THE TEXAS SWING

Texas Swing produces bevy of memories and popular champions, with more to come!

Now expanded to five stops, the Lone Star State is home to great events and Hall of Fame golfers

By Steve Habel, Contributing Writer

Texans are never shy, so the bold statement you are about to read now from a native of the Lone Star State should, perhaps, be expected: Professional golf would not be the same if not for the impetus of Texas businessmen, golfers and the tour stops hosted here.

Sure, there have been changes along the way, in courses, in time slots on the PGA Tour schedule and now with a new tournament for Texas with the addition of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin.

It would not be a stretch to say the versions of the first four of five tournaments played in the state in 2021 – the aforementioned Match Play, the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, the AT&T Byron Nelson in suburban Dallas, and the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth – have produced a bevy of memories and popular champions.

Straight out of the box, before it was even known as the Texas Swing, the best players in the game ruled the state. The Texas Open set the pattern for lucrative professional events around the world and the state of Texas played an important role in establishing the PGA, LPGA and Senior (now Champions) tours.

In 1922 the first Texas Open was held in San Antonio at Brackenridge Park. The $5,000 prize – the largest in pro golf to that time – attracted the best talent to Texas, and the tournament was the inspiration of two farsighted Texans: San Antonio newspaperman Jack O’Brien and pioneering golf architect John Bredemus.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the Texas tour stops were dominated by the state’s Hall of Fame professionals – namely Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, both of whom grew up in Fort Worth. Nelson won the

first Dallas Open in 1944, Sam Snead the second and Ben Hogan the third. Hogan won the first Colonial tournament in Fort Worth in 1946 and repeated the next year, and would go on to serve as the tournament’s unofficial host until his death.

At the Texas Open, Hogan beat Byrd by six shots in 1946 and then it was Snead’s turn in 1948 and 1950. Jack Burke Jr., yet another Texas golf legend, triumphed in 1952. And then there was Ben Crenshaw, fresh out of the University of Texas, capturing the 1973 event at Woodlake Golf Club. Native son Don January won the event two years later, and the Merry Mex, Lee Trevino, garnered his first Texas Open in 1980.

Both stars in the making and those already established have made it a point to play the Texas tournaments. Crenshaw grew up in Austin. His first PGA Tour victory was the 1973 Texas Open and he also won the Colonial twice as well as the Nelson.

“You used to love it - you didn’t have to go all over creation to play,” Crenshaw said. “The Nelson was always a must-play when Byron was alive and there is obviously a void there without Byron. It’ll always be his place, though; the way Colonial is Hogan’s place.”

The Texans-winning-Texas-events tradition continued in 2000, ‘01 and ‘07 when Dallas’ Justin Leonard won on the Resort Course at LaCantera in San Antonio, and with Jordan Spieth winning this year’s Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio.

2021 editions make for great golf

The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, played since 2016 at Austin Country Club, can’t really be considered part of

the Texas Swing, but it might be one of the most important golf tournaments in the world, and its impact on golf in the state can’t be understated.

This year’s event was won by Billy Horschel, who defeated Dallas resident and University of Texas-ex Scottie

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club Billy Horschel

AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney

Scheffler in the finals, 2 and 1. The top 64 players in the world qualified to play in the tournament, which is unique on the PGA Tour and competed over five days on the shores of Lake Austin.

The following week, the Tour moved south to the Alamo City and the Valero Texas Open. The VTO is the third-oldest event on the PGA Tour and also holds the distinction of being the longest-running event held in the same city.

This time around, it was Spieth, the popular Dallas resident and University of Texas ex, that triumphed by two shots over former champion Charlie Hoffman after firing a six-under 66 in the final round. The win was the first for Spieth since the 2017

Open Championship, ending a drought of 83 tournaments covering 1,351 days.

In May, the PGA Tour contested the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig

Ranch in McKinney, with first-time winner K.H. Lee of South Korea outlasting the steady rain and runner-up Sam

Burns to triumph by three strokes at 25-under-par.

The course, softened by a week of rain, was fodder for the field. But the best thing was the feel of the event, as –with plenty of people and parties galore, the week harkened back to the days when the tournament was held in Irving and was the toast of the town.

Jordan Spieth, Winner of Valero Texas Open with Charlie Hoffman and caddy K. H. Lee, Winner of AT&T Byron NelsonOpen

The Memorial Day weekend brought the Tour to Cowtown and venerable Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge. History is in the air in Fort Worth as the tournament at Colonial is the longestrunning event on the PGA Tour to be played at its original site, and the course was the first Texas venue to host a U.S. Open (in 1941) and a U.S. Women’s Open (1991).

When Annika Sorenstam teed it up at the Bank of America Invitational at Colonial in 2003, she became the first woman in nearly 50 years to play in a PGA Tour event.

This year’s event was captured by Jason Kokrak, who held off Spieth in a defacto final-round match to win by two strokes at 14-under. It was Kokrak’s second win of the year, and the second of his career and earned him a place on the club’s famous Wall of Champions, along with the likes of Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson.

And on deck…

Still to come in this calendar year is the Vivint Houston Open, which was played in November 2020 on this season’s wrap-around schedule at the renovated Memorial Park Golf Course. The event was won last year by Carlos Ortiz, who posted a final-round 5-under 65 to finish two shots clear of Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and World No. 1 Dustin Johnson.

Ortiz became the first Mexican to win on the PGA Tour since 1978. This year’s event will be held Nov. 11-14 in the Bayou City.

The Texas tournaments have always been a good place to go low and make history. Of the 52 times a 60 or lower has

Jason Kokrak, winner of Charles Schwab Challenge

been carded in PGA Tour history, 10 have come in Texas, including five at San Antonio. Tommy Armour III owns the PGA Tour record for lowest aggregate score, 254, which he set in San Antonio in 2003. The San Antonio event is the third-oldest on the PGA Tour, not counting the majors. Of the five Texas events, including Austin, no one has won all of them, but nine have won three, including Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Littler and Crenshaw. “There’s more than a little bit of history here in Texas,” said Tom Kite, who lives in Austin. “Texas tournaments have produced some great champions and also contributed huge amounts of money to charity. It’s a great legacy.”

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