Charles Schwab Problem: PGA Tour professionals reward Colonial’s “refresh”

The day after Emiliano Grillo defeated Adam Schenk in a playoff on the Charles Schwab Problem a 12 months in the past, famend golf architect Gil Hanse and his workforce bought proper to work.

Their mission: revitalize Colonial Nation Membership to the way it performed in the course of the 1941 U.S. Open, which noticed Craig Wooden win his second profession main after he had gained The Masters a couple of months earlier. Ben Hogan, who went on to win 5 occasions at Colonial, completed in a tie for third that 12 months.

However, Hanse and his workforce needed to re-establish the rugged panorama that Colonial supplied then. In addition they wished to include extra tributaries from the Trinity River, which runs alongside the property.

Hanse additionally needed to remove the ‘cookie-cutter’ sand traps and greens, emphasizing a extra ‘pure’ search for every gap.

Along with that, Hanse and his workforce felt it crucial to include fashionable expertise into the course to make it extra sustainable for the longer term. That concerned revamping the entire interrogation techniques and the greens.

Nevertheless, to perform these objectives, Hanse needed 18 months. However he solely had 11 since Colonial deliberate to host the Charles Schwab Problem once more in 2024.

Alas, they achieved their aims on time, due to their arduous work all through the summer time Texas warmth.

To high all of it off, the revitalized course has acquired rave opinions from PGA Tour professionals who will tee it up this week.

“I believe [Hanse] did a extremely, actually good job from what I can inform enjoying it as soon as,” defined Jordan Spieth on Wednesday.

“I think about it’s powerful for a course designer to carry a course again in time, however accommodating the trendy recreation, making it possibly extra playable for a mean member 51 weeks of the 12 months, however nonetheless a championship golf course making it as or harder for us. I suppose time will inform over the following 4 days, but it surely actually looks as if he’s someway executed that, and that’s actually cool.”

One of many vital modifications Hanse made was to the par-3 thirteenth. The inexperienced used to sit down immediately adjoining to the water, however Hanse and his workforce pushed the placing floor again a bit. In doing so, they added rugged sand traps between the inexperienced and the pond, thus taking the water roughly out of play for the professionals.

“The one one which stood out and wasn’t just like the others was 13. So long as the fitting tee field is performed, I believe it’s a incredible par-3. However it may very well be one of the best gap on the course or the worst gap on the course relying upon the place the tees are, given the outlet places and the wind,” Spieth defined.

Photograph by Aric Becker/Getty Pictures

“The firmness of the greens, it doesn’t look like they might have the ability to yield holding 5-irons, but when it’s a mid-iron in, a great shot will get actually rewarded. Then, in case you miss within the fallacious spot, you may be in massive bother. You could possibly have over 10 toes for par, even hitting a great chip. So it’s a great threat/reward par-3 from the fitting tee field now. It was most likely probably the most surprising of any gap that I walked as much as the inexperienced that I noticed yesterday.”

Spieth made a fantastic level concerning the firmness of the greens.

As a result of they’re so new, they’ll have extra bounce to them all through the week. We noticed this extensively two weeks in the past on the Wells Fargo Championship, as Quail Hole re-did its greens prematurely of subsequent 12 months’s PGA Championship.

“Tremendous excited concerning the greens this week,” added Tom Hoge, the most effective ball-strikers on the PGA Tour.

“Really feel like they’re most likely one of the best greens we’ll play on all 12 months. They’re agency and can current a fantastic Colonial and a fantastic problem this week.”

Adam Scott, who gained at Colonial in 2014, returned to the course for the primary time since 2018 this week. He known as this revitalization course of a “refresh.”

“I believe a number of the traditional outdated golf programs, , actually on the PGA Tour, however at a whole lot of the nice golf equipment, the agronomy is such at a excessive customary now, and generally whenever you’ve had grass on the course for 30 and 40 years, it will get outdated and a bit drained. Now they’ve all new grass, and it feels contemporary, and it’s going to play very properly, whether or not you’re a member or enjoying this match this week,” Scott defined.

Photograph by Scott Halleran/Getty Pictures

“There’s a distinction between hitting off a pleasant tight new fairway or a 40-year-old, thatchy, matted fairway, and I’m not saying it was thatchy and matted right here, however a freshen-up is sweet. I believe [Hanse] is extremely skilled, and whenever you go to those nice historic golf equipment, you don’t need to lose the character. I believe he’s very conscious of that and was very mild along with his method right here.”

Hanse has labored on dozens of main championship programs, together with the Los Angeles Nation Membership, which hosted final 12 months’s U.S. Open, gained by Wyndham Clark. Different initiatives of his embrace Winged Foot, Southern Hills, and most not too long ago, Oakmont, which the world will see subsequent 12 months when the U.S. Open visits Western Pennsylvania for a document tenth time.

“It’s been a loopy 12 months for Colonial, clearly, with the restoration, however what Gil Hanse and his workforce did, I imply, it’s unbelievable how briskly it got here collectively,” stated Ryan Palmer, who doubles as a PGA Tour and Colonial member.

“To lastly see it, and for the fellows on Tour to be right here enjoying it, I heard a whole lot of nice optimistic feedback, in order that’s good to know. I used to be slightly nervous, to be trustworthy with you, for the course and the membership, however I simply spoke with [Hanse] exterior a couple of minutes in the past, and he stated he’d heard a whole lot of nice issues. So I’m excited to see the way it all unfolds this week.”

Certainly, a couple of tough patches nonetheless exist out on the course, however that’s the nature of fully overhauling a property in an 11-month span.

But, regardless of that, Hanse and his workforce, together with Palmer, have acquired overwhelmingly optimistic suggestions, that means Colonial—the longest-tenured cease on the PGA Tour exterior of Augusta Nationwide—will proceed to be a staple in professional golf for years to come back.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.