Dean & Deluca Invitational 2017: 5 groups to watch in Rounds 1 & 2
By Luke Norris
Here are five groups to watch in the first two rounds of the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, the PGA TOUR’s annual stop at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
The Dean & DeLuca Invitational, the annual stop for the PGA TOUR at Colonial, is upon us and while the field isn’t as strong as it used to be, there’s still plenty of firepower in Texas this week.
The highest-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking this week is world No. 6 Sergio Garcia, who many thought might be across the pond this week for the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, their biggest event of the year (much like THE PLAYERS is in the U.S.), but he’s at Colonial and looking for his second win at the Dean & DeLuca. And he’s got a fantastic pair of competitors to play with in the first two rounds but we’ll talk more about that here in a little while.
Joining Garcia from the top 10 in the world is No. 7 Jordan Spieth, who is also the defending champion of this storied event. The former number one player in the world has struggled a bit recently so he’ll certainly be looking for a strong showing in his home state. He’s also in a high-profile group with a two-time winner at Colonial and they’ll certainly be a group to watch when the first round gets underway on Thursday.
First played in 1946, the Dean & Deluca Invitational, which has gone through many name changes over the years, has long been associated with the great Ben Hogan, who won this tournament on five occasions, his first victory coming at the inaugural event. He repeated in 1947, went back-to-back again in 1952 and 1953 and secured his fifth and final win at Colonial in 1959.
Like Hogan, many of the biggest names in golf history have won this tournament, including the likes of Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Price, Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.
Who will join those greats this week? Here’s a look at five groups to watch in the first two rounds of the Dean & DeLuca Invitational.