Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial

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The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It has been played annually in May in Fort Worth, Texas on the course at the Colonial Country Club. It is one of four invitational tournaments held on the PGA Tour. It is also the longest running event on the Tour still being held at the original site.

Colonial Country Club announced on July 25, 2006, that Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts has signed a six-year contract to be the title sponsor through 2012. The hotel chain replaces Bank of America, which decided not to renew its deal after four years, including the tournament's 50th anniversary in May.

The 2006 purse is $6,000,000, with $1,080,000 going to the winner.

The tournament was founded in 1946 as the Colonial National Invitation Tournament. The tournament honors the history of golf by using an official Scottish tartan plaid jacket, for it champions and top committee chairmen. Another tradition feeding Colonial history is the beautiful Wall of Champions on the first tee. Engraved with the name and score of each champion dating back to the 1941 U.S. Open, the marble display casts a reverence over the start of any player's round. In 2003, Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias. However, Sorenstam missed the cut after rounds of 71 and 75.

The tournament is unofficially associated with Ben Hogan, who won the tournament several times and was associated with the Fort Worth area.

[edit] Champion's Choice Tradition

Every year, these champions select two deserving young players to compete in the tournament, who otherwise would not have been eligible. It's a unique PGA Tour tradition known as the Champion's Choice invitation. Pros who made their first appearance at Colonial as a Champion's Choice include Al Geiberger, Tom Weiskopf, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Mark O'Meara, Paul Azinger and Davis Love III. Dave Stockton won the event as a Champion's Choice in 1967, and five other choices through the years have eventually won the event.