Flash back to Sunday, May 15, 2005. I’m glued to the TV watching fellow Arizona native and good guy Ted Purdy come from two back and shoot a 5-under 65 to beat rookie Sean O’Hair by one and win his first PGA Tour title. Just two days before that (on Friday the 13th no less), Tiger Woods actually missed a cut for the first time since 1998. A streak that lasted with 142 events and beat the previous record of 113 held by Mr. Byron Nelson himself. Anyone for superstitions?

Sadly Tiger will not be playing this year either and is quite understandable after his father Earl passed away last Wednesday. My sympathy and condolences go out to the Woods family. As many often say, the show must go on and let’s take a look at this years EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

I would absolutely love to see Ted defend his title this week and this season is already looking better than last. Last year Ted’s best finish leading up the Byron Nelson was a T20 at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson. This year his best finish so far is a T5 at the Bay Hill Invitational.

There will be plenty of top players to challenge Ted this week including last week’s Wachovia winner, Jim Furyk, last year’s runner up, Sean O’Hair, 2004 champion, Sergio Garcia, and 2003 champion, Vijay Singh. Phil Mickelson annouced recently that he will not be participating in this years Byron Nelson citing a little fatigue and wanting to prepare more for the U.S. Open. The list of previous winners is virtually a who’s who that includes Garcia, Singh, Jesper Parnivik, Woods, Mickelson, Ernie Els, Jack Nicklaus, four-time winner Tom Watson, and of course Mr. Byron Nelson himself back in 1944.

The event began its life as the Dallas Open and officially changed its name to the Byron Nelson Championship in 1968. Starting back in 1995 the tournament is played on two courses: the first is the TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas which is a 7,022 yard par-70 which tends to favor a shot-maker rather than a power player. Originally designed by Jay Morrish with the help of Byron Nelson and Ben Crenshaw the course was completed in an amazing 12 months, just in time for the 1986 Byron Nelson.

The second course is the 6,847 yard par-70 Cottonwood Valley Golf Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Jay Morrish, which was originally designed as a private course for the members of Las Colinas. In 1994 severe weather damage to the TPC forced this course into action and it was then the PGA Tour discovered how much they liked this course as well so it was the 1995 tournament that started the use of both courses.

The EDS Byron Nelson Championship has a purse of $6,200,000 with $1,116,000 to the winner. It will be held at the TPC at Four Seasons-Las Colinas and Cottonwood Valley Golf Course in Irving, TX from May 11 – 14, 2006 and can be heard on XM Radio and seen on USA and CBS at the following times:

Thu, 5/11 12pm-8pm ET XM 146
Fri, 5/12 12pm-8pm ET XM 146
Sat, 5/13 12pm-8pm ET XM 146
Sun, 5/14 12pm-8pm ET XM 146

Thu, 5/11 4pm-6pm ET USA
Fri, 5/12 4pm-6pm ET USA
Sat, 5/13 3pm-6pm ET CBS
Sun, 5/14 3pm-6pm ET CBS

Photo Credit: © AP.

The sun has set on a record-setting final round at the Wachovia Championship, and it is time to move on to the great state of Texas for the Byron Nelson Championship. This tournament is the only one on the PGA Tour that is named after a Hall-of-Fame golfer, and it is definitely one of the special events on tour. This will mark the first time the “Big Five” have all played in the same tournament since The Masters. Tiger Woods is still the top-ranked golfer in the world, but Vijay Singh inched ever so close to the top spot with his playoff win Sunday at the Wachovia Championship. Tiger is sitting at 13.02 points, and Vijay is now up to 12.88 points and will surely regain the number one position with a win this week.

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