The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It has been played annually in May in Fort Worth, Texas on the course at the Colonial Country Club. It is one of four invitational tournaments held on the PGA Tour. It is also the longest running event on the Tour still being held at the original site.
Overview
Colonial Country Club announced on July 25, 2006, that Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts has signed a six-year contract to be the title sponsor through 2012. The hotel chain replaces Bank of America, which decided not to renew its deal after four years, including the tournament's 50th anniversary in May.
The 2008 purse is $6,100,000, with $1,098,000 going to the winner.
The tournament was founded in 1946 as the Colonial National Invitation Tournament. The tournament honors the history of golf by using an official Scottish tartan plaid jacket, for it champions and top committee chairmen. Another tradition feeding Colonial history is the beautiful Wall of Champions on the first tee. Engraved with the name and score of each champion dating back to the 1941 U.S. Open, the marble display casts a reverence over the start of any player's round. In 2003, Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias. However, Sorenstam missed the cut after rounds of 71 and 74.
As a restricted field event on the PGA Tour, only the first 80 players on the previous years money-list are guaranteed invites.[1]
The tournament is unofficially associated with Ben Hogan, the long-time Fort Worth resident who won the tournament five times, the most of any player.
Champion's Choice tradition
Colonial has a unique PGA Tour tradition known as the Champion's Choice invitation. Each year, former Colonial champions select two deserving young players, who otherwise would be ineligible, to compete in the tournament.
Pros who made their first appearance at Colonial as a Champion's Choice include Al Geiberger, Tom Weiskopf, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Mark O'Meara, Paul Azinger and Davis Love III. Five Champion's Choices have eventually won the Colonial; Dave Stockton is the only Champion's Choice to win the tournament in the year selected (1967).
Winners
Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
Bank of America Colonial
MasterCard Colonial
Colonial National Invitation
Southwestern Bell Colonial
Colonial National Invitation
References
External links
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