Lone Star Blues

Once a premier destination on tour dominated by giants of the game, the Texas Swing has been relegated to an afterthought

Tiger Woods and Byron Nelson shaking hands

Tiger Woods made the Byron Nelson a must-attend when the legend was still alive.

By Thomas Bonk
Golf Digest Digital, Writer-at-Large

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

May 20, 2009

Straight out of the box, before it was even known as the Texas Swing and grew into one of the strongest cogs in the PGA Tour machinery, the best swingers in the game ruled the state.

Byron Nelson won the first Dallas Open in 1944. Sam Snead won the second and Ben Hogan won the third. Hogan won the first Colonial tournament in Fort Worth in 1946, won it again the next year, and would go on to serve as the tournament's unofficial host until his death. Walter Hagen won the second Texas Open in San Antonio in 1923.

Stars in the making or those already established made it a point to play the Texas tournaments.

It's been a long, gradual process, but all that's changed. Last week, the Valero Texas Open had one player in the field entering the event in the top 25 in the rankings. This week at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, formerly the Dallas Open, there are two top-10 players in the field.

And so it goes here in this once-critical part of the PGA Tour schedule, where the movement is sliding in one direction: from can't-miss-these-tournaments to where-are-they-again?

The downward trend can be attributed to more than one factor: the death of Hogan and Nelson in 1997 and 2006, respectively; the quick rise to prominence of the Quail Hollow Championship, the seven-year old Charlotte tournament that many of the game's elite players have locked into their schedule. And last but perhaps most importantly, the move of the Players Championship from March to May, turning a once manageable month into one of the most hectic on the calendar. Add it all up and the odd tournaments out have been the ones in Texas, especially when it comes to Tiger Woods, who hasn't played the Nelson since the host's death, and has played the Colonial just once as a pro.

If all of that's weighing on the Texas tournaments, it's not bothering Peggy Nelson, Byron's widow, who took a few minutes out of her busy tournament week to catch a few rays on the roof of her garden room at the Nelson ranch in Roanoke. She said she's not worried about the Nelson tournament field.

"There's just so much money out there, they don't need to play 25 or 30 tournaments a year," she said. "Especially with Byron gone. Some players said without Byron here, they don't feel the great need to be here. It's nothing personal about our tournament. It's just the way it is right now."

Ben Crenshaw, 57, grew up in Austin. His first PGA Tour victory was the 1973 Texas Open and he also won the Colonial twice and the Nelson. Crenshaw acknowledged there's been some slippage on the Texas Swing.

"You used to love it; you didn't have to go all over creation to play. I'm sure now that the sponsors would like their tournaments to come back. Like this week, there's obviously a void there without Byron. It'll always be his place, though; the way Colonials is Hogan's place."

Doug Sanders, who has lived in Houston for 40 years, won the 1961 Colonial. The 75-year-old Sanders understands that players can't play every week, so they adjust their schedule. Even so, Sanders says the Texas Swing is whiffing.

"It's lost its stature," he said. "Now, people don't know how to relate because there are so many other tournaments X,Y,Z, what's the difference?"

Maybe some positive signs are showing up, though. There's an improved course at the Nelson, after D.A. Weibring's re-do of the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas. And the Texas Open caught a break when it was shifted out of afterthought status as part of the Fall Series and moved its current spot before the Nelson. Next year, the event will be played on a Greg Norman-designed course that's still under construction.

Another plus: The amount that the San Antonio/Irving/Fort Worth events raise for local charities is usually one of the highest on the PGA Tour. Last year, the total was $21 million.

Whatever else you want to say about the Texas tournaments, they've always been a good place to go low and make history. Of the 21 scores of 60 in PGA Tour history, eight 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. The Nelson was the first official tour event named after a former player. Of the four Texas events, including Houston, no one has won all of them, but nine have won three, including Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Littler and Crenshaw.

"I'd say there's a little bit of history there," said Tom Kite, 59, 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."

But Kite said the PGA Tour's scheduling issues have hurt the Texas tournaments & and they're not alone, he said.