New owners making changes at Valley High Golf Club in Houston (Jul 24)

July 24, 2015 – Remodeling is expected to be completed, and a new menu put in place, by the first or second week of August at the clubhouse and restaurant at the Valley High Golf Club near Houston.

The public golf course has been purchased by the owners of Dublin Square Irish Pub & Eatery and Burger Fusion restaurants and the general manager of the Arterial Bar & Grill, all in La Crosse.

Matt Boshcka, Tim Larsen and Matt Birnbaum and their friend, Andrew Brye of the Arterial, bought the 145-acre golf course from Paul and Judy Schams, effective July 1.

Casey O’Connell, who had started his fifth season as the golf club’s general manager, said he is pleased that the new owners will oversee the bar and food operations while he focuses on the course in his new job as director of golf operations. “We’re a quality golf course and we’re adding to the restaurant and bar side,” he said.

“The golf course is in great shape,” O’Connell said of the 18-hole course, which draws people from within a 50-mile radius. “It’s better than I’ve ever seen it at this time of year. A customer recently told me he hasn’t seen it look this good in decades.” He attributes that to the work of golf course superintendent Jim Bastys and a quality grounds crew.

“I’ll focus on golf outings, overseeing the golf staff and working with the superintendent on constant improvement of the golf course and playing conditions,” O’Connell said.

A major remodeling project began July 1 in the clubhouse and its restaurant.

The restaurant, which has been renamed The Turn Bar & Grille, soon will have a larger menu that is influenced by the owners’ other restaurants. It will feature such things as chicken wings, burgers, wrap sandwiches, mahi-mahi fish tacos, steak, chicken, fish and chips, a variety of comfort foods and a Friday fish fry.

“We’re using fresh ingredients,” Boshcka said. The restaurant and bar also will use local products such as Pearl Street Brewery beer, Buffalo Hills Bison (near Caledonia) meat and Trempealeau Hotel walnut burgers, he said.

“A lot of people have missed having a Friday fish fry here” for the past two years, O’Connell said. For the past two years, the menu had been scaled back to such fare as burgers, wraps and other sandwiches, and appetizers, he said.

The past two years, Valley High had been a seasonal business, open from March to November.

“We tentatively plan to be open year-round” with the restaurant and its banquet room, Boshcka said. The banquet room can accommodate up to 100 people.

Brye, who has been general manager of the Arterial for the past 10 years, said he now will divide his time between that business and Valley High.