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Review:
I had the extreme fortune of growing up a member of Colonial Country Club, a privilege that was not truly appreciated until my forays with the high school golf team exposed me to public courses.
This is, quite frankly, one of America’s great old courses. Given any opportunity to play, you should immediately jump at the chance. Your round and the score you earn will likely frustrate you beyond belief, but the experience of the journey will be worth the lumps you take on the scorecard.
The course takes you through two of its easier holes to begin with, before throwing you into the ‘Horrible Horseshoe” – Nos. 3, 4, and 5. Three is a beast of a Par-4, a mind-numbing 476-yard dogleg left that plays into one of the course’s largest greens. This only barely compensates for the fact that your “approach” might be longer than you have the ability to hit a ball.
The fourth is incredibly mean, but incredibly simple. The Par-3 is a straight shot to an elevated green with massive bunkers on the front-left. At 246 from the tips, you’ll be playing this Par-3 with at best a 3-wood and most likely your driver. Birdie is a virtual impossibility, pure and simple. I have never, in all my years and rounds, had one or seen someone in my group hit one.
The fifth has been routinely listed as one of the most difficult holes on the PGA Tour, and it earns its reputation. A par-4 with gentle dogleg right that requires a faded tee shot, players will find the Trinity River to their right and a large ditch lined with trees to the narrow fairway’s left. The 459-yard hole will likely leave players trying hit a three-iron or better into a guarded green which feeds from back to front. Par should be considered an excellent score for any player on any of the Horseshoe holes, but this is especially true of this one.
The remainder of the course is no cakewalk to be certain, even if the Horseshoe is its most famous and challenging portion. The course is mostly straight and blind shots are never an issue. The Trinity River and its tributaries run through the course at several spots, setting up attractive yet difficult holes. The fairways are notoriously narrow and lined with pecan trees, and the greens are small and surrounded by numerous bunkers. Each tee shot is challenged by sand, trees, a dogleg or some other difficulty that keeps any shot from being a “freebie.”
When your best chance at birdie on the back is a 178-yard Par-3 over a lake to a split-level green (No. 13) you know you’re in for one of the toughest rounds of your life. Every shot of every round at Colonial is a challenge. The course simply doesn’t let up – and it can treat poor and even average golfers more like a heavyweight boxer than a golf course. Colonial has very little rough, with most holes you’re either in the fairway or in the trees – and the fairways are not large. Accuracy is at an absolute premium, though at 7,010 yards, you’ll want accuracy and distance.
While I frequently enjoy squeezing in more than 18 holes in a day on other courses, I have almost never done this at my home course, despite literally hundreds of opportunities. The course wears you out mentally and physically, more so than any course I have ever played. A full round at Colonial can feel like two, especially when the winds are in full effect, which is often.
Yet despite the excruciating difficulty, Colonial leaves you in awe at its elegance and history. Like most great courses, there is little difference between the Colonial of today and the Colonial of Hogan’s era. Step to the first tee box and see the Wall of Champions, and you will immediately realize you are playing a course unlike any other you could ever play, save perhaps Augusta and possibly Pebble Beach.
Given the opportunity to play, just go and don’t think twice, but once there, suck in every shot like it’s your last. Play from the tips and see the shots that PGA players have to make (a real treat is to go just before the tournament in May, when the greens and rough are cut to tournament standard. Your kitchen floor has more friction than a Colonial green at tourney time).
Legends have played this course and said some remarkable things about it. Just because Tiger is unable to hit his driver from each tee box, doesn’t mean the course lacks depth or character. It’s simply not going to allow a pro to shoot 25-under over four days like many of today’s PGA courses will. The lowest winning score for the Colonial Invitational is 16 under, shot by Fulton Allem in 1993, which ranks as the tour's third toughest against par, including the majors. Only the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach (12 under) and the Tour Championship (15 under) have higher tournament scoring records. When the Women’s U.S. Open came to Colonial in 1991, even with the conversion of the third hole to a Par 5, only tournament winner Meg Mallon broke par. Her four-day total of 283 is the second-highest score to win the Women’s U.S. Open since that year.
That doesn’t make the course bad – it just makes Colonial special. Appreciate the best our state has to offer, given the chance. You won’t regret it.
--Charles Persons
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Golf Course Review: Colonial Country Club
