HP Byron Nelson Championship

The HP Byron Nelson Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. The tournament is held in late April / early May at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, USA. It is one of two PGA tournaments held in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex – the only metropolitan area to host two PGA tournaments – and before the FedEx Cup schedule reforms, was held the week prior to the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (previously the Bank of America Colonial). The tournament is the leading fundraiser for charity on the PGA Tour and is expected to hit the $100 million mark during its 2007 event. For much of its history, it was the only PGA Tour stop named after a professional golfer; it remains one of only two such events, along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Nelson commonly made an appearance during the tournament.

For the tournament's first several decades, it was played at a variety of courses in Dallas. Byron Nelson was the tournament's first winner in 1944, when it was played at Lakewood Country Club. The following year it was played at Dallas Country Club, and then in 1946 moved to Brook Hollow Golf Club. For the better part of the next decade the event was not contested, until two iterations of it were held in 1956, both at Preston Hollow Country Club. In 1957 the event moved to Glen Lake Country Club before it began a decade-long relationship with Oak Cliff Country Club from 1958-67. In 1968 the event was renamed the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and its name, through a series of sponsors, has always subsequently been in conjunction with Nelson's name. That same year the event moved to Preston Trail Golf Club, where it was played from 1968-82. In 1983 the event moved to venues in Irving, first at Las Colinas Sports Club from 1983-85, and then at the TPC at Las Colinas from 1986-93.

Beginning in 1994 the tournament was played at two courses, the Tournament Players Course and the Cottonwood Valley Course, both located at the Four Seasons. Previously only the TPC was used, but since the tournament was played in May (during the height of the North Texas storm season), the weather played havoc with the tournament in some years, causing several delays and shortened tournaments. Therefore, the decision was made to add the Cottonwood course in order to shorten the amount of time needed to complete the first two rounds. The first two rounds were played on both courses (each player played one round on each course); after the cut was determined, the TPC is used exclusively for the final two rounds. However, in 2008 the tournament reverted to using only the TPC course, which was significantly renovated.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) bought the previous title sponsor, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in mid-2008.^[1]

Winners

^PO Indicates a win in a playoff
* Indicates weather-shortened to 54 holes
^ Indicates weather-shortened to 36 holes
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Main sources^{[9][10][11][12]}

Multiple winners

Four men have won this tournament more than once through 2010.

• 4 wins
  • Tom Watson: 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980
• 3 wins
  • Sam Snead: 1945, 1957, 1958
• 2 wins
  • Jack Nicklaus: 1970, 1971
  • Bruce Lietzke: 1981, 1988

Tournament highlights

• 1956: Peter Thomson, a five-time winner of The Open Championship shoots a final round 63, then makes birdie on the first two holes of sudden death to defeat Gene Littler and Cary Middlecoff. It was his one and only PGA Tour victory in the United States.^[13]
• 1976: Mark Hayes becomes the first wire to wire winner of the Nelson.^[14]
• 1981: Bruce Lietzke defeated Tom Watson in a playoff spoiling Watson's bid for a 4th straight Nelson triumph.^[15]
• 1985: Bob Eastwood defeated Payne Stewart in a playoff after coming to the 72nd hole trailing Stewart by three shots. Eastwood made birdie on the final hole while Stewart made double bogey. Stewart made yet another double bogey on the first hole of sudden death to give Eastwood the title.^[16]
• 1994: Neal Lancaster won the first ever six-player sudden death playoff in PGA Tour history. He made a birdie on the first playoff hole to defeat Tom Byrum, Mark Carnevale, David Edwards, Yoshi Mizumaki, and David Ogrin.^[17]
• 2005: Tiger Woods' record streak of 142 cuts made came to an end at this tournament.
• 2008: Australian Adam Scott sank a 48 foot putt on the third playoff hole to clinch victory over American Ryan Moore.
• 2010: At age 16, Jordan Spieth (the defending U.S. Junior Amateur champion, and a student at nearby Jesuit College Preparatory School) became the youngest player to play in the tournament, courtesy of a sponsor's exemption (the first one granted since 1995). Spieth would make the cut (becoming the sixth-youngest person in PGA Tour history to make a professional tour event cut) and finish 16th overall. (In 2011 Spieth would again be granted a sponsor's exemption and would again make the cut, finishing 32nd overall.)

References

External links

• Official website
• Coverage on the PGA Tour's official site
• Media Guide