EDS Byron Nelson Classic

April 26 - 29, 2007
TPC Four Seasons Resort & Cottonwood Valley GC
Irving, Texas
Par: 72 / Yardage: 7,022/6,847
Purse: $6.3 million with $1,134,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Brett Wetterich

List of Champions & Scores

Results & Scores 2006 EDS Byron Nelson

Box Score of 2006 EDS Byron Nelson

Tournament facts:

Tournament information:

The inaugural Dallas Open in 1944 was won by Byron Nelson by a whopping 12 strokes. Three annual tournaments were staged with Nelson winning the first, then Snead winning the next and followed by Hogan winning in 1946. After that the city couldn't find a sponsor for the tournament and after a lapse of ten years James Ling sponsored the event starting in 1956. Ever since then the tournament has been played with the exception of 1963 when the PGA Championship was played in Dallas and in 1965 when the tournament was switched from its September dates to its spring dates. In 1967 the Salesmanship club took over sponsorship and the following year the tournament was renamed after Byron Nelson who was born just outside of Dallas and had a 630 acre ranch in Roanoke, Texas. The tournament is the 12th oldest active tournament on the PGA Tour and along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational are the only events named after former players.

Course information:

Course was designed and built by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and opened in 1983. The course was remodeled in 1986 by Jay Morrish, Byron Nelson and Ben Crenshaw. Over the years the course has had several changes. The biggest one came in 1993 when the 17th hole was remodeled with a lake carved out in front of its green. After the 1999 Byron Nelson, the course went through a $3 million dollar renovation with 1,600 trees added and several bunkers reshaped. It was a two year plan, with most of the work being done on the back nine in 2000, with front nine changes coming last year. Since then they have spent a lot of money adding more trees to the course and a lake on the left side of the 18th fairway.

Things are going to change after this year as course officials have hired D.A. Weibring to come in a do a complete facelift of the tees, fairways and greens.

Now for the Cottonwood Valley course, it was buit by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1982. In 1985 Jay Morrish remodeled nine of the holes and in the last couple of years more work has been done to make the course more player friendly.

After the bad weather that hit the tournament in 1994 played havoc with things, it was determined to use two courses for the first two days. What made the decision easy was that Cottonwood Valley was right across the street. Its a private club, with some limited playing privileges for hotel guest at the Four Season resort.

For a more comprehensive look at the courses, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.com

The Buzz:

Another problem that will hurt them is bad greens. After two days of practicing I can't remember hearing as big of a uproar over the conditions of greens. Yes, public courses like Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines have had problems with there Poa annua greens but nothing to the degree of this week. Now the reason for the poor condition are many from intrusion of other grasses to the fact that the greens are at the end of their life cycle, still this won't help get players back next year, even though all 18 greens will be completely redone this summer.

Last but not least is the announcement of the firing of Rick Smith and Phil Mickelson working with Butch Harmon. Unfortunely a player like Mickelson has a lot expected from him so it will be interesting how fast Harmon can get results from Mickelson. It's not like they started working together today, they have been working together since the Match Play so hopefully Mickelson will show some results real soon.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Scott Halleran/Getty Images Fans and players are looking at the action at the 17th green at the TPC Las Colinas.

Will be a tough year for the putter with greens that aren't in the best of shape. The course isn't a favorite by many of the players but it's a type of place that scores are low with plenty of birdies made.

• Key stat for the winner:
  TPC at Four Season is a strategic, thinking man's type of course. You look at some of the winners, players like Vijay Singh, Jesper Parnevik, Loren Roberts, John Cook, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Scott Simpson, Nick Price and Fred Couples and you can see what they have in common.
• Last week experience wasn't a key to winning as many first timers have flourished in New Orleans. But this week is different, experience is key to winning, since the tournament has been played at TPC at Four Seasons, Ted Purdy, Neal Lancaster, Robert Damron and Brett Wetterich are the only players that won for the first time. We can call the Lancaster win a fluke since the tournament was curtailed to 36 holes due to rain, but can't explain the Purdy, Damron and Wetterich win other than playing great at the right time
• Now I don't want to jinx the tournament, but weather in Texas could be a bit stormy this time of year. But not this week as right now forcasters all calling for a perfect week of weather with everday in the low 80s with low humidity. Players should enjoy this good run of weather.
• Except for John Cook, Loren Roberts and Shigeki Maruyama all the winners since the tournament added one round at Cottonwood Valley in 1995 have been long hitters. That is because both courses tend to favor length and a player can get away with errant shots, especially at Cottonwood Valley. Still this is changing since Cottonwood Valley now has high deep rough.
• Very important to note that since 1994 three of the four rounds of the EDS Byron Nelson Classic are played at the par 70 TPC at Las Colinas course with one of the rounds played across the street at the par 70 Cottonwood Valley course. Of all the four round events played on the PGA Tour, the Nelson has the most rounds shot in the 60s, since 1994 all of the winners have scored four rounds in the 60s 45% of the time as the field have shot 69 or better 2,636 out of 5,906 times. So in looking for that special winner this week look at this list of players that have shot the most rounds in the 60s in 2007:
  

One last thing, the Nelson always seems to have a tight finish, with playoffs quite common. Since 1970, the Verizon Byron Nelson has a reputation for having the most playoffs on the PGA Tour:

Here is a look at most playoff's on PGA tour since 1970:
Tournament	Number of Playoffs	Playoffs since 1990
Verizon Byron Nelson Classic	15	6
Shell Houston Open	13	7
Barclays Classic	13	7
Bob Hope Classic	12	6
Travelers Championship	11	4
Buick Invitational	11	4

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