2021 Charles Schwab Challenge: Top 10 power rankings at Colonial CC
We’re halfway through the men’s major championship season with the third one coming up in less than a month. Buckle up.
A Torrey Pines tune-up comes at one of the PGA Tour’s oldest tournaments, the Charles Schwab Challenge. The tournament’s gone by several names. It’s always been simply known as “Colonial” for the host course, Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
This is the second event in three weeks in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The AT&T Byron Nelson was held at TPC Craig Ranch in Dallas.
The tournament began as the Colonial National Invitation in 1946 and is the longest running PGA Tour event held at its original course.
Fort Worth resident Ben Hogan won this tournament a record five times. Colonial is known as Hogan’s Alley, along with Riviera Country Club in California.
The event is an invitational tournament with a limited field of 120 players. There is no Monday qualifier, though there are 12 sponsors exemptions.
Three players in the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings and eight of the top 25 are in the field.
They’ll be taking on a 7,209-yard par 70 layout. It’s a John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell design that opened in 1936. The course is defined by its narrow fairways and small greens. Driver is not necessarily the best play on several holes, especially for the big hitters. With that said, players are starting to find corners to cut on a few holes.
The rough length and green speeds are usually average by PGA Tour standards.
Bermuda grass covers tee boxes, fairways and rough. Greens are bentgrass.
If the wind is up, this can be a tough test. If not, modern equipment and depth of fields are allowing players to take it pretty low here. Daniel Berger won at 15-under last year in a rare June date on the schedule due to it being postponed by the pandemic. Twelve-under or better has won all but once since 2012.
The Horrible Horseshoe stretch of holes 3-5 is one of the toughest on the PGA Tour.
The early weather forecast in Fort Worth calls for some storms early in the week and perhaps some in the middle rounds. Temperatures will be in the 70s-80s with some days getting up to 15 mile per hour winds.
Here are 10 golfers with a great chance to don the tournament’s iconic tartan plaid jacket Sunday night: