The Ultimate Hobby: A Billionaire’s Golf Course Dream

In a world where the ultra-wealthy collect supercars and rare art, David D. Halbert chose a different path to express his success. The newest Forbes 400 member invested $50 million to create something truly personal: his own championship golf course in Texas. “The most fun thing I think I’ve ever done was to build that course,” says the 69-year-old Halbert, who named the first hole after himself – or rather, after “Jake,” the nickname his grandchildren use for him. Located on 170 acres along Lake Granbury, about an hour southwest of Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Halbert National is a 7,500-yard masterpiece that belongs entirely to him and his family. No memberships exist – only friends and family can experience this meticulously crafted playground.

The course represents a remarkable collaboration between Halbert and legendary golf designer Tom Fazio. Rather than being a passive client, Halbert actively shaped his dream course, convincing Fazio to make significant changes to the original designs. On the 11th hole, Halbert instructed a bulldozer operator to create a 30-foot hill where Fazio had planned just a 7-foot rise. On the first hole, he insisted on bringing a buried stream to the surface as a babbling brook lined with limestone steps. Fazio, now 80, appreciated this engagement: “I want the owner engaged. For him to be part of it, to love it.” The designer compared his rapport with Halbert to his relationship with casino magnate Steve Wynn, for whom he designed the famous Shadow Creek course in Nevada. “Having your own golf course is the ultimate piece of art. I fulfill dreams,” Fazio explains.

Halbert’s journey to billionaire status began far from the manicured fairways of his personal course. Growing up in Texas as the son of a surgeon, he met his wife of 46 years, Kathy, at Abilene Christian University (to which they later donated $30 million). Though golf would become his “only hobby,” he didn’t pick up the sport until a few years after college. His entrepreneurial spirit led him through various ventures – natural gas wells in Colorado, gas stations in Hawaii, and home oxygen deliveries – before launching what became the pharmacy benefits manager AdvancePCS in 1987. When he sold the publicly traded company to Caremark in 2004 for $7.5 billion, he personally made about $250 million. That same year, he and Kathy built their lake house in Granbury and soon purchased the land across the lake to preserve their view. Ironically, the golf course began with Kathy’s modest wish for a small 3-hole practice area where she could play without pressure. “I just wanted this little thing where I didn’t have anybody behind me and I could swing like an idiot,” she recalls. Little did she know what would follow.

While building his golf paradise, Halbert was also growing his biotech empire. He founded Caris Capital, which seeded Caris Diagnostics, and in 2008 purchased Molecular Profiling Institute, renaming it Caris Life Sciences. The company has since built an impressive database of genetic and medical records covering some 800,000 cancer patients, feeding this information to AI algorithms that determine optimal treatments. Last year, the FDA approved Caris’ first diagnostic test, and future products will include earlier-detection cancer blood tests. When Caris went public in March, it quickly reached a market capitalization of $10.3 billion. Halbert’s 44% ownership translates to a net worth of $4.9 billion – more than enough to fund his golfing dreams. The total price for his course will likely reach $70 million once he completes a lodge and acquires neighboring properties. “I want it to be nicer than Augusta,” he declares, noting that annual upkeep costs around $3 million – “about the same as our flight crew” for his Gulfstream G550.

Creating a world-class golf course required exceptional effort and resources. Halbert was 66 and Fazio 77 when they first met in 2022, giving their collaboration a sense of urgency. “If I’m going to do it, I’ve got to do it now,” Halbert thought. He won over the selective Fazio by proposing “a no-budget course. You can spend as much as you want and do whatever you want on it.” The project involved moving a million tons of dirt and planting 2,000 trees to transform flat hayfields into a sculpted landscape with a quarter mile of lakefront. The grass alone represents remarkable engineering: three different zoysia varieties and a genetically engineered “super dwarf Bermuda” strain called TifEagle. To ensure perfection, Halbert hired the former facilities director of Larry Ellison’s private Porcupine Creek course to run the property. The cost breakdown illustrates the enormity of the undertaking: more than half the expense went to underground irrigation and drainage, with a maintenance building costing $5 million and a pump station in the lake running $2 million.

Despite creating this intensely private sanctuary, Halbert doesn’t intend to keep it entirely to himself. “I certainly intend to have it played,” he says, hoping to attract fellow Dallas National members and PGA stars like Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, and Bryson DeChambeau once the grass fully matures next year. The course might also appeal to his son Patrick’s business partners, including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Jimmy Iovine. Halbert joins other billionaires who have built private courses, including Warren Stephens, Kelcy Warren, Ted Turner, and Michael Jordan. The area around Granbury is becoming a high-end golf destination, with Tiger Woods building his second course nearby and Fazio working on another private club outside Fort Worth. Halbert continues enhancing his creation by moving fairways, planting more $35,000 “signature trees,” and extending the total distance to 7,777 yards by incorporating adjacent properties. He and Fazio have even discussed a $58,000 amphibious hovercraft golf cart to travel between his home and the course. As Kathy observes about the entire project, “That’s not just a golf course, it’s an attitude. I can come out here with my girlfriends and a pitcher of margaritas and whack away.”