History and Past Winners Past Results of the Colonial Invitational

Unlike Arnold Palmer and Byron Nelson, there’s no tournament named for Ben Hogan. But if there was one, it would be The Colonial. Hogan won here at the Colonial Invitational five times (1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1959) and considered the Colonial Country Club his home course.

The genesis and inspiration for the Colonial Invitational was the 1941 US Open, which was held at Colonial Country Club. It was the first US Open held south of the Mason-Dixon line, and was thought a huge success. Local organizers hoped to capitalize on that goodwill, and in 1946 launched The Colonial Invitational.

Much of the appeal of the Colonial is that it has been played on the same classic course since its inception. Indeed, it’s impossible to imagine the tournament not being held there. The club, which dates to 1936, was designed by John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell and has among its memorable vistas holes that extend along the length of the Trinity River.

The Colonial National Invitational had no title sponsor until 1988, when it became the MasterCard Colonial Invitational. In 2003, it was picked up by Bank of America. In 2007, it became the Crown Plaza Invitational At Colonial. The current purse is $6,200,000, with $1,116,000 going to the winner.

The Colonial winners’ list looks like a Hall of Fame roster. In addition to Hogan, there’s Palmer, Snead, Casper, Bolt, De Vicenzo, Stockton, Crenshaw, Nicklaus, Price, Watson and Mickelson (Tiger is curiously absent). The strength of the winners’ roster is in part due to the strength of field: The Colonial is an Invitational, with only the top 80 players on the previous year’s money list guaranteed a spot.

A unique tradition at the Colonial is the “Champion’s Choice.” Each year, former Colonial Invitational Champions select two young players to join the field who otherwise would be ineligible. Among the Champions Choices were Al Greiberger, Tom Weiskopf, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Mark O’Meara, Paul Azinger and Davis Love. Dave Stockton won the tournament in the year he was selected.

While the Masters has the Green Jacket, the Colonial offers a Scottish tartan plaid jacket for its champions and committee chairmen. The tournament and Colonial Golf club also is marked by the engraved marble Wall of Champions near the first tee, which features the name and score of each of the tournament’s winners.

A random note: In 2003, Annika Sorenstam played the Colonial Invitational, becoming the first women to play a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias entered the Los Angeles Open.

Golf pro Rhein Gibson shot a sixteen-under 55 Saturday, May 12, 2012 at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond, Oklahoma. Twelve birdies and two eagles.

Holy smokes.

Annika Sorenstam has for years promoted a “Vision 54” in which she contends that a “perfect round” of 54 is possible (You can read a review of one of her Vision 54 books here). This is as close to that perfection as I’ve ever heard of—unless you want to count the scramble score of the winning team at our annual teachers’ golf outing a couple of years ago. They were 18 under.

The closest anyone has gotten to this score was the 55 shot by Homero Blancas. Blancas, a member of the University of Houston golf team, shot a 55 in a tournament on August 19, 1962. That round has an asterisk beside it, however, because it was a par 70 course measuring just over 5,000 yards.

Gibson’s round was at a 6698-yard par-71 course.

Gibson, 26, is an Australian professional who calls the River Oaks Club home after spending his college years at Oklahoma Christian. He plays on the Golfweek National Pro Tour while waiting for his shot at the PGA Tour.

Scores of 56, 57 and 58 have been posted by various players over the years, mostly in non competitive situations.

The lowest shot in competition were 58s shot by Shigeki Maruyama, Jason Bohn and Ryo Ishikawa.

Maruyama shot a 58 in a 2000 US Open Section Qualifier. Bohn’s 58 came in the final round of the 2001 Canadian Tour Bayer Championship. Ishikawa met that mark in the 2010 Crowns Tournament on the Japan Tour.

The 55 shot by Gibson was—as far as I can tell—not in a competition. But it is incredibly impressive nonetheless. Still, the skeptic in me says that this has to be a hoax ...

The scorecard shown above was posted on the Reddit Golf Forum.

Louis Vuitton Golf Bag

A mere $13,500.

Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week

Here’s the sad story of a high school golfer whose carelessness with the scorecard cost her a chance at being the state title winner four years in a row

Eugene (Ore.) Churchill High girls golfer Caroline Inglis was on the cusp of history. After winning the Oregon Scholastic Activities Association Class 5A state tournament during each of her first three years, Inglis finished the final round of the 2012 state tournament with a 3-under 69, a score that completed a dominant performance that was nine shots better than anyone else in the tournament.

All Inglis had to do to ensure history would be made was sign her scorecard. As it turns out, that’s precisely what got her in trouble.

Read the whole story.

I really feel sorry for the girl in the story. I’m sure that—caught up in the excitement—Inglis was not thinking in a calm and collected manner. Today’s high schoolers—even Seniors—don’t think as logically or clearly as adults would like under the best of circumstances. In fact, if there’s a way for a high school student to do something stupid, my experience is that you can’t rule out them doing it.

Given that it was a high school tournament and that the people running it should know a thing or two about the adolescent mind, there should have been strict procedures in place to prevent this sort of catastrophe. An adult or three need to be available to sit the girls down and slowly go over the cards before allowing them to sign it. 

Lack of adult supervision not only diminished Inglis’ accomplishment, but also the victory of the default winner. It further diminished the entire tournament. I blame the adults for this one.

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