DALLAS (KNTU) The 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson is a homecoming of sorts.
After spending the last 35 years at the TPC Four Seasons in Irving, the Salesmanship Club of Dallas was presented with the opportunity to move the tournament to Dallas for its 50th anniversary. There, on the site of an abandoned landfill, lies Trinity Forest Golf Club, the brainchild of architect Bill Coore and legendary golfer Ben Crenshaw.
To many fans and players, the move comes as a shock. The idea of moving from the Four Seasons to South Dallas doesn’t conjure up grand images in most minds. South Dallas has a reputation, and it doesn’t involve golf. The Four Seasons had a hotel and resort attached to the course. Trinity Forest does not.
“That was one of the best setups was the hotel and the gym. It was great,” 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy said Wednesday. “But it’s a small part.”
To others, the move represents an opportunity.
“I am excited about the move. TPC Four Seasons was just another TPC course out in the suburbs,” Dallas resident Quinn Brunk said. “I like the move to bring the tournament to an exciting new course that’s actually in Dallas.”
Brunk, 30, is an accountant by trade, but like many in Dallas-Fort Worth, he’s also an avid golf fan who regularly attends PGA events.
“Based on everything I’ve seen and read, Trinity Forest should be a great course,” he said. “The width and angles of the course and complex greens will provide a unique challenge that PGA Tour players rarely see.”
Gaining an Identity
Dallas has a dubious history with golf. Before it was “The Nelson” and even longer before it was held at the Four Seasons, the 1944 Texas Victory Open was held at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas. The winner, no surprise, was Byron Nelson.
The tournament would use different names in the succeeding years, going by Dallas Open and Dallas Invitational. Like any good thing, the tournament went on a 10-year hiatus from 1946 to 1956, being resuscitated as the Dallas Centennial Open. It gained its current name in 1968 and found a home at the Four Seasons in 1983. It is now the ninth longest active tournament on the PGA Tour.
With years of being played outside of Dallas, “The Nelson” has never been associated with the city in the same way that the Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial is associated with, well, Fort Worth.
This is the story of Dallas. The metroplex’s two most popular sports franchises, the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, play 30 minutes away in Arlington. Dallas is notorious for its copious number of Midwest transplants who come to the area seeking a better quality of life at a lower cost. They also bring opposing allegiances. This is great for the economy but bad for the sports image of the city.
The return of “The Nelson” to Dallas might be just the boon the city needs. There is an air of excitement that even early-week rainfall couldn’t dampen. The course is an unknown. The fans don’t know it, the players don’t know it, and no one is exactly sure how it will play. The tournament will take place from May 17-20, and by some estimates, there will be 200,000 to 250,000 spectators over the course of the four-day tournament.
That doesn’t mean everything is peaches.
Mother Nature
The heat in Texas can be brutal, even in mid-May. After a viciously long winter by Texas standards, spring came and went in a flash. In mid-April, temperatures were dipping into the upper-30s. A month later, they are pushing triple digits.
The links-style course at Trinity Forest Golf Club has no trees and no shelter from the sun. Fans attending the event will be victims of intense heat. Temperatures over the weekend are expected to reach 97 degrees.
2013 Masters winner Adam Scott believes this will hurt both attendance and the players.
“There are no trees to shade under, so no escaping the heat,” Scott said Wednesday. “I am expecting a slow round. 5 ½ hours in 100-degree heat is going to wear on you a little.”
I walked the course during Tuesday afternoon’s practice round. During much of that time, the sun was lightly shielded by a thin layer of clouds, lazily retreating after morning thunderstorms. Temperatures hovered in the mid-80s. Still, by the time I’d walked roughly 2 ½ miles along the course, I was drenched in sweat; however, I do not wholly agree with Scott. Texans have an uncanny ability to deal with the heat. The idea of attending a sporting event in near triple-digit conditions isn’t uncommon or even avoided.
When asked how he planned to deal with the heat, Brunk said, “Sunscreen, a hat, and 27 years living in Texas.”
This poses the issue of first impressions. If fans have a poor experience on the course, they may not come back in succeeding years. Not only that, what if they’re uncomfortable with the logistical aspects of the tournament? Access to Trinity Forest is more difficult than the Four Seasons. Even during media days and practice rounds, traffic struggled at times on the two-lane roads leading to the course. On a couple of occasions, buses were forced to drop people off short of their destination, but never significantly so. If patrons have to slog through traffic, will some abandon their attempts and return home?
What about the actual area surrounding the course? South Dallas isn’t typically where people like to spend the weekend. The golf crowd is likely to feel uncomfortable, even unwelcome; however, other courses have navigated this issue with aplomb, and I don’t see this being a significant deterrent. If anything, Trinity Forest might spur a renaissance in the area.
On the other hand, the course has received favorable early reviews. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Dallas native Jordan Spieth said that many of the initial worries about the course had slipped away.
“Ahead of time, there was a lot of skepticism from players and caddies last year regarding this place,” Spieth said. “But it’s been overwhelmingly positive over the last couple of days since people have gotten here. I’ve seen the same thing over the last year or so.”
This may be the most critical aspect of the whole weekend. If the participants like the course, they will tell other players, making it more likely that high profile golfers participate in “The Nelson” in the future, something that the tournament has lacked in recent years.
Despite concerns, it seems safe to say that a majority of players are excited.
“It’s going to take a few years for guys to work this course out,” Ogilvy said. “The word in the locker room so far from everybody is positive. It’s going to be a good tournament.”
