Three cozy ballparks to start PGA TOUR’s return to action

As happenstance goes, the decision to resume the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season with a three-week run at courses (the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial CC; the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links; the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands) that are hugely popular and tournaments so rich in history could not have been more perfect had Jim Furyk been given the job to map things out.

“There are always tournaments that I earmark that I love playing. Funny, but those three tournaments are three I would usually play,” said Furyk, who was 49 when last we were playing competitive golf – March 12 at THE PLAYERS Championship.

During the pandemic, Furyk turned 50, and while he has circled some PGA TOUR Champions tournaments onto his calendar, he’s anxious to get into this early part of the re-start. No surprise, given what he has accomplished at these first three tournaments.

At Colonial, which “used to be my favorite event early in my career,” Furyk has twice been runner-up, including a playoff loss in 2007, and in 22 starts he has seven top 10s.

At Harbour Town, where he has played 20 times, Furyk has won twice, finished second, and recorded eight top 10s. “The RBC is my favorite event,” he said.

Then there’s TPC River Highlands, where in 2016 Furyk established PGA TOUR history with the lowest competitive round, a scintillating 58.

“So, you look at those first three events and they’ve been really good to me and I enjoy them,” he said, “so it was kind of easy to say, ‘OK, I’ll play these three.”

Makes sense, of course, but the thing is, Furyk could be speaking for a healthy line of his colleagues. That’s because these cozy and familiar settings have been a source of consistent success for more players than just Furyk. All three courses are linked by two common denominators: One, they are relatively short and demand precision over power, and two, each has been a longtime staple on the PGA TOUR schedule.

Colonial has hosted a tournament annually since 1946; Harbour Town since 1969; TPC River Highlands since 1984. While Fort Worth, Texas, certainly qualifies as a big city, the neighborhood around Colonial screams old-school friendly, so the community embrace of the Charles Schwab Challenge is a serious undertaking. As for Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (RBC Heritage) and Cromwell, Connecticut (Travelers), we are talking big-time shows powered by small-town love.

Never have these tournaments fallen in succession on the PGA TOUR schedule. Harbour Town is an April stop, Colonial a May fixture, and TPC River Highlands locked into June. But with all facets of our world turned upside down in this pandemic, there has been a demand for out-of-box solutions and creative minds came up with a mid-June start that will provide players the Colonial-Harbour Town-TPC River Highlands trifecta.

That was sweet music to PGA TOUR members who favor a style of play that is a throwback to a bygone era.

“I feel all three courses would certainly be characterized as some of my favorites,” said Zach Johnson, who has won twice at Colonial, been runner-up at Harbour Town, and third at TPC River Highlands.

“They’re different, but also have some similarities. They’re not overly long and they reward quality ball-striking. Straight tee shots (are important) where fairways are a premium, and trajectory control, especially at Colonial and Harbour Town where it is usually windy (is important).”

If you were to tell longtime PGA TOUR fans that there is one player who has won at each of these three courses, that he was a prototype ball-striking machine and arguably managed golf courses better than anyone in his prime, we’re going to wager that the name Nick Price would be suggested.

Bingo.

A masterful tactician who controlled his trajectory brilliantly and could shape shots both ways, Price won twice at Colonial, and once each at Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands. In a combined 43 starts at those golf courses, Price recorded 12 top-10s and you can be sure that were he still in his competitive prime, he’d put his arms around the opportunity to play these courses three weeks in a row.

He’d have great company, too, because the sentiments of Furyk and Johnson are shared by many of their PGA TOUR brethren. That is the undeniable appeal of these shot-maker’s golf courses and when you study past results, it’s no surprise to see how great players have fared well at these venues.

Phil Mickelson (twice at Colonial, twice at TPC River Highlands) and Stewart Cink (twice at Harbour Town, twice at TPC River Highlands) have four wins at these golf courses, while Boo Weekley (twice at Harbour Town and once at Colonial) and Kenny Perry (twice at Colonial, once at TPC River Highlands) found the winner’s circle three times.

The comfort zones at these courses is very real but it goes beyond just knowing that they “fit your eye,” as the saying goes. Impressively, while these courses are friendly to shorter hitters, they do not throttle big hitters, either and winners at both ends of the spectrum punctuate the rollcalls of champions. Davis Love III, for instance, was ferociously long in his prime, and he won five times at Harbour Town. Players who can move it from one zip code to another – Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Mickelson, Perry – have won at Colonial, and then there is the uncanny Bubba Watson.

Seven of the last 10 winners at The Travelers Championship ranked between 75th and 170th in driving distance at season’s end the year they won. The only three exceptions? All Watson, who was 9th in 2018, 2nd in 2015, and 2nd in 2010, the years he won the Travelers. Ask him why and Watson will tell you that stepping onto the TPC River Highlands property and its 6,841 yards is like a pair of comfortable slippers.

It just feels right.

To Johnson, that goes beyond the courses. It starts with the companies (Charles Schwab at Colonial, RBC at Hilton Head; Travelers at TPC River Highlands) behind the tournaments.

“They all have phenomenal title sponsorships. (They all) understand how to utilize the golf platform for entertainment, stewardship, and charitable awareness. I admire their leaders and I am grateful they want to be a part of the PGA TOUR,” he said.

True, it will be a PGA TOUR with a vastly different feel and look come June 11 when competitive golf is played for the first time in three months.

“I’m anxious to kind of even learn more about how just a normal day on the PGA TOUR is going to look now,” said Furyk, “because it’s going to be so much different than what I’ve been used to for the last 27 years.”

No one would argue with that. But if it would be possible to suggest it won’t take long for Furyk and colleagues to get comfortable, the answer would likely be the cozy confines of Colonial, Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands.