Following the success of the first golf club organized in Houston (a nine-hole course built on 45 acres of land leased from Rice University west of the city) the Houston Country Club was chartered in 1908.

Under its first president William M. Rice Jr. it purchased and developed an 18-hole course southeast of downtown Houston on 152 acres.

[3] George H. W. Bush, a Tanglewood resident, often played golf and tennis at the club.

[3] In the early 1960s Bush first met James A. Baker and Robert Mosbacher while playing tennis at the Houston Country Club.

[5] Bush and Baker were the winners of the club's tennis doubles championships.