Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Preview

Published: 5/21/2014
By: Chris Solomon

In our trusty college football parlance, last week’s mediocre Byron Nelson was the GoDaddy.com Bowl, which gives way to this week’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, our equivalent to the Cotton Bowl: prestigious, traditional, and entertaining. As one of only five invitational tournaments on tour (only the first 80 on the prior year’s money list are guaranteed spots), it serves as one of the most underrated stops on the circuit. Before proceeding further, it must be noted that Colonial hosted its proudest moment in 2008 when Scoops Callahan took his game to the next level:

(For more from Scoops Callahan, click here. You will enjoy.)

Course

Colonial Country Club

Dating to 1936, Colonial Country Club is more commonly referred to as “Hogan’s Alley,” as the long time Fort Worth resident won the eponymous event five times in a fourteen year span. The 7,200 yard, par 70 layout is almost universally revered on tour, and hence rated as the 5th best course on the PGA Tour circuit, behind only Augusta, Harbour Town, Riviera, and Pebble Beach. Tour players tend to love courses that reward good ball striking with fair, predictable results, and that’s exactly what Colonial gives you. What’s amazing is that in nearly 70 years, the course has been lengthened by less than 200 yards, which owes to the fact that the course was considered long when it was built.

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Colonial is a certified bird sanctuary, with the winning score being at least -11 every year since the year 2000, including Zach Johnson’s near 72 hole PGA Tour record of 259 (-21) in 2010. Every couple of years it seems we get a reasonable 59-watch, only to be disappointed. The course record of 61 is shared by six players, two of whom are Texas forever. You have to think there’s a good chance that we’ll see someone post a 60 in the next couple years.

Triple C’s – Is Rick Ross a member?

The layout (here’s a full hole-by-hole) is rare in that it’s feature holes are often played before coverage starts, but the three hole stretch of holes 3, 4, and 5 is the most demanding and most feared trio on the course. Framed by the Trinity River to its right, the fifth hole is known as one of the best par 4’s in the world. Yet again, we’re subjected to an unfortunate nickname for the three hole stretch, this time called the “Horrible Horseshoe.” (Sidebar: How long until a corporate sponsor sees the marketing potential for a stretch of holes and slaps a brand name on it? The possibilities are absolutely endless. Can’t you already hear Nantz, in his hushed tone: “Well David, we know what’s waiting for him around the corner, it’s the dreaded Deepwater Horizon brought to you by BP. We’ve already seen several oil spills here, but let’s see if he has enough gas to make it all the way to shore.”)

Since none of the four of us have actually been to Colonial, we asked longtime NLU ambassador David Byrne for his thoughts on the track, as he heads north to begin his 2014 conquest of the Canadian circuit:

The 1st hole is one of my favorites because it is a gentle hole to start on. Only par 5 on that side and a birdie is imminent BUT if you don’t hit the fairway it can make you start grinding right away. Holes 4 & 5 have to be grouped together. Until I actually played here I never realized the hole is over 240 yards and every time I’ve gotten out here it’s been 60 degrees and blowing 20 in my face and necessitated a 3 wood. Such a simple, yet difficult par 3. On #5 you can hit an absolutely perfect drive and still being saying to yourself, “Okay, bogey is good here.” Without a doubt the toughest drive on the course. A cut off the tee is what it calls for and if you are anywhere on the left side, a draw will most likely be the shot of choice coming in, with anything from 4 to 6 iron (save for a select few who’s distance supersedes logic). Incredible hole.

As for the back. The holes coming in are pretty neat. On 15, many guys will hit 3 wood, then a short to mid iron. I personally hit chief absolutely everywhere here (and really whenever I can). It’s a good birdie hole. But the 2nd shot makes the hole. It’s pretty with the water hazard left. A little tug and the hole just got harder. My favorite hole on the course is probably 16. It’s stuck in this corner of the property and at first glance you think it would be a flip wedge hole the way with the way it’s set up…but it’s 2 bills to a pretty tricky green. Just a sneaky difficult hole. Overall, the greens are PURE and so easy to read, which I think contributes to why the scores are consistently low. I love a guy like Sendo to play well here.

Obviously if you can’t tell already, the proprietors of NLU think VERY highly of this course – it’s nice to know we’re not alone! It should be noted that as our network of readers and followers keeps expanding we hope to incorporate more stuff like this into the site, and most especially our previews. (If any of our readers have experience or resources that could help us for future locations, please let us know!)

Vibe

Another guest spot here – back by popular demand is NLU’s trusted, longtime MetroPlex correspondent, Andy Staron. After growing up in Dallas, Andy took his talents to the midwest for college, but failed to resist the Texas siren song, opting to return within a couple of years, this time to Fort Worth. Here’s his take on the area:

This week, the Tour heads over to the western confines of the Metroplex for a tournament right in the heart of Fort Worth. As with most of the state, it’s good times financially in Fort Worth for business these days. I’d imagine there are economic indicators out the ass that demonstrate this, but there’s probably none stronger than me actually landing a job here (and one that is basically a Ticket Oak this week, holla!). That and literally every damn road and a building every 3 blocks are under construction right now. The MexicansConstruction workers haven’t had a day off in years! And while the denizens of Fort Worth are all happy to be collecting a paycheck, it’s really good times for the local oligarchs: the Bass’s, Moncrief’s, Carter’s et al are absolutely cleaning up. The city’s power brokers have sprawled into the worlds of high finance, government, media and even the arts, but of course they all kick started their path to power with Black Gold. Texas Tea. Oil that is. This is Texas after all.

So what kind of characters can we expect to see on the grounds this week? Well, of Texas’ 5 major cities, Fort Worth easily best lives up to the stereotypical depiction of a Texan. I mean, when the rodeo is in town, I’m actually encouraged to wear boots and jeans to work. Hell, there’s a twice daily cattle drive that stops traffic just a mile or so north of downtown. Sadly, I don’t think too many belt buckles or ten gallon hats will be popping up in the background of your telecast this week. And the tank-top game probably won’t be as strong as last week either (the ‘see and be seen’ scene doesn’t drive as much of the attendance as it does at The Byron). Nope, I think you’ll pretty much see your stereotypical golf fan. White guys in their late 30’s/early 40’s with polos tucked into their high-waisted shorts following around their kid decked out in Puma (maybe Under Armour this year?) gear.

In what perpetually feels like a heavily one-sided dick measuring contest favoring Dallas, this is the one week a year where Fort Worth gets to whip out a trouser cobra, and they get to do it a week after Dallas fails to grow and/or show on a national stage. Colonial is absolutely a point of pride among locals. And that’s before mentioning the city gets to lay claim to Ben Hogan… Batman Ben, The Hawk, The Wee Ice Mon!

And on the subject of Hogan, his NYT obit sums it up better than I could ever attempt to.