Colonial Country Club and Ben Hogan. You can talk about Ben Hogan without talking about Colonial but you can’t really say the same for Colonial. Colonial and Ben Hogan will always be permanently tied to one another and Colonial wouldn’t have it any other way. When you step onto the grounds at Colonial you can feel the presence of Ben Hogan right out of the gate (the 20 ft. tall statue immortalizing him is pretty awesome!).
Let’s take a quick detour to talk about Mr. Hogan. Ben Hogan is potentially the greatest golfer of all time. If you want to argue that point, that’s fair. But it is a 100% fact that he is one of the three greatest golfers of all time alongside Tiger and Jack. No one has been more successful in the game than those three. So why do we think Mr. Hogan could have been the best. If you’d like a solid read on this topic head over to this article.
Okay, let’s shift our focus back to Colonial.
Colonial Country Club is charming. Colonial Country Club is historic. Colonial Country Club is the type of place that defines the essence of country clubs and old school golf courses. Colonial is also home to the longest-running PGA tour event still conducted on its original site.
The tournament itself is a blast. It’s a great tournament to watch for golf purists. The field waxes and wanes in strength but there’s usually a solid roster that rolls through Fort Worth every year. The list of champions, as evidenced by the Wall of Champions on the first tee, is a who’s who of historically great golfers.
The course, first and foremost, is a wonderful walk. The greens and tees flow effortlessly into one another. If the weather permits I would highly recommend skipping a cart. I played there recently and was talking to a friend and mid-way through the horrible horseshoe (holes 3, 4, and 5) I came up with the perfect (humorous) analogy for the start of the course. The introduction to the course is kind of like joining a fraternity. It starts off with a simple handshake and a gentle greeting (the par 5 first hole), then there's a few chuckles (the short par 4 second), and then before you know it you have a screaming brother of Delta Upsilon Omega hazing you like you've never been hazed before (holes 3, 4, and 5). If you can make it through the hazing and regain your bearings then the waters begin to calm and things start to come back to a semblance of normalcy. Let's just hope for your sake that you've come prepared for the ringer because fraternity hazing, I mean, the horrible horseshoe, isn't for the faint of heart!
Okay, enough of my cheeseball humor. Let's get down to brass tacks and go through some of my favorite holes in a little detail.
Hole 1
The opening hole at Colonial can be equal parts push-over and penal. Coming in at 563 yards from the tips, it’s not overly long for a par 5. The trouble on this hole, as is the case with most all holes at Colonial comes in the form of bunkering. The hole slightly bends to the right and at the apex of the bend is a set of two pesky fairway bunkers sitting somewhere between 250 and 300 yards from the tee. They’re essentially right where you have to aim your tee shot. If you can manage to miss the fairway bunkers you’re left with a long shot into a well protected green. There’s two safe plays for your second shot. First, hang back to 100-120 yards out and plan to hit a full wedge into the green. Second, try to knock it within 20-40 yards of the green but not on as there’s bunkers in the 50-100 yard range as well as green-side traps that are all pretty pesky. Try your best to avoid the bunker on the opening hole, get yourself a par, or better yet a birdie, and thank your lucky stars that you don’t start off with a double.
The Horrible Horseshoe (Holes 3-5)
Hopefully you’re warmed up after the first two holes, which is all too easy if you’re playing in the Texas heat, because the next three holes rank as one of the toughest stretches in all of golf. Taking its rightful place on the list of historic three hole stretches, the Horrible Horseshoe is every bit as tough as Amen Corner, the Green Mile, the Bear Trap and the Snake Pit.
Hole 3
Hole 3 is a 467-yard dogleg left that forces players to either carry fairway bunkers at the bend of the dogleg (probably a 275 yard carry) or play to the right and lengthen the hole. The hole is also tightly lined with trees that are all too adept at swatting down errant shots. The silver lining here, is that the green is pretty undulating and is never an easy up-and-in (oh wait, I guess there is no silver lining).
Hole 4
Hole 4 is probably the easiest of the three holes. By easy, I mean it’s a 252-yard par three that has a slight hill in front of the green making run-up shots pretty unlikely. Hopefully you’ve got the perfect club for a 250-yard carry. Oh by the way, don’t think too much about the bunkers that guard the front left portion of the green.
Hole 5
Hole 5 is easy if you can pound a driver 300+ yards while fearlessly challenging the OB that lines the entire right side of the fairway. As the hole slightly doglegs to the right, golfers are forced to either start their tee shots over the OB area and drift it back into the fairway or hit a power fade that, by design, brings them back into the fairway but works towards the hazard. I guess you could always bail out left. That seems like a good idea. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the hole is lined with trees on the left and at no point is the fairway much wider than 20-yards. Have fun!
Congratulations! You’re done with the Horrible Horseshoe. Hopefully you either have world class talent or the mental strength to put the horrors of what just happened behind you because we’ve got 13 holes left for you to chip away at the likely damage that was just done to your card.
Hole 9
This is a fun hole. Which is cool because that’s what golf is supposed to be about, fun. A relatively short par 4, the ninth offers golfers an easy enough tee shot. There’s a set of fairway bunkers on the left edge of the fairway but thankfully I never seem to find them. The approach shot though is where the fun really begins. A two-tiered green perched above a pond awaits golfers with a myriad of different pin positions. The conservative play is to shoot for the center of the green but I all too often find myself pin-hunting. Be careful with your approach shot as nobody likes to strap into scuba gear to play their third.
Back 9 Par 3s (Holes 13 & 16)
I’ve had the good fortune of playing Colonial quite a few times but for some reason it took me a while to really fall in love with the par 3s on the back.
Hole 13 is straightforward. Thankfully the hole only measures 171 from the tips as you must carry the ball all the way as the green is set above a pond that will snatch anything that comes up short of the putting surface. There’s nothing architecturally crazy about this hole rather it’s just a picturesque hole that’s a lot of fun to play.
Hole 16 has been one of my favorite par threes to watch on the PGA tour each year as it seems like they perfected the placement of the Konica Minolta SwingVision, giving viewers an up close look into the beauty of PGA Tour Pros' swings. With the green idyllically placed in the background of the shot, you can watch the game’s best make a difficult hole seem all too pedestrian. Depending on the pin placement, this hole plays drastically different. A front left pin placement is doable. A back right pin placement on the other hand has double bogey written all over it. The hole is framed by a creek that runs in front of the tee box and down the left side of the hole. The green is protected by splattering of bunkers and a pond in front. The green surface is two tiered and almost unfairly undulating. Get your par, thank your lucky star and high-tail it to the next tee!
Hole 18
The closing hole at Colonial is tough but fair and a good deal of fun. The hole fits my eye perfectly so perhaps I’m a little biased. The tee shot is best served when hit down the right side with a draw along the curvature of the hole. The approach shot is usually somewhere between 120-160 yards depending on your length off the tee. The final green on the course is elevated a bit above the fairway and right on top of a pond lurking to catch anything that strays left of the intended target. The other aspect that makes this hole cool is the walk into the green. As you approach the green you can see the towering statue of Ben Hogan presiding over the course inspiring you to hopefully snag that closing birdie!
Grades (where 1 is significantly below average and 5 is significantly above)
Scenery: 3 stars
Design: 4 stars
Condition: 5 stars
History: 5 stars
Practice Facilities: 5 stars
Experience: 5 stars
Click here for a more detailed break down of how I think about course ratings.
Closing thoughts: As I stated at the start of this post, Colonial is the essence of old school country club vibes. The course is draped in rich history and it’s a heck of a lot of fun to play. If I had any gripes about the course, which to be honest there aren’t many, I would say that it has too many elevated greens. Each hole demands pretty much the exact same thing: accurate tee shots and lofted approach shots. If I had my way, I might ask for a bit more shot diversity. But at the end of the day, the course is a great track and a can't miss with all of its rich history.
