I think most people knew it was a bad decision to move a PGA tournament to South Dallas before it ever happened but kind of surprised they are cutting bait already. It also seems strange that the PGA is making this call versus local tournament leadership, am I missing something (are they one and the same)?

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/pga-tour-says-att-byron-nelson-tournament-will-move-after-2020/2290758/

Heard a rumor a few months ago that this would happen and they are looking at Craig Ranch along with a few other courses.

I've heard the likely move is back to Las Colinas.

Good. That was a God awful decision to move the tournament down there.

The entire Texas schedule sort of blows now. Nobody wants to come to either metroplex event and it's just too damn hot to bother going as a fan.

That area is an absolute sh^thole with zero amenities around it. Amazingly bad decision by tourney organizers that everyone but them said would happen.

This is not surprising at all. My BIL lives across the street from the future course for this. I look forward to staying at his house and walking over when it ends up there.

Yah, wish it would stay at the FS for selfish reasons, will go to Colonial versus hauling up to Frisco if that's what it comes to.

O'Doyle Rules said:

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Good. That was a God awful decision to move the tournament down there.

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Its funny you say that because for years before they moved it everyone I heard said the Irving location was terrible and they couldn't wait to move it to the new location. I thought it was beyond stupid but I was like, what do I know. I just hope they don't come back to Irving. I spend a lot of time in that area and its shut down for a week.

Tournament golf in North Texas, regardless of location, is tough. In the spring, it is going to be a nightmare (storms). In the summer, it is going to be a nightmare (heat). Pick one.

Trinity Forest would have worked if they had any parking or any shade on the course

wbt5845 said:

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I wouldn't say the whole Texas swing blows because Colonial is still a great tournament on a great course that always seems to have a majority of top 10 players showing up.

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Show your work on this.

Colonial suffers from being sandwiched between the PGA Championship (and The Players before last year) and Jack's The Memorial. Both DFW tournaments, especially the Nelson, were extremely successful in May before the PGA reshuffled the schedule years ago. But once the "5th major" and then a real major got plopped into the middle of the month, it really only left one quality non-major weekend (1st one), and that is going to Wells Fargo which has a great course the players and PGA love (Quail Hollow)

I don't recall what it is now, but the schedule got reshuffled again last year. The PGA has already hinted they may move the PGA Championship to Panther Creek when they move HQ. If they do that, I'm not sure what happens to the Byron. They should probably just remove it from tour at this point, but I have no idea what that process looks like.

Years ago, The Players was played in March and PGA in August for decades. During that time, the DFW courses basically owned May. Between the Nelson having a great date ans Byron Nelson to personally invite players, it always drew a very large number top players, one of the best non-major fields, and had one of, if not the, biggest prize money purses on tour.

Then about 10-15 years ago, they moved The Players from March to mid-May to prop it up as a 5th major. Then last year and going forward, they decided to move the PGA championship to mid-May and the Players back to March. As a golf fan, I really like the current schedule. But it all really messed up the DFW stops since it took a prime date and it sucks to be a week before or after a major or mini-major. It kind of wiped out most of the month.

The Frisco course will get the PGA championship and a Ryder Cup. Not sure if they'll ever move The Players from Sawgrass though.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I think the Nelson will go back to the 4 Seasons for a few years and will be marginally successful with a bad date. Then I think they'll move it to Frisco and the PGA will be motivated to give it a better date. Maybe bumping Wells Fargo. And I think it will do really well in Frisco
with the Star, Legacy West, and all of the restaurants, bar, and hotel options up there (and continuing to come there). As long as they don't **** up the course design, which I dont think they will.

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So you are thinking they will have the PGA and the Byron at the same course - Panther Creek or whatever name it ends up with?

The PGA championship moves every year. Frisco will host it once, then maybe occasional return trip every 10-15 years if they do a good job with the course. And even though HQ is moving, I don't see them moving The Players away from Sawgrass. At least not for a long time. Too iconic. Plus, as long as The Players stays in March, you can't have it in DFW. Turf conditions coming out of winter aren't ready yet and the weather wouldn't be reliably warm.

DannyDuberstein said:

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The PGA championship moves every year. Frisco will host it once, then maybe occasional return trip every 10-15 years if they do a good job with the course. And even though HQ is moving, I don't see them moving The Players away from Sawgrass. At least not for a long time. Too iconic. Plus, as long as The Players stays in March, you can't have it in DFW. Turf conditions coming out of winter aren't ready yet and the weather wouldn't be reliably warm.

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PGA of America is moving to Frisco, but the PGA Tour is staying in Florida. PGA of America runs the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. The new course in Frisco will host both of those events at least once (though it won't be until my 1 yr old son is in college). The PGA Tour runs the Players Championship at TPG Sawgrass and the tour events. The Byron Nelson could be held at the new Frisco course eventually, but no one knows for now. If it is held at the new Frisco course, it would likely be played at a different location during the years that Frisco hosts the PGA Championship and The Ryder Cup.

Good clarification on the PGA entities. And yes, to your point, in the year Frisco would host a PGA, they'd most likely move the Nelson for that particular year (if it was being held in Frisco by then). Like they did with the Wells Fargo when Quail Hollow was hosting the PGA championship in 2017.

So, are we getting to the point where two tournaments in the D/FW area don't make sense?

A couple years ago, Colonial was on its death bed, but the investment of Schwab and the desire to keep the longest running PGA Tour tournament alive has saved it, and I think it's safe for the foreseeable future. The Byron Nelson needs a good home to get resettled and out of the flux it's been in. Dallas is a major golf market, so I think it makes sense for both tournaments. They took a big risk with Trinity, and it blew up in their face.

As an aside - have any of you played Trinity Forest? I have not, but it looks cool.

The logistics were bad/tough. They were making a gamble with the style of the course that is really en vouge right now and going with a course designed by one of the very best design firms in the world. I get why they did it from a pure golfing perspective (moving from a boring/forgettable course to an exciting/interesting style), but yeah, it didn't work.

wbt5845 said:

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As an aside - have any of you played Trinity Forest? I have not, but it looks cool.

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It is a blast.

wbt5845 said:

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As an aside - have any of you played Trinity Forest? I have not, but it looks cool.

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I've played it a handful of times including a couple of the Byron Nelson pro-ams. I actually love playing the course as it's a refreshing change of pace from the typical park land style of most courses around here. Trinity Forest encourages creativity and has a lot of risk/reward options where most courses require to hit a shot in one specific place. The first year of the Nelson they watered the course quite a bit and the wind didn't blow and the second year we had so much rain it was naturally soft and slow so the pros lit it up. That course's only defenses are fast fairways/green surrounds and wind, neither of which the tour players have faced. It's kind of a joke the tour pros have played an easier version of the course than the members do. I hope this year the grounds crew gets left alone and they are allowed to prepare the course how it was designed to play.

That said, as much as I love the course it was very clear the tournament was not going to be successful there due to the reasons everyone else has already highlighted. I think it would be a great course if the Nelson had an upper echelon field and the focus was purely on watching interesting golf in person, but it's never going to work for the Dallas social scene or casual golf fan. As others have said, it also doesn't show well on TV if you aren't familiar with the nuances of the different holes.

I'm sad the tournament didn't work out there, but I also believe they are making the correct call in acknowledging the failure and trying to make it work somewhere else. I really hope Trinity Forest turns in to a semi-private club in a couple of years where the public can actually make tee times and play, even if it will undoubtedly be an expensive green fee.

I'm a fan of links style. But I think that style was a predictably bad match for a large spectator event in DFW. We go from too cold to too hot in a short time frame. It could be a quality choice in a vacuum, but when considering other factors, it was just a bad one.

Layout wise, the best place on the calendar would be early July, a couple of weeks out from the British, but obviously, they'd never do that with the heat. But as it stands, it's kind of an odd duck style-wise, especially as a lead-in tournament to the PGA Championship. In a year the PGA is held at a links style course, it might have some success.

Colonial could be more interesting if they changed the ball up some. I mean phil didn't even take a driver there at one point right? Opting for a gap wedge.

AgLaw said:

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I don't think it was the location as much as it was the course. Players complained about the TPC Las Colinas, and after Byron Nelson passed, the big names (like Tiger) quit coming.

The problem is they moved from a course the players hated to a course they hate even worse. I don't know what they're going to do, but the move to Trinity Forest has been a disaster.

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I said location but meant the course specifically. Las Colinas, specially the Omni Mandalay is, or was, one of the more prominent hotel venues for out of town pro sports and tournament teams. So while there may be a few better areas, LC is at least above average. One of the reasons why I still live in Irving: great access to almost anything I'd want in DFW.

I think too many people followed Tiger and a few others and read too much into their actions. For a while, Tiger didn't play that many tournaments anyway and I've been around the Nelson for a LONG time and don't recall the criticism of the course until the last few years. It just seemed very manufactured and political. If they're truly going to send it back there, that would all but prove my point.

Not to say that there can never be a better venue some where but I thought much of the criticism was ridiculous and a ton of it was of a bandwagon nature. I just thought it was dumb; I didn't take it personally. As stated, I don't miss it.