Colonial CC was created by Marvin Leonard in 1938. Leonard was infatuated with bringing bentgrass greens to Fort Worth and managed to do so thru spending a ton of money with a lot of upkeep and a designing of the greens by John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell to make them very flat in order to preserve the grass.
Now with modern bermuda grass strains like Championship Bermuda and TifEagle, that's not necessary as they can withstand the heat and still roll exceptionally well.
Colonial is fairly well liked on Tour except for the bombers as the course is so tight and treelined that many bombers will have to keep the driver in the bag throughout the week and lose their advantage of distance off the tee. That's why many bombers avoid Colonial altogether. And the event doesn't have the purse size nor the amenities of more of the top tour events. Combined with the re-scheduling of the PGA Championship, the event just doesn't draw as much interest these days which is a shame.
The course is mostly about quality, accurate driving but more importantly Red Zone (175-225 yards) play.
The final critical hole on the course in the 17th.
It's only 375 yards and most players will hit a tee shot that is roughly 230 yards off the tee. Below is how to play it off the tee assuming 250 yards of carry.
However, the real key to this hole is finding the fairway more than having less club into the hole as players that miss simply do not make birdie on this hole. And there may be a lack of confidence in hitting a 3-wood with accuracy compared to a long iron/UDI/Hybrid off the tee. And the front left and back right pin locations are very difficult locations to putt to.
Projected Winning Score: -15
3JACK'S FAVORITES
Jon Rahm +1,100
Jordan Spieth +1,100
Justin Rose +1,100
Rickie Fowler +1,200
Paul Casey +2,000
3JACK'S DARKHORSE PICKS
Emiliano Grillo +5,000
Matthew Fitzpatrick +5,000
Abraham Ancer +7,000
Sung-Jae Im +7,000
Andrew Landry +12,500
3JACK
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