Bechtol Golf Design

The Team

The TeamBechtol Golf Design is a full-service golf course design firm created to take advantage of the unique experience and background of its principals. A wide variety of experience and perspective makes Bechtol Golf Design the architect of choice for both the golf course and its owner.

This broad range of experience allows Bechtol Golf Design to incorporate all the goals of the entire project, including an understanding of the development and operational issues needed to produce a great golf course that truly blends with the entire development, site and environment.

It is this unique combination that allows the Bechtol Golf Design to truly integrate the golf course with the land plan to enhance the entire project. Not only does Bechtol Golf Design rely on the outstanding talents of its principals, but its close association with Bechtol’s land planning and landscape architecture firm, Planned Environments, Inc., allows the drawing on the varied skills of that staff as well.

This allows Bechtol Golf Design to bring in landscape architects, land planners and environmental specialists to assist and advise as necessary. It also allows us to expand the staff available to meet all deadlines in a timely fashion.

Jim BechtolJim Bechtol
In July 2007, noted community designer and land planner Jim Bechtol rejoined the Bechtol Golf Design team after a 10-year hiatus in which he spent time as a professional golfer on the Texas-based Lone Star Tour and established his own company as a planner and designer in the Leander, Texas area. Jim Bechtol spent five years working for the City of Leander, eventually taking the position as that burgeoning municipality's Director of Planning and Community Development, a role in which he was responsible for the city's parks, planning and street department - a huge task in a city that has quadrupled in size in the past since 1998.

Previously, Jim Bechtol was Leander's director of parks and recreation, where he helped solidify the status of Crystal Falls Golf Course as one of the top municipal tracks in the state and marshal the improvements of one of the city's parks and the construction of two others. Jim Bechtol worked with his brother Roy Bechtol in the latter's Planned Environments, Inc., for 14 years before striking out on his own. "Jimbo is at the top of the game as far as land planning goes, and - with his knowledge of design and community development - he is a key part of our fine staff here at Bechtol Golf Design and Planned Environments," Roy Bechtol said. "I have always learned a lot from my brother, and it is great to have him as a constant reference and source of information and expertise." Jim Bechtol is responsible for land and community planning, golf course routing and course detailing and construction drawings. He works hand in hand with Roy Bechtol and Jim Vater, Planned Environment's and Bechtol Golf Design's longtime vice president of planning, design and development.

"Building golf courses is something that I have always wanted to do, and now - with the place we are at with Bechtol Golf Design - we have a real opportunity to fashion some special tracks," Jim Bechtol said. Jim Bechtol has established Bechtol Golf Design's office in Leander and through that effort has established a larger presence in the communities north and west of its Austin home base.

Jim Vater, Vice President of Planning
Jim Vater has been with Planned Environments Inc. (and thus Bechtol Golf Design) for nearly as long as the company has been in existence. He is an architectural graduate with high honors in 1981 and started working for Fluor Engineering Corporation in Houston while attending University of Houston’s civil engineering program.

Vater met Roy Bechtol playing in a slow pitch softball game in 1983 and took a job with Bechtol’s firm that summer. He then attended Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) and studied Urban Planning.

Vater worked for PEI until 1990 (during the Texas recession) when he took a job with International Technology Corporation, an environmental engineering company. He also worked for Horizon Environmental during the time between 1990 and 1992. "That was a great learning experience for me to work environmental rules and regulations important to planning," Vater said.

Vater returned to PEI in 1992 and has been with the company ever since. Over the years he has done just about every job there was to do at PEI. "I started off doing primarily drafting and CAD in the early days, but later moved to doing all of the governmental ordinance assessment studies and permitting, and I’ve project managed the planning division."

Vater also gets involved in all aspects of design, including parks planning, golf course routings, landscape and detailed site planning. He coordinates all the proposals and bills for the planning division of PEI (with lots of help from Bechtol and the rest of the PEI staff.) Vater loves the great outdoors and wide-open spaces so hunting and fishing are his
favorite things to do. He also really enjoys camping and hiking.

James Russell Curry, Vice President of Golf Production
James Russell (Russ) Curry, a 22-year employee of Planned Environments, Inc. and Bechtol Golf Design, was born in Lawrence, Kansas. His family moved to Chicago when he was 4-years old and he eventually graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale with Bachelor’s degree in Geology.

Curry moved to Texas in 1986, met Roy Bechtol almost immediately and has been a fixture at Bechtol’s firms ever since. Curry considers himself the "connection between dreams and reality. I finalize ideas digitally in the form of construction documents based on preliminary drawing and sketches made by Roy and his staff," Curry said.

Brian Reed, Marketing Coordinator
A native of Austin, Texas, Brian Reed joined Planned Environments, Inc. in 1997 and during the past 10 years has gone from using the pen and drafting table to the latest technologies available.

With the developments in computer-aided design and rendering software, Reed’s passion for drawing and art have grown and evolved to develop new and more efficient ways to create maps and graphics that help aid and market Roy Bechtol and Bechtol Golf Design’s professionals. Along with art his interests include spending time with his wife and three kids and playing music in a bluegrass band.

Steve Habel, Media Coordinator/Business Development
Steve Habel writes press releases and coordinates media coverage and business development for Roy Bechtol’s three companies. He is also responsible for writing follow-ups on Bechtol-designed golf courses and spearheads a new service Bechtol offers to clients to provide a running, written chronology of golf course projects as they progress. He acts in the same manner for both Planned Environments, Inc. and Waters Of America.

Since 1990, Steve Habel has traveled around the globe covering news, business and sports assignments for various news bureaus, newspapers, magazines and websites. Habel, a frequent contributor to TravelGolf.com and Cybergolf.com and is the regular travel golf columnist for the Bay Group Magazines in suburban Houston. He is a member of the Texas Golf Writers’ Association. Habel also serves as managing editor of Business District magazine in Austin and is the Texas football beat writer and contributing editor for Horns Illustrated, the Austin-based magazine for University of Texas sports.

Habel’s expertise is in writing stories that make people think and press releases that are all-inclusive, informative and ready for publication. He has been lauded and awarded by his peers for his news judgment, his writing and his editing. Habel holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business from the University of Texas and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in communication from Texas State University in San Marcos.

Kelly Brown, Vice President of Production and IT Development
Graduating in 1995, the last year Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture still lacked computers, Brown offers the appreciation of an architect who learned the old-world styles of hand-drawn design, combined with the passion of a true computer geek. He has spent the last 10 years of that geekdom with PEI/BGD. With more than 14 years of experience in computer-aided design, rendering, printing, networking and inter-office applications, Brown has helped PEI/BGD earn and maintain a reputation towards excellence.

Steve Degroot, Vice President of Landscape
Steve Degroot has been involved in the landscape design and construction fields for more than 30 years. He was one of Roy Bechtol’s first employees and has been through thick and thin with Planned Environments and its predecessors. "Planned Environments Inc. has been the source of some of the most challenging and unusual landscape projects," Degroot said. "As a part of these designs my work ranges from conceptual cartoon sketches to design development and construction drawings, some drawn on site in the soil or whatever medium is available as well as on the computer."

Degroot’s work in nut-and-bolt specification requires a great deal of effort coordinating the various professions, trades and governmental entities. "Because PEI is a multi-disciplinary firm, the scale of projects I have experienced range in scale from large acreage multi-use developments, to residential subdivisions, to golf courses, to institutional, commercial, and park planning park planning and to what to plant in the garden pottery."

Degroot’s relevant work experience includes construction, nursery operations, and landscape construction management and supervision.  His education through high school was in the Austin suburb of West Lake Hills and included fast cars and cold beer. He then enrolled at Central Texas College, were his several years of study in pre-architecture incorporated a couple of fast cars and some rodeo. Degroot eventually earned his Bachelor of Science degree in the Landscape Architectural from Texas A&M, and he is currently on the project experience and yearly license requirements of eight hours of continuing education.

Samantha Shoppell, Front Office Manager
Samantha Shoppell has worked at Planned Environments, Inc. and Bechtol Golf Design for more than two years. She is the first smiling face to greet clients on the phone or from her station near the front door of the companies’ office. Shoppell handles the office’s administrative duties, organizes team events and ensures that employees’ needs are met. She also serves as an assistant to Roy Bechtol handling his scheduling and travel needs. Shoppell and her husband Brian, both from Houston, now reside in South Austin and love the Hill Country.