Gil Hanse & Ryan Palmer on Colonial Country Club’s “historical restoration”

After the final putt dropped in the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge, Gil Hanse and his team began an ambitious project: a “historical restoration” of Colonial Country Club to prepare it in time for the 2024 playing of the tournament. Smylie Kaufman is joined by both Gil, and four-time PGA Tour winner + Colonial member Ryan Palmer to discuss all of the changes made to return the course to its more rugged and natural roots with the 1941 U.S. Open as a reference point. Smylie and Charlie Hulme then conclude the show with their one-and-done picks for the tourney.

In addition to photos provided by Gil, our YouTube episode features footage gathered by the @PGATOUR and @FriedEggGolf from two awesome videos worth watching to prepare for the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge. You can find those videos here:

TOTAL golf course transformation in less than a year! | Colonial CC | PGA TOUR Originals – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNApY5dlMOI

Bringing Rugged Back | Renovating Colonial Country Club – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juwu1ZRdExk

#golfpodcast #pgatourpodcast #pgatour #golfcourse #colonial #dallas #fortworth

[Music] Smiley Kaufman for 61 wow I’m Smiley caufman and this is the Smiley Show welcome back to another episode of the Smiley Show the first post PGA Championship episode uh we did Recaps all week from balla and Louisville so if you want to catch up on all of our analysis throughout the week including an emergency pod reacting to Scotty cheff uh you know just shocker arrest on Friday morning and everything that followed you can go find that on our YouTube and our pod feed there but we are officially on to char the Charles Schwab challenge Colonial week uh we’re going to Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth Texas and you know we unlike some other preview episodes we do we’re we’re we’re going to do very little in the way of discussing here because we have something better for you we have a conversation that smiley had with Gil Hance who along with Jim Wagner did a full restoration of this course to return it to its roots of the 1940 1941 era when it hosted the US Open and we are fired up about that so smiley just to just set the table for that conversation off the top amelo gillo went won this event last year and then the day after his last putt hit the hole and and and they left the course Gil brought the bulldozers in and they got to work so just Reflections on what you know Colonial to to be in the the past and times you played it and what you’re looking forward to seeing when this thing gets unveiled we see this on TV for the first time on Thursday I mean there’s just so much history here going back from Ben Hogan and uh just how iconic this place really is and there’s just so much history of What’s Happen at this golf course and you you feel that in the interview and Gil talking about how important this project was to him and how he’s trying to get it back to the roots of how it was in that that US Open that you just kind of referred to so um just kind of getting you know underneath the hood of of kind of what Gil was thinking and how he’s going to bring it to life um in a in an era in which people are trying to make golf courses longer you know he was making a little bit more on The Rustic side I guess is kind of a good way of how he described it but uh really a great conversation of how he kind of worked hand inand with the club and um other PJ tour players to you know make this a golf course playable for its members but also to host a PJ Tour event every year yeah I I I was during this conversation just sort of nerding out with my camera off just just listening to the whole thing and as as a brief tease I love the question that you asked him about whether he likes uh restoring golf courses or designing his own because he’s almost too good at restoring golf courses at this point you know it’s like everyone wants to call Gil Hance to come in and do their and restore their course along with Jim Wagner and uh you know I’ll let you listen to the episode to hear Gil’s answer in full on that it was it was a really good one so really fir up for that conversation that is where we are headed next and then we have yet another interview on the other side of Gil so without further Ado let’s kick it over to Gil hans’s conversation with smiley about the Colonial Country Club restoration welcome back everybody to another episode of the Smiley Show and we have Gil HS uh joining us from uh the landown under so good morning to you Gil and uh good day mate thanks appreciate it yeah a little bit reversed everything’s upside down yeah exactly we it’s hard for us to have people fit our schedules with babies and after evening hours but this is perfect you just woke up probably had a cup of coffee about ready to start your day I’ve had uh two hours on the bulldozer already so I’ve just been shaping all morning uh we yeah that we get started early here so uh it’s been a good morning so far the weather’s been perfect and I just popped up to my room here at Royal Sydney to get on chat with you uh amazing amazing and this uh conversation uh is going to be mainly about Colonial which is a it’s been a project that you’ve been uh working on this whole last year ever since that last P putt dropped at Colonial just kind of walk us through what the issues that kind of faced uh Colonial Country Club from a play standpoint and just also uh how long it took for you to kind of get this project going yeah it was um it was a big project obviously was comprehensive and in everything that we did um you know infrastructurally which isn’t the sexy stuff right the architecture stuff is what we want to talk about but everything under the ground needed to be replaced it was time uh to redo greens it was time to redo infrastructure drainage irrigation and um you know what could we do to create better growing conditions for what is traditionally been a very difficult time of year for them you’ve got the Bermuda grass is sorted just coming to life and the bent is started to struggle a little bit with the heat uh in in this may time slot so what could we do under the ground that would actually help us present better greens uh because the club decided to go with Ben grass greens it was since Marvin Leonard founded the club in 1936 that was one of the mantras we going to be the first course in the southwest to have Ben grass greens and they’ve stuck to it so what could we do Under The Greens so we’ve got the ability to heat and cool uh on the so rich Macintosh has done an amazing job and so he’s got all the bells and whistles from a infrastructure standpoint to present the golf course better and so once the club decided they needed to invest in getting having the opportunity to have all these tools we start they decided should we look at the architecture should we focus on what could be done on the golf course to maybe make it a little bit more compelling test and that’s when we were brought in to talk to them about that and and our Focus shifted towards that 1941 Us open program once we saw that and we saw what did colonial look like and how was it presented and all the amazing things that were built you know it’s honestly it’s a pretty flat piece around and the main part of it that really provided all the assets was the access to the Trinity River and the various tributaries that fed into the Trinity and based on 19 early 60s engineering project a lot of those features have been Stripped Away from the golf course in order to protect the golf course and protect the neighborhood from flooding so what we tried to do is look at this program and say yeah that’s the direction we want to go both from a a strategic standpoint but also how we wanted to present the golf course the golf course had gotten very formalized a lot of brick a lot of white sand bunkers a lot of plantings Etc and and the the 1941 photograph showed it was anything but it was really a very rustic sort of uh North Texas landscape wow that’s so uh interesting because when I’ve played Colonial now that I think about just the uh the river that you kind of know is there but you don’t really see and so I imagine has there been a little bit of tree cutting uh near that River and have y’all actually planted any trees out there yes so both uh we did cut down trees along primarily along the fifth hole um so that you can see now into the river and at least understand that it’s over there and up around the green we took a lot of trees out in order to actually bring the river potentially into play as you know it’s a long hard Par Four and so I mean if you block one now you you might actually go down closer to the river instead of rattling around in the trees which I think is part of the original but then you’re right Colonial has always been a Treeline Golf Course um you know before he passed I had the you know the amazing opportunity to have lunch with Dan Jenkins and we talked about Colonial obviously that’s his hometown and he was so close to Hogan and and Nelson and he understood that golf course and he he said to meil like that was a dark golf course he said you were always hitting like in dark corridors and the greens were sh you know trees were overhanging the greens and it was really that was part and parcel of it so what we did was where we where some trees had been removed we put trees back we tried to bolster and ultimately try to get trees that would replace trees that might fail because they’re starting to get a little bit close to their life expectancy so we have a probably a welld deserved reputation for cutting a lot more trees ask you that I think this one we might actually have a net plus on the on the overall golf oh man I think there’s there’s uh traditionalist and and guys that love playing old school golf courses that are that are cheering right now that there’s been trees added to a restoration project and I and you kind of uh touched on would you call it a baranka that kind of runs through or a creek what would you call it it yeah we’ve been uh we’ve had all kind baranka but then I was corrected by Texan who said well that’s the Souther that’s a Southern California term that’s not we call them dry washes here so all right dry washes so there you know dry washes is you know that’s a part of of Colonial Country Club it kind of works its way through the golf course and I think if I recall correctly the eighth hole is one of the biggest changes that y’all have made to the golf course from just a general layout standpoint just kind of tell us exactly uh what the changes made on the eighth hole and what y’all are trying to improve on yes so that we had this great photograph or had a number of photographs of that hole in the Trinity River before they straightened it in the 60s used to zigzag and weave its way around and and they had several golf holes that basically were impacted by and the eth was one of those uh and then when they straightened the channel they moved the green away and kind of Inland so it really didn’t have any I mean unless you hit the world’s biggest block you’re never you’re not going in the river and so we couldn’t replicate that just for permitting reasons with the Trinity River but we did look and there’s a tributary the one that actually runs in front of 157 181 and then runs all down the right hand side of 11 that tributary actually exits the property right where the where the eth T was and so what we did was we built the mirror image of the golf hole that the 1941 hold it we’ve got the photos of Hogan and so now instead of the water being on the right side it’s on the left side it green sits up on this huge Bluff and 30 ft down to the water but we looked at the bunker patterns we did the best we could to try and figure out what the green looked like and through the descriptions in the program but also the photographs and we feel really good about what we built there it’s definitely a dramatic change because that eighth hole never really fit the golf course I remember playing it it just was a a random hole that just kind of appears in uh the the little Forest Area by by the river and and now that that that T box it used to be pretty far back there I imagine it’s allowed you to maybe push back the seventh hole a little bit or maybe find a little extra room there at number seven we did yeah so now the seventh green goes back and I mean not quite to the river but it goes back pretty far we extended about maybe 30 yards um so it’s got It’s and it now sits up on that bluff and you’ve got this sort of Valley in front of it which is the dry wash that runs along the fifth hole down the left of the fifth hole cuts across the sixth T now is extended and runs across it’s it’s Turf but the the you know the land form of that baranka cuts across in front of so it’s really it’s pretty dramatic up into that green that’s going to be an that’s going to be an incredible hole it used to be you know when it was years that it was firm you could hit three iron two iron off that te and sometimes front pins have wedges in so I imagine it’ll actually make guys pull the driver out because you know left there has never been any good on that to so that’s a really cool change and uh what about the rest of the golf course would you say that rust uh The Rustic kind of look that you’re talking about are you going to be able to see that on TV or any certain hole that’s really it’s really bro out to where it’s a lot different maybe any other part 3s yeah it’ll definitely be apparent um as you look at the bunkering now is is kind of reminiscent of what we did at Southern Hills it’s got more of an it’s not like Tall Grass along the Edge it’s still Bermuda but it’s got more of a a lot of little bumps and fingers going there and um so that’ll be readily apparent you know the hole that’s gonna where it’s going to just show up the most is 17 17 you we took the concrete Spillway out so Milano gilo’s uh you know watching that ball slowly Plinko its way down the concrete Channel That’s gone that’s not happen um so and we’ve restored and opened up a creek and so the creek runs to so the water that goes alongside the 16th we also picked up the 16th green and shifted it over so it’s right up against the the creek now that’s all open so when you watch I think the the images from 17 are going to be completely different it’s going to give that sense of the creek and how the whole thing runs through there wow so and you mentioned too that Colonial is a very flat piece of property so one of the things I imagine for just drainage purposes is just being able to catch the water and move it off the property and finding different Creeks that you can use is that kind of the idea behind that absolutely yeah they from an engineering perspective they can move the water through the golf course so much quicker now I mean it’s it’s amazing and you know when they built it um TCU was up there but it wasn’t what it is now in the football stadium is you know there that whole neighborhood is basically all the water that comes off of those roads and all the water that comes off a campus eventually winds up going through Colonial to get down to the Trinity River so there was a large engineering scope to this that basically how do we handle all this water in a more efficient way without it backing up and flooding the golf course man that is that is uh that’s pretty smart and that’s the way to do it especially with h the heavy rains that you can get uh whether it be the summertime and and sometimes the colonial week you can get some some pretty pretty brutal weather at least once or twice that week but um another question on the golf course too I imagine when you know you probably have these certain h in mind like for instance the 13th hole or the eighth hole Holes that you already know going into that you’re going to be making somewhat dramatic changes to but is there another hole in the golf course you kind of already mentioned the 17th hole that’s going to look visually different but from an architect standpoint any hole that’s just surprised you that that got better um that was one that you weren’t expecting um no that’s a great question I think I think the whole that’ll be surprising is is two I mean two is not one anybody ever is going to see on TV and it’s a shortish par 4 yeah but you know restoring the bunkers in a way that now you really have to think you know do you want to carry the one on the right carry the trees down that side do you want to play out to the left and the green like all the other Greens on the golf course has been brought down dramatically I mean so I think that whole when you now stand in the Fairway the green is basically just above Fairway level wow that’s so different yes it’s but it’s what was there I mean looking at those old photographs all the greens basically sat down at ground level and so what we did is we cut them down so I think from a visual standpoint it’s almost disconcerting when you look at that one that one and 17 are the two greens that you look at and go wow they really so pitched up and those bunkers are so sharp yeah and and so I think there’s some interesting whole locations there I think the the the shot off the te is really a thoughtful one which is what I you know we like when to seriously think about okay which shot do I play and by Shifting the bunkers around and putting them more in play especially there there was one in the approach coming down from the left hand side a guy who’s going to hit driver you know none of us want a 40 yard bunker shot and so that’s now really in in play and I think in in in all honesty when you’ve got greens that sit up and they’re kind of apparent where their the definition is you know as a player you you probably focus a little bit more on hitting that shot but when they sit down like I said it’s almost a bit like you get a little bit lacad isical like okay you know it’s just it’s almost too simple and I I it’ll be curious to hear the players reactions when they think about when they see the you know sitting down we know from a a member standpoint it’s going to be much more playable and much more accessible but you guys don’t ever I mean you we were joking about this with Ryan Palmer was we were out there walking around and I said you know lowering the greens you’re never ever going to see a tour player in the Fairway go o watch this I’m going to try and knock down a little seven iron and Scoot it up the approach and run it on the green I mean that’s just never part of the thought process no so you guys play an aerial game but a member might actually try and hit a shot like that or if they miss a shot they can get away with it as opposed to being you know rejected off of those elevated greens so that’s one of the things I’ll be most interested to watch is the presentation of the greens we know they’re going to be firm they’re brand new they’re going to be rock hard they’re they’re in great condition you rich and his team have done amazing I mean they’re Immaculate um so we’re excited about that but I the combination of the lower profile the greens with the firmness it would be interesting to get the players reactions to sort of from a a mental standpoint as to how they how they approach them now and the system underneath the greens is that the hydronic system is that what it’s called like the cooling and the heating of the air water yeah okay cool um well I I imagine from an architect standpoint that’s the challenge right because it’s only a few golf courses that are rich in history like Colonial Quail Hollow in which you show up and and they have a PGA Tour event every single year that they have to test the best players in the world and and Colonial has stood up to the test of time and and been very challenging to these players but still you got to go in there and when you restore a golf course you can’t you have to look at not just the PGA tour players but the rest of the membership so it’s that’s the I imagine the challenging part of in the balance of of making it modern but also like playable right yeah and I think everyone you know a lot of people talk about you know we all geek out about golf architecture but everybody appreciates good maintenance right whenever you ask your friends how is the golf course they don’t go well it was really thoughtful I had to you know think about every t- shot and go like no the greens were great uh the you know it was it was in great condition that’s always the first thing everybody talks about and so I think from a member’s perspective having all that infrastructure now Rich MacIntosh and team in charge or you know the conditioning should be amazing so yeah whether they hopefully they like the architecture but if they don’t the improvement from the standpoint and and that’s also something that you guys appreciate you show up you know frequently or almost always you get the course in the best possible conditions going to be in all year well now what we’re hopeful is the colonial and its best week which has always been tournament week will be a lot closer to tournament week in their worst week as opposed to in the past so I think design wise the players that show up are going to see a golf it’s going to feel familiar it’s going to be different but you they’re not going to be like oh you know you dropped me in outer space in someplace completely new but it’ll be interesting and you know this as well as I do the scoring that first tournament is going to be almost a referendum on the architecture and you know it couldn’t be further from the truth because we don’t know what kind of weather we’re going to get that week I mean if the wind blows and it’s firm which we know it’ll be firm and it’s dry yeah it’s going to be hard and everybody’s going to say wow Gil and his team uh you know Jim and Josh mcfat and those guys did an amazing job making it harder if it’s soft and it’s wet and those guys are throwing darts everywhere and the winning scores you know 181 19 under things boy Gil really screwed that up so it’s one of those things where you know we know in our heart of hearts that we believe the architecture is better we know the infrastructure is better the members are CHP at the bit to get out there and play it you know they’re not going to be able to play till after the tournament and as you mentioned you know at the start that was the one that gave me even more gray hair was just thinking about how are we going to get this done in time and you know I’m happy to report after walking around it last week it it’s if we get a little bit of Heat and the Bermuda gets growing and we get a little the rough up a little bit it’s ready uh you know and that’s a testament again to Rich and to laar golf and to Heritage Golf like the teams I mean we have and mother nature thank you because it was one of the driest Summers we’ve ever had hot too right hot yeah wasn’t great for everybody else but it was great for Colonials project so we you know we we we got it done really proud of what we’re going to show off here in a couple weeks and and hopefully the players enjoy it is there any air conditioning in those bulldozers for you yes 100% okay I was about to say I I would imagine those things would get so hot without him yeah it used to be way back I’m dating myself when uh you know they they used to not have cabs so you’re like out in the Heat and it was uh now now they’re now they’re very very comfortable okay that’s good to hear I got two more questions for you uh one quick one here with are they are I’d heard of rumor that they were potentially thinking about flipping the nines is that something that is happening this year or something that they’re just looking at doing down the road that’s it’s a conversation that’s ongoing right now um this year they’ll play the golf course the way it’s always been played uh yeah they’re talking because the horrible horseshoe 3 four and five never get on TV and obviously it’s one of the strongest parts and now with the revamped eth and the revamped seventh and Nine’s always been a good golf hole you know Nine’s brutal it always it’s either a three or a six sometimes there’s no in between yeah so they are talking about it but that’s that’s way above my pig right that’s TV and and spor situation gotcha so there that’s not like something that was back in the 1941 US Open where the nines were switched I was just I wanted to know if that was okay that makes sense y um uh last question for you here and and you know you’ve been involved in a bunch of highlevel restoration projects you mentioned Southern Hills and and also here Colonial and and a bunch of other ones from your standpoint do you enjoy doing these projects more or do you like the ones where you have just an open piece of land where you’re able to kind of have the canvas and be an artist and create something that has Gil hans’s name on it uh definitely new course we you know it because of the creativity because of the freedom the flexibility now don’t get me wrong we we love doing these projects and when we sign up for them we understand that you know our focus is going to be Perry Maxwell it’s going to be tilling Hass it’s gonna be Rainer it’s going to be those things and we’re 100% comfortable working in that world and we learn a lot uh I think we we benefit as Architects from that but you know for a number of reasons the creativity uh the opportunities that new golf courses present to themselves but then from a practical standpoint you know when you’re building a new golf course you’re dealing with one owner two owners and they’ve hired you for a reason and they’re happy to have you there and work with you when you work with a club there’s a thousand members there’s probably at least 200 that are not happy you’re there for whatever reason or opposed to the project Etc so you’re dealing the the restoration projects are a lot more political which expends a little bit more energy whereas with the new projects creativity excitement piece of ground but also a lot less politics yeah I imagine that makes that makes a whole lot of sense and uh well Gil this uh this been a fun little conversation and um thank you for taking a break from your bulldozer um I imagine that maybe a flat white uh over there is in in your future and back on the bulldozer to finish finish work this afternoon thank 100% yeah for timee yeah they have the best coffee here as you know the flat right my alley yeah the flatl is so good so thank you again uh we’d love to do this again sometime and uh we always like leaning on a guy like you got all the knowledge in the world so we appreciate you uh spend a little time with us thanks Smiley I had a great time thank you see you buddy there you have it super super cool conversation with one of the most prominent you know Golf Course Architects designers in the game of golf right now Gil Hance and super excited to see uh get that first look at his work this week you know alongside Jim Wagner what they did at Colonial so uh adding a little context there uh you know hope you’re able to enjoy that on YouTube with the full visuals and if not there’s some great accompanying you know set of photos of of a presentation that uh he put together that really kind of brings it all to life um now I’m really excited where we’re going next because I when when you know post last year’s Charles Schwab challenge when I was reading about this restoration I was I had a great laugh reading about uh Ryan Palmer’s involvement in this that essentially they had a sit down with with a variety of members of colonial and Gil was very kind of gracious to spend his time to sit down and talk to the membership and let them ask him anything and Ryan just sort of grilled him he said hey here are a bunch of clubs you don’t there are holes that I don’t like you know this club what what were you thinking on that hole and this club what were you thinking on that hole and Gil took the time to answer all those questions and explain to Ryan what he was going to do with the course and and you know excited to kind of find out you know how Ryan feels about it now that we’re a year on and we’re preparing for uh the the the Charles Schwab challenge with the newly prepared course so uh anything to add to that smiley in terms of Ryan Palmer and his involvement with Gil and Colonial I mean RP is just the best he’s he’s uh such a great dude and he’s a lot like Kevin Kizer he he tells you exactly how it is and I think for somebody when it means so much to you that’s where you where you play and um you know I think you just don’t want anything for the you know for an architect to come in and just screw anything up you know take it away from what what people love about Colonial and what PJ tour players love coming back to um and playing Colonial just it’s just such a cool spot and um RP is uh he’s a fun one and I know he’s uh y’all are going to really enjoy this conversation straight shooter anytime you get compared to Kevin Kar maybe not anytime but most of the time it’s a high compliment and in this context very much so so we’ll not waste any more of your time we’re going to kick this conversation right over to Smiley and Ryan Palmer here you go Ryan Palmer joining the Smiley Show buddy thank you for coming on and we had Gil H just recently uh come on uh to do a little uh talk about the restoration project at Colonial and nobody was closer to that project than you Ryan just give us a state of where the golf course is and just kind of uh you know where your expectations were before the project and uh where the finish project is now yeah first off I’m thanks for having me smiley um but no I’m I’m excited for it first of all it’s it’s been a long year for Colonial but um I was out there a couple weeks ago during Nelson and walking around doing some media and it’s it’s going to be awesome um going back to the beginning I was very I say cautious I’m not I say cautious just skeptical I guess we had a big lunch meeting with Gans um our GM our head of our greens our superintendent and went through his his ideas and what he was thinking went through the his game plan his whole sketches and you know we were sitting there talking the first time with myself and James Evanson who you know is a a member there mhm mhm and we started asking right right off the bat James was like are you going to mess this one up at all you what’s your plan for this golf course CU we’ve had some struggles and and holes in the past and he laughed and and he go yeah I’ve never I’m not I probably messed up a few holes and upset some players but uh our biggest our biggest thing was we don’t want this to change because players love it I mean every player I talked to before it happened said don’t change it don’t touch it um but it needed a face I call it a facelift um yeah yep but we went through every hole and we talked about the greens mainly hey are you planning on changing greens or what’s your plan and he said from the beginning I’m going to laser the greens and put them pretty much back to what they were slopes and dimensions and so that had a you know put a good feeling in our in our thoughts and uh you know then we went out there went through the golf course and talked about a lot of things and it was really cool to be a part of it you know haven’t been part of any kind of golf course design but yeah you know the his history of colonial and being a proud member there it really um it was it was an awesome feeling very honored to help him out with it and uh it was it was cool to to go out there during the destruction and seeing him on a bulldozer that that showed me a lot you know when when Gil’s out there moving dirt tells you his uh his love for it and his pride he has and uh no I I’m I’m excited about it can’t wait to play today I haven’t played it yet and but uh I’m excited for the players to see it so today is day one that any body’s allowed to play the golf course they played last Saturday they had about 50 members in a lottery get to go out and play it um I was supposed to play it but I couldn’t do it um daddy Duty called but uh um from what I he everybody loved it um but no so yeah today be the first I guess full day of golf and uh we’ll see how how it reacts yeah and and just all right so you walk the golf course and uh for for those that are familiar with Colonial or even those that aren’t just kind of your big takeaways of I know the eighth hle is a big change that Gil kind of talked about um but any other holes too that stick out that that you feel like were that are going to be awesome yeah Eight’s unbelievable what he did with eight um moving all the way to the left against the Ravine it’s a beautiful hole he did a fantastic job there um you know if there was any bigger changes I would say um he 12 a little bit he backed up I think he’s playing 470 now wow um for those that know Colonial you can’t get to the right bunker you can’t carry the left bunker um really they move they move the green right and up against kind of the hazard I guess wow that much that hole is always kind of blad it’s kind of uh cuz you can just bomb it over that left bunker but now that’s that’s going to be a much more difficult it was the only hole in the golf course you couldn’t see the green pretty much or the Fairway so now with the green shifted to the right you see the Green from t- box but now you’re going to be hitting more of a you know seven eight and nine IRS in that green as opposed to blob wedges wow and then 13 was really cool he lifted it six feet and pushed it back a little bit okay the part three and put bunkers in front of the green so his whole idea was to go back to 41 the way it looked mhm and he uh he talked it’s funny we were walking a couple weeks ago and I asked him what’s the word should I use because you didn’t renovate it and he said it’s a historical restoration historical restoration okay I like that because he he didn’t change much I mean he just wanted to make it more natural flowing like it used to be and uh right you know he shallowed shallowed some bunkering uh more natural flowing ice calm cookie cutter bunkers big white faces yeah austa National let’s say you know green and he made it more natural with the you know flow the new flowing Banas he put in throughout but as far as like strategy nothing really changed except for number eight obviously um yeah one of the biggest things that I kind of threw in my two cents I guess is um we took some bunkers out of play on a lot of holes cuz it’s funny when guys talk about Colonial they try to hit it in the bunker cuz they’re per perfect perfect yes I mean it’s easiest bunkers to get out of so a lot of the holes we um we took some bunkering out of play for instance number nine we took the right bunkers out yeah and then the left bunkers we pushed up to about three 300 I guess something like that so if you’re laying back and you hit it left you’re no longer in a bunker you’re in the rough and you know how hard it is to play that rough in colonial so FR all yes so um that’s a few of the things we really looked at took the buckers out on 14 pushed it back 20 yards wow um you like how I’m saying we I love saying we no no it’s this has got the RP signature on it now so uh but um no bunkers on three run the green uh took the bunkers out on four the part three um so those are your no bunkers on four the part three no so so it’s just a like a natural kind of run up to the green now in the front yes but around it’s all all rough so the idea was to make the pros play out of the rough more often because the bunkering we you know most guys are so good out of it and the amers struggle out of bunkers so to look at the membership as well we wanted the guys to have a better chance running the ball up on the green or you know chipping up on the green as opposed to taking three or four shots out of a bunker like a lot of guys do so uh try to make it more playable for the Amer um when it comes to this to the bunkers and obviously the rough at Colonial during our tournament week is uh is always pretty pretty penalizing so uh that was a a lot of it and the 17th hole I know when they put the whole location on the front half of the green you know we a a professional golfer can get up and down from those bunkers but I imagine the member when you get down in that in those deep bunkers that that was just dang near impossible uh Gil was saying that he may have uh lowered that green a little bit and just kind of shallowed out that bunker as well yeah did a lot of the greens you lot guys will notice they lowered them about a foot or two each green they brought them down a little bit uh 17 you know they took the fairy bunker out of play uh so there’s no left fa bunker then correct and then yeah he did shallow out a lot of the bunkers so a lot of guys aren’t looking at a big flop type shot of a bunker you know the bunkers at 17 are still there green side but like they’re not as severe I guess you could say and then the green lowering a little bit but still it’s um it’s going to be a good hole coming down stretch uh we we built the t- boox uh Gil and I actually we were there one day during all of it and we had t-box built 10 12 yards further back to the right really and like almost make it a little more of a dog leg it got over rolled for a membership corporate tent so we don’t get to use it this year yeah I was out there I was like where’s our tea box and of course it’s underneath the bleachers so oh gosh man I would have loved to that one that because that would have been a cool little shot 17 and 18 just there to the right it was always that dried up creek where golf balls would just start running down the cart path Gil said like that’s kind of like been changed where that can’t happen as much anymore yeah he built a more natural flowing I guess is one of his brakers he put in there but now it’s more of a natural looking Creek I don’t think it’s really a hazard anymore or penalty area yeah what would you call it before it was just like a concrete stream concrete I don’t know it was yes I know what you’re talking about cuz a little three four foot stretch of concrete but uh balls would just go like if you hit a tree it would get that it could get going way back on that thing so they took all the concrete out and now it’s just more it’s going be more penalizing I think guys hitting it right on 18 or even right on 17 because it’s it could come into play very easily because how wi he made it but um it just looks more natural which is really cool I mean it’s going to be spectacular viewer viewing it from the 16th green and it just look so much more you know more Texas as opposed to you know made made up concrete stream and all that stuff so uh yeah I make I make to see it now with with everything out there when I get out there today yeah and I think one of the coolest parts of the uh y’all’s renovation or excuse me historical restoration I should say was the new technology are putting underneath the greens the uh hydron is that the correct term it’s basically just a refrigerator or a heater underneath the Green in which you can run Co cool and warm water yeah no it’s pretty cool to watch uh they ran all this piping through every Green watch them lay the the coils I guess you could say on the surface and then the idea is you said you you run cold and hot water um through it so it tricks the G the grass supposed to trick the grass to think it’s you know 75 degre instead of went to 95 this week so it’s a it’s pretty unique uh he did it at Southern Hills in Tulsa and there a cool picture in their locker room the whole Golf Course is covered in snow but every Green is you can see every Green they got they got the heaters on yeah so and then we did it here at VI Carol Golf Club where I practice that a lot so it’s become a new Norm a new if you’re going to have if you’re going to B in in in Texas on these these warm Summers you got to you got to do that right oh it’s it’s unbelievable what it’s what it’s doing um what the Carol has done their greens but the what col is going to see in the summertime cuz usually we’re playing in the summer exploding divots spongy slow now with the system you can keep it you know like I said no more fans on the grass blowing around and like I said tricks the grass to think it’s cooler so um I’m excited to see a year of growth I mean it’s going take a little while to get it all grown in but um now I think the the membership is in for a it’s going to be one of the best in the state by far and for the uh 50 or so from the membership that played in the lottery you said they all enjoyed it but did they uh were they saying that the greens were super firm I imagine yeah I talked to the GM a little bit and I really hear much on the firmness but somebody said they were out there and I intend them to be pretty firm I mean that’s usually what happens when you get new new greens because they haven’t had time to to grow through and everything so so uh I’m sure they’ll keep them pretty moist just to make sure but um I mean I think they they’ll keep them little firm as possible it’s going to be a it’s could be tough you’re going to see 21 under par this week I promise you that no you aren’t uh last year last year was eight underpar from Amano Grio so yeah we might be looking at a four under Champion here at Colonial this week I it’s that’s what I love about it it stands up every year to the test of time to these guys how good they are of course the way golf is today these guys could play blindfolded and shoot 1500 a part seems like as good as they are exactly that’s why I’m on the mic Ryan um I’m right about two years away I’m g go join the old guys there you go there you go well I’ll it’s a these guys are in for a treat I think and U it’ll be tough I gol the rough I heard the rough is up again and um I’m just an to see some of their some of what guys think uh I guess if I I had to be nervous about one thing it’d be green I’m curious what guys will think because how he redid that one um and the number seven we backed up a little bit so guys are going to be hitting driver more I like a long hole Yeah it’s a good Hole uh is your biggest concern on 13 just that the water’s not as much in play because there’s bunker short is that kind of the the worry and that it might be too firm well funny fact here is last year they were only six balls in the water oh wow on the weekend they so they went and did all the stats and they realized the wi never really came into play as much so the only thing that concerns me on 13 is this design of the green he put there’s a big mound in the back that slops left and right so I’m just my only concern is if it’s too too big too severe the green still flows kind of the way it did before you know kind of back to front sloping I guess you’re looking at it right right side yeah yeah so but you got two great pins on left and right you can use that back slope so my only I’m curious how how that one plays um as far as the way that slope is designed so uh but the whole looks great I mean with the bunkering around it it actually it looks better than it did so he described kind of uh the look was like rustic do you do you get a do you get a sense of that when you kind of look at the property or does it feel like what it used to to you I think so uh like I said we don’t have those the cookie cutter bunkering the white sand so he brought in a darker sand oh that’s going to look way different so so kind of like Southern Hills was with the where the bunkers were kind of the grass flowing into the bunker mhm it’s going to be more it looks more natural and rustic is a good where to use it uh just more flowing of the grass it’s not really man-made I guess you it looks more I mean rustic is a great word there’s no doubt about it so uh kind of how I mean his whole idea was he went back to a lot of 1941 pictures of the US Open yeah that was kind of what his vision was with it and uh um you know it’s going to take time to get that visual I think to let it all kind of grow in but uh so far he’s uh it’s it’s turned out really well well I’m excited to see Colonial this week and I’m excited to see Ryan Palmer Hoist the trophy but before you go Ryan I gotta get your best Jordan spe story and your best Shawn pyton story uh my best Jordan Speed Story I mean was I I I feel like the one that comes to mind for me was at the Zurich didn’t like was it one of you that like laid it up in the water or something like that oh Jordan did 100% yeah was it Jordan the year year before we finished third and we’re on 18 and yeah we were either on the cut line or one I think you’re on the cut line yeah he um of course I put him in the wrong spot but uh he chose a lay up and uh yeah he laid up in the water made Boer double and don’t miss a cut yeah I will say that the stands are no longer there that saved him when he won when he won Colonial a few years back I got finished third but he hit it left in the r up on 17 and hits this ball that would have been on 14 Fairway it was so hot and hits a stands stops gets his drop and gets what Jordan does what what does Jordan do makes it dips in how good was that chip that’s oh it was unbelievable yeah it was one of those deal that’s why you see you see me watching him and just kind of laughing like shocker you know and so my favorite sea pton real quick he C for me at Greenbrier one year oh yeah um when he this right before they went to the Green Brier for the Saints training facility and two things he did that week was so funny he got a yards book for every day he wanted yard book because he used a Sharpie to Mark the pens and everything so he had he had four yards books for one golf course and it was the funniest thing ever but the best thing was I’m on the putting green going through a putting drill and I’m doing my drill but of course you know me I’m chatting here chatting there and he comes over goes damn it look can we do this drill and get out of here quit talking to everybody let’s go to work old ball coach coming in ball coach came out they were going the range for the first round he goes all right look let’s get on the Range can we not talk to everybody on the range today just go practice warm up and get out I mean let’s go to work so he’s trying to play golf that afternoon probably yeah he’s uh and he uh he got stuck with a rain on Tuesday in the practice round oh gosh and he said man I feel for this CAD this C need three arms he’s got the bag in one arm the umbrella and a towel so uh I love Sean man it’s Sean does he have you uh convinced that uh that b Knicks was the the correct pick does he have you convinced and bought in I talked to a few guys but I mayal we talked before the draft and I know he was a big fan of my kthy yeah from Michigan and but he liked B next too I mean they’re comparing he definitely compared Bo to a lot about Drew yeah Bree so he had a lot of comparisons with him and I those are those are his two guys so um Ryan do you remember I think you may have even been there the year at Zurich I went and met at Sean’s office this is the year that Patrick Mahomes got drafted and he was telling me who he liked uh before the draft it was like Z Jones like and we really like this quarterback that we’re going to go try and get from Texas Tech named Pat Mahomes and I was like I like man I was thinking to myself I was like that’s a bit of a reach but good for you and then of course somebody jumps up right in front of them before they take them yeah so that week we U Jordan and I and grer and James went to the draft room the day of the draft Thursday night and we’re sitting in there and Drew Brees walks in the draft room with two of his buddies and Sean said he drew never comes to draft and so Sean comes over to us goes hey guys watch this I’m about to go tell Drew we’re drafting Patrick Mahomes and so he walks over of course he’s talking to him telling him and then he loved Patrick Mahomes he wanted him bad really and of course the tradeit happened and God you know they don’t get him and they end up having one of their best drafts in a long time in New Orleans so uh yeah it was U he he definitely wanted Mahomes that’s for sure that’d be like walking up and telling uh Aaron Rogers hey we’re about to uh draft Jordan W I imagine but probably Drew Brees can handle that a little better than Aaron would i’ imagine well Ryan this was great man have a great week out there at Colonia look forward to watching on TV I know you’re super proud of of colonial just the history there and really looking forward to another great Championship the Charles Schwab challenge n I’m excited for the players the tour the the world to see Colonial again and smile can I do your part three entertainment one one week next year okay yes please absolutely RP is going to Jo RP’s going to join the happy hour you hear you heard it right here first bring bring the old guy in yes and I just I was just thinking in my head I was like I have a hole in one at Colonial I made a hole in one at 16 there you go yeah actually kind of like kind of scrapped one out to the right hits the side of the bunker then it funneled down to that left pin in a uh practice round but it’s fine we we count it there you go that’s right doesn’t matter all right RP go get him this week thank you buddy yeah thanks a lot thanks Molly see you all right there you have it that was Ry Palmer on Gil hans’s Colonial restoration and a variety of other things as well but it was great to have Ryan on given his involvement in that process and uh you know as we’ve noted before excited to see how it all turns out and what what sort of hand Ryan had in that process uh but now we are flipping over to a portion of the show that uh I guess we used to really look forward to maybe feel a lot of uh pressure around the one andone picks but uh the update of the one andone picks is that there is no update because we both missed the cut last week with John Ramen lud Goldberg and in fact the person on the show who did the best was a guest fat Perez who uh who took hi the gala so we’re really hoping you tailed Perez’s picks and and neither of ours because we would have earned you exactly zero dollars our apologies we’re now six for our last 13th but I’m feeling a big bounceback week coming here uh it’s colone I’m really feeling excited there’s some guys I like on this board and so I’m just going to kick it it is your first pick this week so what how you feeling what what kind of names you have in the mix this week and who you going with oh gosh I have I have too many really too many can I just list off the names I’m like thinking yes because now we’re get in full prognos security mode if you name them we can CLA I I can’t decide if I just want to go ahead and just take Tony F now um I think he’s he seems like to me as like a top 15 lock I just think hitting it too well with his irons he hits it high up in the air which is why with the firmer greens I’m kind of leaning towards Tony F now I’m also really considering taking like like some sleepers like I think Lee Hodes is a guy that had a really good week last week Tom Hog’s a really good iron player but I’m a little little worried about just playing at home and him just having too much pressure on himself I don’t know but that’ be a great story Justin Rose is another one who just played well last week at the um at the PJ Championship so I’m thinking like you know what maybe he’s if he has the ball striking there he can putt his way to a win he’s won at Fort Worth before and that’s why I’m thinking I’m probably going to take Justin Rose I’m not in love with it but I’m I’m I think I’m gon to save Tony Fen now for like a rocket mortgage it just seems like to me that’s a no-brainer week for him so I’m going to take Mr Justin Rose I love that pick so much because I was between two guys and Justin Rose was the first guy that came to mind because as you noted he won this event in 2018 uh you know if you’re looking at some kind of key metrics and stats that inform decisions here he’s one of the guys’ names keeps keeps popping up he he it feels like he and and he’s coming off a T6 performance uh in in the PGA champ ionship was sitting a great had a had a you know shot 64 on Saturday and then follow it up with the with the 69 on Sunday and so he is he’s playing great right now but then I said to myself Charlie that’s not who you are man like you gotta you gotta think about when you were when you were doing well in this one done you were just kind of pulling names you’re pulling rabbits out of hats you had you know Jake nap oxay batia we got to go deeper on the board than this and so I’m going to a guy who I absolutely love I tried to take him at the Byron Nelson but he he was not in that field and I feel like I feel like this is a a stone cold lock this guy’s winning the tournament so Charlie guarantee Austin necro yeah it’s a great pick it’s a great pick I and I I saw Austin’s name and and I I considered him this week but I just it’s hard to win twice in the same year and I I I just want to pick a winner uh I do think Austin ekro just seems like a an automatic top 20 this week based on how good of a ball Striker that he is I think he’ll have no problems out there so I think it’s a I think it’s a really good pick and I’d love to see Austin ekro get his second win of the year because he had a good week last week too he had he was t18 PGA uh 6767 6970 uh yeah I mean in all seriousness I mean obviously it’s going to be hard to win twice on the PGA tour especially as a guy who’s not necessarily a household name yet but every time I watch Austin play I just I love so many parts of his game and he just feels like one of these guys that you know is um could be a stalwart in that top 50 even that top 30 East Lake crew going forward you know giv more time and experience and um and and so it’s probably one of those guys I’m a little bit too in love with when I look every week to fill out a DFS lineup or make a one andone pick but so be it you know that’s just how these things work so I’m riding with Austin nekro this week you’re with Justin Rose I love both of them we’ll put both those in in DFS lineups of course there are not prices yet time recording but uh we are um we are going to ride with those two guys so there you have it I feel good about those I feel good about those uh the only other guy too if like you’re going to take a favorite Colin morawa just seems like don’t you feel like this is a great Golf Course for him if I if my memory serves me correct it was the first event coming back from Co and they played at Colonial and Daniel Burger beat Colin morawa in a playoff so I’m pretty sure that’s correct I know Daniel Berger was the winner and Daniel bur is actually playing this week so he’s another player that um I’m not sure exactly where he’s going to be priced out but probably some great value on a player that’s gone around this place and done really well but dude does Colin just it just seems like he’s gonna have a really good week right like it might dumb not taking him ah you know I don’t I mean it’s a tough one because I just never know how to play that if it’s if it’s coming off of and and and shoot I played it wrong last week you know for me I I everything about if if Xander was you know just a blind resume guy and you’re looking at all his stats coming off of the Wells Fargo and even though he didn’t win he’s just been a top 10 machine and he hasn’t miss a cut in forever you’re like yeah that guy going into a course where it’s similar to qua Hollow like he should win this event but I just had this hesitation of like is it going to be an emotional let down or you know is it going to be you just you you lose there and you expended a bunch of injury try or you expended a bunch of energy rather trying to win a golf tournament um and you didn’t get it done and is it GNA kind of mess with your focus coming into the next week well it clearly didn’t he went out and won the golf tournament so I wonder if Colin you know maybe there’s a little bit more uh you know energy expended at a major championship for him to kind of come up short the way he did in that final round does that hurt him this week or does that make him more motivated and he’s like screw it I’m going to go out and win the next one and show people that I belong you know amongst the favorites of the US Open and Beyond it could go either way I I just I want to oppose this question to you of these four guys so Tony fenale Jordan spe Colin moral and Max hom rank them one two three 4 if you had heading into this week okay so okay so we have we have phena morawa spe H did I get all four y MH so and and we’re talking Colonial correct yep Colonial I would [Music] go oh man this is this is tough I think I’d go fenal morawa hom be okay I I tend to disagree um the only thing that’s holding me back about Jordan this week at Colonial um and maybe having him a little lower down is he used to put these greens as good as any greens out on the tour now that they’re going to be ripped up uh probably going to be breaking way differently than he’s accustomed to I think that to me is like a half shot to a shot different to where he was able to kind of just get in get that putter out and he just always puted these greens well so I think there just gonna be a little learning curve on that and maybe his iron game shows up this week and shoot he’s he if if that shows up with the way he’s been driving the ball he’s he needs to be at the top of that one two three four but I’m probably a little hesitant like you um and believe a little bit more in how good of an iron player that Tony fow is right now and Max um and then just take the form of Colin War I’m not too far off of what you just proposed there yeah I mean I and and that’s no disrespect I mean that’s a that’s a list of four elite players it’s kind of I mean to go on a tangent a little bit I’ve got a feeling about Jordan at trun feeling about Jordan I don’t know just I just keep I’m thinking about who want to plug in there and I’m thinking about like a Jordan Speed Renaissance and like I just I feel like Jordan and TR I don’t know why they’re going together in my head but I I’m a as you know I’m a big Vibes guy I’m a big gut guy I listen I listen to my gut when it tells me take Jake nap at the Mexico open and so that’s that’s what my that’s what I’m kind of feeling right now so that that’s down the road that’s where I like Jordan so that’s why I may be saving him for a little bit but yeah I mean I think any of those guys you listed would be a great if you’re trying to go with like a a if you have the flexibility to just take a a front runner your oneandone you still feel like you’re covered for the rest of your one andone season um you know use one of those guys there if you don’t feel like you’re burning someone you’re saving for somewhere else and to be quite honest that’s what I probably should do too but it’s more fun picking Austin necro than just being like I picked Austin ekro when he wins so that’s R in that direction Rose it’s a good one too so so you have it those are the colonial one anddone picks uh and that is the conclusion of this episode hope you enjoyed hearing from Gil Hance Ryan Palmer uh and yeah we’ll be back here on Sunday or Monday depending on the timing of my golf trip to Sand Hills to uh to recap all the action from Fort Worth looking forward to to to see you then thanks for watching and listening and we will talk to you then you know I listen to this podcast it’s really cool and all of our fans and subscribers but make sure you like And subscribe it’s cool to see what you guys are doing I know golf fans appreciated it but we we do too so please keep it up for all the good people YouTube like And subscribe you guys have some good takes so I’m happy to come on and and shoot the