All eyes will be on Colonial this week. Here are some facts to know about the course.
Fort Worth has become golf’s hot spot this week. The top five players in the world are scheduled to compete in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club as PGA Tour restarts its season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This year adds another layer to the rich history of the course and tournament. With the help of tournament manager Dennis Roberson, here’s everything you need to know about Colonial going into the tournament:
History lesson
▪ The Colonial was built during the Great Depression, opening its doors in 1936. Other classic American golf courses built during that time included Augusta National in Georgia and Southern Hills in Oklahoma.
▪ The course is known as “Hogan’s Alley.” Legendary Fort Worth golfer Ben Hogan and the course’s founder, Marvin Leonard, were lifelong friends. Leonard met Hogan when Hogan was a young caddie at Fort Worth’s Glen Garden Country Club (now the headquarters of TX Whiskey). Leonard funded Hogan’s professional golf career early on. Once Hogan made it and tried to repay Leonard, Leonard refused to take it, saying Hogan had repaid him many times over.
▪ Hogan won five Colonials in his career, including his last PGA Tour victory in 1959 at age 46.
▪ The designer, John Bredemus, was an Ivy League graduate and world-class athlete.
▪ It’s the only course that has hosted a men’s U.S. Open (1941), a women’s U.S. Open (1991), a players championship (1975) and an annual PGA Tour event.
Tournament nuggets
▪ Colonial has been played every year since 1950. The 1949 tournament was canceled because of a flood.
▪ A fire destroyed the clubhouse in 1953 but the course was still good enough to host the tournament. Hogan won his fourth title that year, taking the championship by five strokes.
▪ Arnold Palmer won the 1962 Colonial. Palmer planned to skip the event and take a break after winning three out of four tournaments. But Colonial officials convinced Palmer to honor his commitment. Palmer showed up on Wednesday and then defeated Johnny Pott in an 18-hole playoff the following Monday.
▪ Hall of Famers Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson each won the Colonial in their 40s. Nicklaus won the 1982 tournament, his second-to-last career victory, while Watson won in 1998 at age 48.
▪ Another Hall of Famer, Payne Stewart, never won at Colonial. He came close twice, losing sudden-death playoffs in 1984 and 1986. He made his Colonial debut as an amateur in 1979 as the Southwest Conference champion out of SMU.
Did you know?
▪ The 1983 sudden-death playoff when Jim Colbert knocked off Fuzzy Zoeller is the only playoff in tournament history not won with a birdie. Colbert won by parring the sixth playoff hole.
▪ There hasn’t been a wire-to-wire champion since Ian Baker-Finch in 1989. Speaking of Baker-Finch, he famously took off his pants to play a shot from the water on No. 13 in 1993. The next year, Colonial presented him with a pair of plaid boxer shorts.
▪ In 1973, a newspaper quoted an anonymous player as saying Colonial was “the premiere girl-watching stop on Tour. And whatever is second is way, way back.”
▪ No. 4, the 247-yard par-3, is the only par-3 that has not been aced during the tournament.
▪ Hogan is the only player who has won consecutive Colonials (1946-47 and 1952-53). Jordan Spieth, the 2016 champion, came close in 2017. He finished tied for second, one shot back of champion Kevin Kisner.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
