The Five: Storylines to follow at revamped Colonial

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Charles Schwab Challenge returns this week to venerable Colonial Country Club for the 78th year. The longest-running PGA TOUR tournament at the same venue, the Charles Schwab includes the No. 1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, and a handful of players who contended at last week’s PGA Championship, among them Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa and Justin Rose. All of them will encounter a “refresh,” in the words of Adam Scott, that sought to return Colonial to its presentation for the 1941 U.S. Open won by Craig Wood.

Colonial has new grass throughout. It has new bunkers — and some places where bunkers used to be but are no more. Some greens are lower. One is noticeably higher.

But it is the same routing among the towering pecans on the Trinity River that many TOUR players have loved since the first PGA TOUR stop here in 1946, when Ben Hogan beat Harry Todd for his first of five wins at Colonial. Scores typically run low in the Charles Schwab. But that might change this year, given the new greens and other factors.

“They really have this firmness, the ball's rolling out when you get on them,” said Tom Hoge, who played college golf at nearby TCU, on Wednesday. “So it really does change strategy. You’ve got to be in the fairway here this week to have any sort of control coming into these greens. I think the golf course will play quite a bit more difficult this year as a result.”

Here are the storylines:

The champion returns

Defending champion Emiliano Grillo returned this week to a course on which he (a) won in 2023 and (b) has technically never seen.

Grillo won last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge at 8-under par, including a second-round 65. But that version of Colonial Country Club no longer exists — at least in the devilish details. The Gil Hanse renovation altered many features, notably at the par-3 eighth hole, where the green was moved about 30 yards to the left, snug against a deep creek channel. Hanse and his crews introduced a sandy native area left of the fifth fairway and stretched it all the way to the seventh green, adding an element of rustic ruggedness to the 1936 design credited to John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell. They also eliminated the concrete spillway between the last two holes where, one year ago, Grillo’s tee shot on the 18th clambered back toward him in the slow current. That now is a natural-looking waterway.

Grillo addressed the changes Tuesday.

“New reads, new contours, new everything, so I got to go out today and do my homework and pretend it's a place I've never played,” he said.

He also addressed the current state of his game, which has seen only five top-10 finishes since his second win on TOUR at the Charles Schwab.

“Not where I want it to be,” the 31-year-old Argentine admitted. “I'm working really hard on it. I wish I could say different right now. The last month and a half or so it's been tough, but this is golf, everybody knows this. You can't always play good. When you don't, you just have to keep grinding, get through the storm, and enjoy the sunny days more than ever.”

Bolder par 3s

Much of the renovation at Colonial is subtle. But the eighth and another par-3 hole — the iconic 13th — look entirely different. They’ll play that way, too.

The new 13th spans 199 yards. Hanse elevated the green by 10 feet and moved it farther from the pond to make it look and feel more like it did in the 1940s. He also built a massive tee box, creating many more playing options for the tournament.

“As long as the right tee box is played, I think it's a fantastic par 3,” said 2016 champion Jordan Spieth.

The new greens remain firm, playing almost like Bermuda. That presents problems for players hitting longer irons, Spieth said.

“The firmness of the greens, it's not really, doesn't seem to me to be able to yield holding 5-irons,” he said. “But if it's a mid-iron in, a good shot gets really rewarded. Then if you miss in the wrong spot, you can be in big trouble.”

Scott, the 2014 winner, noted the work at No. 8, which swung the green away from the Trinity River. The green now budges up against a creek that used to not be in play.

“I think the eighth is great,” Scott said. “I think that's a great improvement. Generally I think everything is a nice change. I mean, some of it is fairly subtle. I really think what's nice is it feels like Colonial Country Club still, and holes like the eighth are certainly improved.”

Spieth brings high hopes

Spieth, a resident of nearby Dallas, is making his 12th start in the Charles Schwab Challenge, a tournament he won in 2016 and one that tends to bring out his best golf. The 13-time TOUR winner finished second in 2021 and tied for second two other times. He’s finished outside the top 15 only once.

That record of success bodes well for Spieth. He hasn’t had a top-10 since the Valero Texas Open in early April.

Spieth missed the cut at the Masters and THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. His best finish since San Antonio is a tie for 29th at the Wells Fargo Championship. A bad round here and there on the weekend has kept him from contention. Spieth also continues to deal with a lingering wrist injury.

But he sounded upbeat Wednesday — happy to be at home and eager to play a course he respects.

“This tournament's always actually felt like kind of an exhale,” Spieth said, noting the busier schedule he maintains at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, where he made his first PGA TOUR start as a 16-year-old in 2010. He’s taking next week off after 14 starts this season.

“I've never had a week off after, so I can kind of feel like I can use up whatever's there and then take a few days off and I'm looking to improve,” Spieth said. “I did a lot of good things the last couple weeks and improving on some stuff I wanted to, and I still have some parts of the game that need some work … hopefully knock that out today and into the beginning of this weekend it gets better and better.”

Veteran moves

Justin Rose and Adam Scott are former champions in their 40s. Both make another start at the Charles Schwab Challenge in good form.

Rose, 43, tied for sixth at last week’s PGA Championship on the strength of a 7-under 64 in the third round. The 11-time PGA TOUR winner is playing in his 11th Charles Schwab, a tournament he won in 2018 and finished last year in a tie for 12th. Rose ranks 41st in Strokes Gained: Putting, always a strength at Colonial. His driving accuracy, another added value here, ranks 35th on TOUR (67.81%).

Scott, also 43, missed the cut last week but has five top-25s this year in 10 starts. His best finish came in February at the WM Phoenix Open (T8), but he played well in April at the Valero Texas Open, where he won in 2010. (Notably, Scott has won all four TOUR events in Texas, with wins at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in 2007, THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in 2008 and at Colonial in 2014.)

“The state of my game had been pretty solid all around, but I struggled on the greens last week and I have struggled on the greens the two previous weeks before that,” Scott said Wednesday. “So that's really held me back. I think my game is in better shape than results are showing. I know pretty much everyone who is not in the top 10 in the world is probably saying that, but that's how I feel. A little like I opened with, I hope that some good karma from this golf course kind of inspires a few better things for me on the golf course this week.”

The Australian, a 14-time TOUR winner, considered the reasons for his success in Texas.

“I've always felt that the state of Texas is most like Australia generally, from the trees to the golf courses,” he said. “I wouldn't call all Australians cowboys, but we definitely have a lot of cowboys as well. I think there's always been a level of comfort and I have enjoyed success on the golf course here. It also makes it a great week every time I come back to play in Texas.”

It’s been a while since Scott has played the Charles Schwab. His last start was in 2018 — the Rose year — when he tied for 52nd.

Redemption tour

Adam Schenk returns this week for a helping of mercy. He lost in the playoff last year to Grillo, his second runner-up finish in his six years on TOUR.

Schenk played three excellent rounds in 2024, posting 66-67-67 before an underwhelming 2-over 72 in the final round. He shared the 54-hole lead at 10 under with TOUR rookie Harry Hall. Schenk wobbled mid-round, made a gutsy birdie on the par-4 17th and parred the par-4 18th to tie Grillo.

Both players made par on the first sudden-death hole. Then Schenk watched Grillo hole a 5-foot birdie putt on the second.

Schenk’s career record at the Charles Schwab barely suggests reasons for hope. In six starts, Schenk has missed the cut three times. But Schenk has figured out a secret this season in Texas.

He tied for fifth at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. He tied for 13th a month later at THE CJ CUP with four rounds in the 60s. His quality of his play in Texas this year far exceeds his performance elsewhere. It’s helped his Strokes Gained rankings: 49th Off-the-Tee, 36th Putting and 70th Total.

Schenk, the No. 46-ranked player in the world, is making his 201st TOUR start this week at Colonial.