arlington. The $24 million project includes a total renovation and updated routing of the existing golf course with improved turf grasses and additional water features. A new 33,871-square-foot clubhouse, set to open in spring 2019, will feature a full-service restaurant and bar, covered patio overlooking the golf course, pro shop, locker rooms, and numerous rental and event spaces.

To honor Chester W. Ditto, his family, and their contributions to the city of Arlington, the clubhouse will be named the Chester Ditto Clubhouse. In a release, Texas Rangers VP Rob Matwick acknowledged the team's history with the course.

"Ditto Golf Course has a long tradition in North Arlington and Rangers' team personnel have been playing at that location for many years," Matwick said. "We feel this presents a great cross-promotional opportunity for the club, and we look forward to working with the city to make Texas Rangers Golf Club a first-class destination."

The Texas Rangers are allowing the city to use the team's branding for the public golf course at no cost through a promotional and licensing agreement, which was approved by Arlington City Council on January 9. Arlington will remain the owner and the operator of the course, collecting all green fees and clubhouse revenues.

The hope is that the course will draw high-profile golf tournaments, attract new business and housing, and encourage visitors to extend their stay at Arlington's hotels through tourism promotional packages.

The Texas Rangers Golf Club rates are still being finalized, but Arlington residents will receive discounted green fees.

The branding agreement extends through December 31, 2054, which coincides with the team’s lease with the city for the future Globe Life Field retractable-roof ballpark that opens in 2020.

The Texas Rangers will provide increased marketing for the city's golf club, including print advertising on pocket schedules and game programs, video spotlights during Rangers home games, and cross-promotions on the Rangers website and social media feeds.

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hottest headlines of 2024

Billionaires and 'burbs top Fort Worth's hottest 2024 city life stories

Rob Walton, Alice Walton, Jim Walton, Walton family, Walmart heirs, billionaires, world's richest

Photo by Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images

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Editor's note: As we look back at the most-read Fort Worth city life stories of 2024, we see that readers really liked to know how the other half lived. Three of the top 10 headlines starred Walmart heiress Alice Walton and her family. Another hot story was about a local suburb that ranked among the wealthiest in the U.S., and another, about Fort Worth's status as an economic boomtown. Readers also ate up news about top high schools and colleges.

Here are the top 10 most popular city life stories of 2024 in Fort Worth:

1. Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton crowned world's richest woman. Walmart heiress Alice Walton has taken back the title of world's wealthiest woman. According to a SeptemberForbes report, Walton has toppled L’Oreal heiressFrancoise Bettencourt Meyersof France to become the richest woman on the planet for the first time since 2022.

2. Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton has world's richest family in 2024. Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton and her kin are back on top as the world's richest family, according to Bloomberg's 2024 list of the wealthiest families on the planet, released in December. To reclaim their crown, the Waltons toppled actual royalty: the Al Nahyans, Abu Dhabi's ruling family, who came in first last year and fell to second in 2024. Qatar's ruling dynasty, the Al Thanis, came in third.

3. Affluent Fort Worth neighbor ranks among wealthiest suburbs in U.S. Wealthy Americans, increasingly, are bypassing behemoth cities like Los Angeles or New York City and settling down in smaller suburbs like Fort Worth neighbor Southlake. So said a July household income study by GoBankingRates, which listed Southlake among the wealthiest American suburbs in 2024.

4. 2 Fort Worth high schools rank among America's best in 2024, says U.S. News. Two Fort Worth high schools are dominating U.S. News and World Report's prestigious annual list of the country's best public high schools. The 2024 rankings from U.S. News, released April 23, included Fort Worth ISD's World Languages Institute and Fort Worth ISD's Young Women's Leadership Academy.

TCU ranks in the top 100 for college athletics and best student life. Facebook/TCU Showgirls

5. Fort Worth's TCU earns high honors in new ranking of top U.S. colleges. The new academic year had just started, but there was already a report card for TCU students to write home about. Niche, an education review and ranking website, rated Texas Christian University the eighth best college in Texas and the 81st top private University in America (out of 915) for 2025. Out of all 1,517 U.S. colleges ranked in Niche's new survey, TCU comes in at a respectable No. 163.

6. Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton is world's 2nd richest woman, says Forbes. The rich got richer this year, and that includes Fort Worth billionaire Alice Walton, who is now the second wealthiest woman in the world, says Forbes. According to the 2024 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, released April 2, Walton has a net worth of $72.3 billion, up from $56.7 billion in 2023, $65.3 billion in 2022, and $61.8 billion in 2021.

7. Prosperous Fort Worth declared No. 2 best economic boomtown in America. Move over, Austin: Fort Worth's booming financial prosperity earned the city an impressive ranking of No. 2 in a list of best U.S. cities for economic growth. It outperformed all major cities in Texas. The July study, "America's Boomtowns: Top Cities for Economic Growth," from flexible workspace listing provider CoworkingCafe, ranked America's boomtowns based on population growth, GDP, employment rates, and other economic factors.

8. 2 Fort Worth suburbs make list of America's most livable small cities. Some Fort Worth suburbs stick out from the rest thanks to their happy residents, and now Mansfield got the spotlight in July. The tiny but mighty city 20 miles southeast of Fort Worth was one of six Texas cities to earn a top-100 ranking in SmartAsset's 2024 "Most Livable Small Cities" report.

Sergeant Billy Randolph Fort Worth Police Sgt. Billy Randolph, RIP. Linked In

9. Fort Worth police officer on duty hit by alleged drunk driver and killed. A Fort Worth police officer died after being hit by a car while in the line of duty. Sgt. Billy Randolph died on the morning of August 12 while working a motor vehicle accident on I-35W near Sycamore School Road. During the course of the cleanup and investigation, he was standing outside his vehicle when another vehicle drove through the accident scene and struck him.

10. 7 North Texas cities rank among safest and most affordable in U.S. Crime may be a concern for some Texans, but North Texas has it pretty good: Seven local cities – McKinney, Frisco, Grand Prairie, Plano, Carrollton, Richardson, and Denton – were named the safest and most affordable places to live in the U.S., as declared in a new report by GoBankingRates, released in June.

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