Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
| Location | Fort Worth, Texas |
|---|---|
| Established | 1946, 71 years ago |
| Course(s) | Colonial Country Club |
| Par | 70 |
| Length | 7,204 yards (6,587 m) |
| Tour(s) | PGA Tour |
| Format | Stroke play |
| Prize fund | $6.7 million |
| Month played | May |
| Aggregate | 259 Zach Johnson (2010) |
| To par | −21 Zach Johnson (2010) |
 Jordan Spieth
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The Dean & DeLuca Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played annually in May in Fort Worth, Texas at Colonial Country Club, who organizes the event. It is one of five invitational tournaments on the PGA Tour; the inaugural event was held 71 years ago in 1946.
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 1941 U.S. Open.
The tournament is unofficially associated with Ben Hogan (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 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 played in the 2003 tournament and became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event in 58 years, since Babe Zaharias made three cuts as an amateur in 1945. Sörenstam's participation drew high media attention, but she shot 71 and 74 and missed the cut by four strokes.
Colonial Country Club announced in July 2006 that Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts had signed a six-year contract to become the title sponsor through 2012. Crowne Plaza remained title sponsor through 2015. Dean & DeLuca, a chain of upscale grocery stores, became the title sponsor in 2016.
Previous sponsors were Bank of America (2003–06), MasterCard (1996–2002), and Southwestern Bell (1989–94). There was no title sponsor in 1995.
The Dean & DeLuca Invitational is one of only five tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour, and consequently it has a reduced field of approximately 125 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 156 players). The other four tournaments with invitational status are the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Memorial Tournament, and the Quicken Loans National.
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