The Colonial National Invitation, titled for sponsorship reasons as the Charles Schwab Challenge since 2019, is a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

, played annually in May in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

at Colonial Country Club, which organizes the event. It is one of five invitational tournaments on the PGA Tour; the inaugural event was held in 1946.

Overview

The tournament was founded in 1946, and honors the history of golf by using an official Scottish tartan plaid jacket for its champions and top committee chairmen. Another tradition feeding Colonial history is the Wall of Champions on the first tee, engraved with the name and score of each champion dating back to 1946, plus the 1975 Tournament Players Championship, 1941 U.S. Open, and 1991 U.S. Women's Open. The tournament is unofficially associated with

Ben Hogan William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer who is generally considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and ...

(1912–1997), the long-time Fort Worth resident who won the tournament five times, the most of any player. One of the top players in golf history, he won nine

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

titles, six after a near-fatal automobile collision in 1949 that kept him hospitalized for two months. Hogan's final three major wins were consecutive in 1953; a statue of him at swing completion is near the clubhouse.

Annika Sörenstam Annika Charlotta Sörenstam (; born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 90 inter ...

played in the 2003 tournament and became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years, since

Babe Zaharias Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer O ...

made three cuts as an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

in 1945. Sörenstam's participation drew high media attention, but she shot 71 and 74 and missed the cut by four strokes. In

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, the tournament was held June 11–14 as the first PGA Tour event staged since the interruption of the regular schedule in mid-March due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In the interests of maximum health and safety, the event had no spectators, a PGA Tour first.

Invitational status

The Charles Schwab Challenge is one of only five tournaments given "invitational" status by the

, and consequently it has a reduced field of approximately 120 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 144 or 156 players). The other four tournaments with invitational status are the

Genesis Open The Genesis Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in southern California, first played in 1926 as the Los Angeles Open. Other previous names include Genesis Open, Northern Trust Open and Nissan Open. Played annually i ...

Arnold Palmer Invitational The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida ...

, the

RBC Heritage The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia. T ...

, and the

Memorial Tournament The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large n ...

. However, the 2020 event was staged with 144 players to help make up for the loss of several tournaments canceled earlier in the year. Invitational tournaments have smaller fields (between 120 and 132 players), and have more freedom than full-field open tournaments in determining which players are eligible to participate in their event, as invitational tournaments have slightly different criteria for player eligibility in the PGA Tour Priority Ranking System. Furthermore, unlike full-field open tournaments, invitational tournaments do not offer open qualifying (aka Monday qualifying).

Field

The field consists of at least 120 players invited using the following criteria: # Colonial winners prior to 2000 and in the last five years # Colonial Winners in top 150 of prior year FedEx Cup points list #

The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as The PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The P ...

and major championship winners in the last five years #

The Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...

and

World Golf Championships The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four ...

winners in the past three years #

and

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

winners in the past three years # PGA Tour tournament winners since the last Colonial tournament # Playing members on the last named U.S.

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

team # Current PGA Tour members who were playing members on the last named European Ryder Cup team, U.S.

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

team, and International President's Cup team # Two players to be selected by the current and former champions of the Colonial tournament (Champions Choices) # Top 15 finishers and ties from previous year's Colonial Tournament # 12 sponsors exemptions -- 2 from among graduates of Web.com Tour finals, 6 members not otherwise exempt, and 4 unrestricted # Top 50

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

through the Masters # Top 80 from prior year's

FedEx Cup The FedEx Cup is a championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Announced in November 2005, it was first awarded in 2007. Rory McIlroy is the 2022 champion. Th ...

points list # Members in the top 125 non-member category whose non-WGC points for the previous season equal or exceed the points earned by the player finishing in 80th position on the prior year FedEx Cup points list # Top 80 from current year's FedEx Cup points list through the tournament two weeks prior # If necessary to complete a field of 120 players, any remaining positions are filled from current year's FedEx Cup points list Colonial winners prior to 2000 that are not otherwise eligible are in addition to a field of 120.

Champion's Choice tradition

Colonial has a unique PGA Tour tradition known as the Champion's Choice invitation. Each year, former Colonial champions select two deserving young players, who otherwise would be ineligible, to compete in the tournament. Pros who made their first appearance at Colonial as a Champion's Choice include

Al Geiberger Allen Lee Geiberger Sr. (born September 1, 1937) is an American former professional golfer. Professional career Geiberger turned pro in 1959 and joined the PGA Tour in 1960. Geiberger won 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour, the first being the 1962 ...

Tom Weiskopf Thomas Daniel Weiskopf (November 9, 1942 – August 20, 2022) was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s. He won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982, inclu ...

Craig Stadler Craig Robert Stadler (born June 2, 1953) is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level, including one major championship, the 1982 Masters Tournament. Early life Stadler was bo ...

Curtis Strange Curtis Northrup Strange (born January 30, 1955) is an American professional golfer and TV color commentator. He is the winner of consecutive U.S. Open titles and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He spent ...

Mark O'Meara Mark Francis O'Meara (born January 13, 1957) is an American professional golfer. He was a tournament winner on the PGA Tour and around the world from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. He spent nearly 200 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World ...

Paul Azinger Paul William Azinger (born January 6, 1960) is an American professional golfer and TV golf He won twelve times on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 1993 PGA Championship. He spent almost 300 weeks in the top-10 of the Official ...

Davis Love III Davis Milton Love III (born April 13, 1964) is an American professional golfer who has won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship: the 1997 PGA Championship. He won the Players Championship in 1992 and 2003. He was in th ...

, and

Jordan Spieth Jordan Alexander Spieth (born July 27, 1993) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour and former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is a three-time major winner and the 2015 FedEx Cup champion. Spieth's first majo ...

. Five Champion's Choices have eventually won the Colonial;

Dave Stockton David Knapp Stockton (born November 2, 1941) is an American retired professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Stockton was born in San Bernardino, California. He attended the University of Southern ...

is the only Champion's Choice to win the tournament in the year selected (1967).

Course layout

Source:

Winners

''Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.''
Sources:

Multiple winners

Eleven men have won this tournament more than once through 2019. 5 wins *

: 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1959 2 wins *

Julius Boros Julius Nicholas Boros (March 3, 1920 – May 28, 1994) was an American professional golfer noted for his effortless-looking swing and strong record on difficult golf courses, particularly at the U.S. Open. Early years Born in Fairfield, Connecti ...

: 1960, 1963 *

Billy Casper William Earl Casper Jr. (June 24, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American professional golfer. He was one of the most prolific tournament winners on the PGA Tour from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. In his youth, Casper started as a caddie a ...

: 1964, 1968 *

Lee Trevino Lee Buck Trevino (born December 1, 1939) is an American retired professional golfer who is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. He was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. Trevino won six major championships and ...

: 1976, 1978 *

Ben Crenshaw Ben Daniel Crenshaw (born January 11, 1952) is a retired American professional golfer who has won 19 events on the PGA Tour, including two major championships: the Masters Tournament in 1984 and 1995. He is nicknamed ''Gentle Ben''. Professiona ...

: 1977, 1990 *

Bruce Lietzke Bruce Alan Lietzke (July 18, 1951 – July 28, 2018) was an American professional golfer who won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour between 1977 and 1994, including two victories in the Canadian Open. His best finish in a major championship was ...

: 1980, 1992 *

Corey Pavin Corey Allen Pavin (born November 16, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and currently on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 150 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1986 and 1997 ...

: 1985, 1996 *

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean retired professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-19 ...

: 1994, 2002 *

Kenny Perry James Kenneth Perry (born August 10, 1960) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He won 14 PGA Tour events and has won nine PGA Tour Champions events including four senior major championships: the 20 ...

: 2003, 2005 *

Phil Mickelson Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer who plays for LIV Golf. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters To ...

: 2000, 2008 *

Zach Johnson Zachary Harris Johnson (born February 24, 1976) is an American professional golfer who has 12 victories on the PGA Tour, including two major championships, the 2007 Masters and the 2015 Open Championship. In 2023, Johnson will captain the U ...

: 2010, 2012

Notes

References

External links

*
Coverage on PGA Tour's official site
{{coord, 32.7170, -97.3728, display=t, type:event PGA Tour events Golf in Texas Sports in Fort Worth, Texas InterContinental Hotels Group Recurring sporting events established in 1946 1946 establishments in Texas