Believe it or not there is a golf tournament this week. The PGA Tour returns to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas for The Crowne Plaza Invitational. Colonial Country Club was founded in 1936 and became Ben Hogans home club after he had retired from playing professional golf. A short and narrow course, Colonial, you would think would cater to the tactician golfer and not the bomber. While Zack Johnson is the defending champion, who is known for his wizardry with the wedges. Phil Mickelson, who is not the straightest driver on tour has won here also. This is also the site where Annika Sorenstam made her PGA Tour debut. In recent years the tournament has had an unfortunate spot in the schedule, drawing a few big names, but not really known for having a world class field. Wedged in between The Players Championship and The Memorial, many of the top names have opted not to play, instead, opting for some reprieve before golfs biggest tournaments.
The hot topics this week will be the ban on the anchor putter and Sergios remark. On Tuesday, The USGA and R&A officially banned the anchored stroke. The PGA Tour has not banned the anchored stroke yet. They released a statement in February saying that they opposed the proposed ban and that “it was not in the best interest of the PGA Tour”. This is just the beginning of what is sure to be an ongoing topic since the rule doesn’t go into place until 2016. If the tour bans the anchored stroke, in compliance with both the USGA and R&As decision, we could see legal action taken. In other news, Sergio stuck his foot in his mouth on Tuesday night at a European Tour Awards dinner. This shines a bad light on Garcia once again, already perceived in the U.S. as a petulant complainer, he is now heading down the road to ostracism unless he gets this under control quickly. This is quite the week in the world of professional golf. Hopefully quality and exciting golf prevails at the track where the man who dug it out the dirt decided to hang his hat.
By: Dustin Edwards
