The Colonial Country Club ready to test the players in the Crowne Plaza Invitational
The Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, Texas, is ready to stage another edition of the Crowne Plaza Invitational, from May 24 to 27, 2012 while offering a tough challenge for the players confirmed to participate in the event.
Colonial is considered one of the toughest course on the PGA Tour and the players normally take years to master it.
Tom Watson took 21 years to register his first win and Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer took nine and eight attempts respectively to become the champion for the first time in the Crowne Plaza Invitational.
The last year’s winner, David Toms, also had to make 14 attempts to put all his experience in the field and raise the trophy for the first time.
Therefore, the golf commentators believe that a player cannot just appear in the event and come out victorious. In fact, he learns with the passage of time until the course decides itself that he is ready for a win.
"I probably have been on just about every spot on this golf course that you can be over the years," Toms said Wednesday on the eve of his title defence.
"There are so many little idiosyncrasies with this golf course that you just have to know through experience," added Zach Johnson, the winner of 2010 Crowne Plaza Invitational.
Johnson is considered as one of the luckiest golfers to win the tournament, as he earned the victory in just five attempts.
Golf analysts believe that Johnson learned really quickly how the course behaves because of his ball-striking technique suits the course requirements.
The winds also play an important role in increasing the difficulty as the crosswinds really become a hurdle in players’ way of calculating the shots.
"You've got to know what the wind is doing," Johnson said. "There are so many crisscross holes. You compound that with pretty small targets, more so off the tee”.
Jason Dufner, who is currently the hottest player on the PGA Tour, is set to make his fourth start in the event with two missed cuts and tied for the 59th as his best finish in the past three editions he played.
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