Nelson golf makes final run in Irving, moves to Dallas in 2018

Lord Byron Nelson’s tournament concludes a chapter 35 years in the making this week as the annual Dallas stop on the PGA Tour wraps up its final contest at the Four Seasons Resort and Club’s TPC Course.

And while the new host home, Trinity Forest in South Dallas, is still a year away from garnering the spot light, the TPC course is putting its best foot forward.

Monday marked Day 1 of the event with the Champion Pro-Am plus a host of Tour professionals dotting the range after a long week at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

“It’s in great shape,” Dallas professional and former SMU golfer Austin Smotherman said. “I’ve played out here quite a bit and I’ve never played here when the fairways are as fast as they are right now.

“If you hit it in the speed slot on some of these holes, you can hit it a bit further than your used to and so that will be a challenge.”

For Smotherman, it’s a different type of challenge all together as the second professional makes his Tour debut with a sponsor’s exemption into the Nelson.

With a sketchy forecast for later in the week, though, how fast the course plays by the time the tournament gets under way remains in the offing.

Dustin Johnson headlines a strong field that includes No. 3 Jason Day, Colonial champion Jordan Spieth and Masters Champion Sergio Garcia.

Garcia is also the defending champion.

All together, it’s eight of the world’s top 20 saying one last goodbye to the TPC Course.

“Having the tournament here has meant a lot to the Dallas area and they’ve done such a good job here in Las Colinas,” Bryson Dechambeau said. “Obviously, going over to Trinity Forest is going to be a big change and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.”

The Nelson moved from Preston Trail in Dallas to the Irving course in 1982.

From there, its champions have included titans of the game, Ben Crenshaw, Fred Couples, Payne Stewart, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Adam Scott.

Garcia’s won the tournament twice.

In 2008, just a couple of years removed from Nelson’s death, the TPC layout was redesigned by D.A. Weibring in hopes of re-charging player interest in the tournament.

When AT&T took over as sponsor in 2013, plans got underway to relocate the event to South Dallas.

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Nelson golf makes final run in Irving, moves to Dallas in 2018."