The tour finishes up the final leg of the Texas swing this week in Fort Worth, home of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club. Steve Stricker is the defending champion, and will be back in action this week to defend his title after having missed the last month because of a chest injury.
The Course
At first glance, Colonial Country Club would appear to be a long-hitter’s paradise. At just a shade over 7,000 yards (7,054 to be exact) one would typically expect to see a driver-wedge birdie fest that yields a low-scoring affair. But Colonial is different. Many of the tee shots require a player to work the ball off the tee, as much of the layout is punctuated by doglegs and awkward target lines. Ben Hogan summed up the layout at Colonial the best, saying “A straight ball will get you in more trouble at Colonial than any course I know.” Those words are no less true today, over a half of a century later.
The players who start on the front side on Thursday will get an early test within 30 minutes of the start of their round, as they embark on the infamous “Horrible Horseshoe”, as holes 3-5 will quickly grab some attention. The beginning of the Horrible Horseshoe is the long, difficult 483yd par4 3rd hole, with a pronounced dogleg left. Most players will be facing a mid-long iron approach into the green, making par a solid score. The 247yd par3 4th; This hole is so difficult that nary a hole-in-one has been carded here since the tournament began 62 years ago. The elevated green makes par an extremely challenging goal, so not many birdies will be posted here this week. The Horrible Horseshoe’s finale is the layout’s most difficult hole. At 481 yards, the par4 5th was probably where the term “hard par” was first coined many moons ago. Long, narrow, and trouble protecting both sides of the fairway, this hole can easily put a player on his heels. The par4 5th boasted a tournament scoring average of 4.259 strokes back in 2009.
The Field
This week’s field at Colonial will include three of the world’s top 5 players, with Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, and Jim Furyk leading the way. Ian Poulter and Paul Casey round out the top 10.
Geoff Ogilvy, Hunter Mahan, Lucas Glover, Y.E. Yang, Tim Clark, Henrik Stenson, Sean O’Hair, and Kenny Perry make up the remaining top 25 players ranked inside the top 25 who will be in the field this week.
Thursday and Friday coverage: TGC, 3-6 p.m. EST
Weekend coverage: CBS, 3-6 p.m. EST
Tags: Ben Hogan, Colonial Country Club, Ian Poulter, Jim Furyk, Paul Casey, PGA Tour, PGA Tour Golf, PGATour.Com, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, The Crowne Plaza Invitational
July 4, 2010 at 6:34 pm |
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