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 yr 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 through the 1941 U.S. Open, which noticed Craig Wooden win his second profession main after he had received 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 yr.

Nonetheless, 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 get rid of the ‘cookie-cutter’ sand traps and greens, emphasizing a extra ‘pure’ search for every gap.

Along with that, Hanse and his workforce felt it vital to include fashionable expertise into the course to make it extra sustainable for the long run. That concerned revamping all the 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 evaluations from PGA Tour professionals who will tee it up this week.

“I feel [Hanse] did a very, actually good job from what I can inform taking part in it as soon as,” defined Jordan Spieth on Wednesday.

“I think about it’s robust for a course designer to convey a course again in time, however accommodating the fashionable recreation, making it perhaps extra playable for a median member 51 weeks of the yr, however nonetheless a championship golf course making it as or tougher for us. I assume time will inform over the subsequent 4 days, nevertheless it actually looks as if he’s someway performed that, and that’s actually cool.”

One of many vital adjustments Hanse made was to the par-3 thirteenth. The inexperienced used to take a seat 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 precise tee field is performed, I feel it’s a incredible par-3. Nevertheless it might 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 Photographs

“The firmness of the greens, it doesn’t appear to be they’d be capable to yield holding 5-irons, but when it’s a mid-iron in, shot will get actually rewarded. Then, when you miss within the fallacious spot, you might be in large hassle. You possibly can have over 10 ft for par, even hitting chip. So it’s threat/reward par-3 from the precise tee field now. It was most likely essentially the most surprising of any gap that I walked as much as the inexperienced that I noticed yesterday.”

Spieth made an awesome 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 yr’s PGA Championship.

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

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

Adam Scott, who received 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 feel a few of the basic previous golf programs, you recognize, actually on the PGA Tour, however at numerous the nice golf equipment, the agronomy is such at a excessive customary now, and typically while you’ve had grass on the course for 30 and 40 years, it will get previous and a bit drained. Now they’ve all new grass, and it feels recent, and it’s going to play very effectively, whether or not you’re a member or taking part in this event this week,” Scott defined.

Photograph by Scott Halleran/Getty Photographs

“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 good. I feel [Hanse] is extremely skilled, and while you go to those nice historic golf equipment, you don’t wish to lose the character. I feel he’s very conscious of that and was very mild along with his strategy right here.”

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

“It’s been a loopy yr 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,” mentioned Ryan Palmer, who doubles as a PGA Tour and Colonial member.

“To lastly see it, and for the blokes on Tour to be right here taking part in it, I heard numerous nice optimistic feedback, in order that’s good to know. I used to be a bit nervous, to be sincere with you, for the course and the membership, however I simply spoke with [Hanse] exterior a couple of minutes in the past, and he mentioned he’d heard numerous 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 utterly overhauling a property in an 11-month span.

But, regardless of that, Hanse and his workforce, together with Palmer, have acquired overwhelmingly optimistic suggestions, which 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 employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Make sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.