Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial
The 1975 Schwab Stingray goes to the winner of this year's Charles Schwab Challenge.
Wednesday turned out to be quite a lesson in the value of reform and positive change.
In the morning in Westlake, Charles Schwab officials unveiled the company's annual prize to be presented to the champion of the forthcoming Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial at the end of the month.
The “Champion’s Prize,” in addition to the $1.6 million Venmo transaction, is a fully restored and modernized 1975 Schwab Stingray. The car appears as nifty as its name.
Its V8 engine can generate more than 450 horsepower and move faster than a speeding golf ball on slicker and quicker tournament greens with a stimpmeter reading of 13. It’s a six-speed automatic transmission with more ornaments than the Rockefeller Christmas tree, including interior upholstery with Colonial’s signature Tartan Plaid trim.
The prize, Schwab officials say, is an homage to 1975, the year that “helped reshape Wall Street” and made investing more accessible to everyone. The moment of democratization is remembered as “May Day.”
“When regulated stock trading commissions came to an end … Chuck Schwab opened the doors to investing wider for individuals by reducing commissions,” says Stacy Hammond, chief marketing officer of Charles Schwab. “Chuck’s foresight ushered in a new era, making investing more accessible.”
A short time later, at the venerable grounds of the Colonial Country Club, we got to see all the good that can come from voting, specifically, Colonial members approving spending $20 million to overhaul the course that holds deep spiritual significance to the golfing world, certainly our golfing world. It might not be tantamount to a visit to Lourdes, but PGA Tour players consistently rank Colonial among their favorite golf courses.
“Don’t screw up Colonial” was heard more than once as club officials discussed bringing the layout back to Marvin Leonard’s original grand design in 1936.
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Here's the new No. 8, now a more north-to-south configuration. Instead of running to the left of the hole, the cart path runs on the other side.
After a brief tour on Wednesday, it indeed appears as if Hogan’s Alley, as tournament officials are promoting, has been “restored to glory.”
You’d have found it an odd coincidence, if you believe in these kinds of things, that as we took a look around a few holes, there perched atop a tree that spring apparently forgot, on the 18th fairway, was a hawk appearing to overlook the entire course. He sat there as if, perhaps, giving his approval.
Golf fans and historians are intimately familiar with Ben Hogan’s career at Colonial. “The Hawk” was a five-time winner.
Well, Gil Hanse’s $20 million makeover is just about complete. When players tee it up for the 78th Charles Schwab Challenge on May 23 they’ll encounter more of what Craig Wood saw when he navigated Colonial as the 1941 U.S. Open champion.
The course plays about 140 yards longer, says Brian Schorsten, Colonial director of golf. No. 1, formerly 565 from the back, now plays 585 yards. Most all of the greens have been lowered. Nos. 8 and 13, both par 3s, were most dramatically impacted.
They showed us No. 8. The tee box has been moved left to create a more north-to-south orientation into the green. A creek that runs alongside the hole, on the left, has been opened up. That hole, and No. 13, were originally altered by the 1969 flood control project.
No. 5, the end of the “Horrible Horseshoe,” has a very different look. Don’t hit it left or right. The Trinity River, of course, still guards the right side, though workers have cleared out much of the brush, unveiling a steep drop-off to lower ground and another to the river.
The left is guarded by a new feature, a barranca, a Spanish word for “ravine” or “canyon.” It’s not the Royal Gorge or the Palo Duro, but it’s a shallow ravine, something you’d see in the Southwest.
These were made using the existing, natural drainage channels on the property. And these things indeed will channel water during heavy rains. They’re sandy and populated with wild grasses and plants. It’ll take about two years for everything to grow into it, and about 20 minutes to get out of if you take your drive left.
“It's a dramatic change in the hole,” Schorsten says. “Back in the ’40s and ’50s, that low area was actually called ‘Death Valley.’ So it's definitely going to reclaim that name by how it plays.”
So, one of golf’s most challenging holes just got more difficult. The barrancas are a distinctive feature you can’t help but notice. In addition to No. 5, the feature is seen on Nos. 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18.
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The barranca on No. 5, or, likely soon to be called, "Death Valley."
The place is high-tech, too. Leonard’s bent-grass greens are still here, though this version is the 007XL bent grass. It will be cultivated and nurtured by an innovative subterranean hydronics system that can replicate prime weather conditions all year long. In the heat of the summer, those greens will believe they’re in Alaska or San Francisco, if there’s grass or anybody else who wants to be there anymore. Grass in San Francisco is generally smoked.
“We haven't run it yet,” Schorsten says of the system. “We haven't run it all winter. The goal of year one is to let the grass know that there's an environment and not give it a false environment. [Hanse] wants the grass to know that it gets cold and hot.”
As it concerns playability, the slope rating has decreased, but the course rating has increased. That means for the average golfer, the course is easier. But for the scratch golfer, it is more difficult.
Whether the No. 1 player in the world is here to see it in year one of restored glory is yet to be determined. It sounds as if Scottie Scheffler is leaning toward playing, but it all depends on the arrival of his and his wife’s first child. Birth is said to be imminent.
Scheffler, who has won The Players and the Masters this spring, is not playing at this week’s The CJ Cup Byron Nelson in McKinney. He’ll be a prohibitive favorite to win the PGA Championship, which is the week before Colonial. He could be 2-for-2 in majors by the time he arrived in Fort Worth.
“We're hoping that he plays us,” says Jim Whitten, Charles Schwab Challenge tournament chair. “He was pretty positive at the Genesis [Invitational in February] that he was going to be here. “But things change. He’s definitely not committed.”
Whitten was more confident that another local favorite, Jordan Spieth, a former champion here, would play, though he, too, has not yet committed.
