Grillo ace on 16th sparks wild celebration at TPC

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Marvin Leonard’s first dalliance with golf was not particularly pleasant. It happened in 1922 at Glen Garden Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. No word on what he shot that day, but just know this — it reportedly took a half-decade before his next round. “It seemed like a mighty silly game,” Leonard once explained to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “and I had no time for silly pastimes.” Trying golf again in the late 1920s, Leonard finally embraced it. He began playing regularly at Glen Garden – Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson were among the caddies – and also joined another local club, River Crest. He usually shot in the low 80s. The retail merchant also spent summers playing golf in Colorado and California, appreciating the smooth, soft putting surfaces. Curious about the type of grass being used, he made an inquiry on one of those trips. The response? Bentgrass. And that’s when Leonard came up with an idea that seemed even sillier than the game he once described: He wanted to bring bentgrass greens to his hometown. At the time, bermudagrass was the native grass of choice for putting surfaces in Texas, since it could withstand the cruel summer temperatures. But Leonard was often frustrated with the hops and bumps he encountered on his putts. He liked the true roll of bentgrass; smooth greens helped him occasionally break 80. And he did not believe that bentgrass was too fragile for Texas. He had even seen it at Glen Garden. There was a small patch of bentgrass on the 18th green, and he remembered the surface. He also remembered that it received little attention. He tried to convert his doubters – of which there were many, including the governing board at River Crest. It was not easy. He approached the club with an offer – let him convert a handful of greens to bentgrass. He would pay for everything, and if the experiment did not work, he would pay to return the greens to bermudagrass. His offer was refused, but Leonard did not go away quietly. He continued to press the board. In the midst of the Great Depression, though, it was difficult to justify any move that had the hint of risk. “The story goes that they said, ‘Well, Marvin, if you’re so hell-bent on it, why don’t you go build your own golf course?’” his daughter, Marty Leonard, told the Star-Telegram. “He did.” Indeed, he did. His new club would be called Colonial. First, Leonard found a tract of land near the Trinity River and not far from Texas Christian University. Then he hired two golf architects – John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell; the latter was working on a course in Oklahoma called Southern Hills – to help with the design. Leonard had the final call, utilizing plans from both men. According to one account, neither Bredemus nor Maxwell were convinced that bentgrass greens would hold up. But this was Leonard’s project. “Everybody tried to discourage him on the bent,” the Star-Telegram wrote in 1937. “Even the architects said it couldn’t be done. Bent is a winter grass that grows wild in the Northwestern states but in sections with hot summers, it had never done well. There were such greens in Oklahoma and Amarillo and a few experimental plots had been planted as far south as Fort Worth, but it was the consensus of the experts that the stuff couldn’t be grown on a big scale in these parts. “But Leonard just isn’t the kind to give up without a struggle. He believed that with proper soil preparation and care, bent could be grown here.” He invested a significant amount of money ($300,000) and time, and also brought in a manager, Claude Whalen, to help with the project. Together, they studied ways to help the bentgrass hold up in extreme heat. Lots of water and lots of maintenance were required. In fact, Leonard himself would drive from green to green – in his car, not a cart – to check on conditions. Meanwhile, he also recruited members to his new club, which he initially called Colonial Golf Club. In 1935, he invited friends and business acquaintances to pay $50 security deposits for membership to the club with the unique greens. When the club opened on Jan. 29, 1936, approximately 100 locals had joined. Doubters did exist, but so did curiosity seekers. Golfers from adjacent communities wanted to putt on the bentgrass greens. They were not disappointed. Word of mouth was generally positive, even after a rough first summer that left brown spots on some greens. It was, after all, still a work in progress. “The course has stirred new interest in golf here,” reported the Star-Telegram. “All the avid golfers have become members so that they may play the year around. And at last, Fort Worth has come up with something that the Dallas folks envied. Day after day, large delegations of Dallas shooters came over just to play on such greens. “The greens are easily the best in the state.” As it turned out, Marvin Leonard was just getting started with his big dreams in golf. He aggressively sought tournaments for Colonial to host, and just five years after opening, Colonial hosted the 1941 U.S. Open – the first time the tournament had ventured south of the Mason-Dixon line. Five years after that, Colonial – having been renamed Colonial Country Club – hosted its first regular PGA TOUR event. Other than 1949 when the course (along with most of Fort Worth) was flooded due to torrential rainstorms, Colonial has been a mainstay on the TOUR calendar. Not even the COVID-19 pandemic could prevent it from hosting an event; last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge was the first post-COVID tournament played, albeit without fans due to safety measures. No other single course has hosted a TOUR event for as many successive years. Meanwhile, those bentgrass greens remain – specifically A-4 bentgrass, which cover the 18 greens with an average size of 5,000 square feet, according to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. It hasn’t always been easy, especially in the oppressive Texas summers. When Colonial hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in July of 1991, the USGA maintenance crew had to dump ice on one of the greens to keep it playable. At least one observer noted that so much ice was used, the green actually turned blue. And while there are other bentgrass greens in Texas, they remain a rarity for one of the country’s most heavily golfed states. Maintenance costs are simply prohibitive for most clubs. A study by the Texas A&M horticulture department noted: “During summer months, watering practices may determine success of failure with bentgrass. Well-drained greens (permeable soil mixtures and good surface runoff) and well-designed irrigation systems give the turf manager an edge on bentgrass greens. … The turf manager must closely manage the water needs of bentgrass during heat stress periods. Excess water, or saturated soils, can be as damaging as insufficient water during heat stress.” Yet in the end, Marvin Leonard proved that bentgrass can survive in Texas. “We owe our bent greens to the little plot that grew out on No. 18 at Glen Garden for five years,” he remarked in 1938 during an appreciation dinner in his honor. “It was beautiful and seemed to grow well.” Now 85 years old, Colonial remains a thing of beauty – and a testament to a man who never wavered on this silly notion of bringing bentgrass to the Lone Star State.

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Three weeks ago, Darren Clarke was asked by The R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers to hit the opening tee shot early Thursday morning at The Open Championship. There was no hesitation in the Northern Irishman’s response. “A definite yes,â€� Clarke said. It won’t be a ceremonial tee shot – after all, Clarke is in the 156-man field thanks to his Open win in 2011. His shot off the 421-yard par-4 first at 6:35 a.m. local time will count. But there is no more fitting player in the field to start play in the first Open held in Northern Ireland since 1951, when Royal Portrush last played host. Clarke is a resident of Portrush and his win in 2011 was the first for a Northern Irishman since Portrush native Fred Daly won the Claret Jug in 1947. He calls Royal Portrush the “best golf course in the world.â€� RELATED: Tee times | Featured Groups | Experts roundtable | Five things to know: Royal Portrush Clarke’s Open win, which came on the heels of consecutive U.S. Open wins by Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell (2010) and Rory McIlroy (2011), were instrumental in helping to convince The R&A to return the Open to Royal Portrush. McIlroy, in fact, won all four of his majors before the official announcement was made by The R&A in October 2015. Clark also credited Irishman Padraig Harrington’s three major wins – including back-to-back Open wins in 2007-08 – as key to the resurgence of Irish golf. “It was Padraig started it before that, when he won all his majors,â€� said the 50-year-old Clarke, the oldest of the six players in the field born on the island of Ireland. Harrington, McDowell, McIlroy, Shane Lowry and amateur James Sugrue – who joins Clarke in the opening threesome with American Charley Hoffman – are the others. Of course, the political climate also has improved since the Good Friday agreement in 1998 led to an end of the Troubles that had plagued Northern Ireland since the late 1960s (although small-scale violence still flares up). Clarke recalled the time in 1986 – he was still in his late teens – when he worked at a club. He was filling up small bottles with mixers when the club received a bomb scare. Clarke and all the others in the club hurriedly left the building. Thirty minutes later, the bomb went off. “The place was flattened,â€� Clarke said. “That was life in Northern Ireland,â€� he added. “Bombs were going off quite frequently. And a lot of people, unfortunately, paid a heavy penalty for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that was our life back there at that stage.â€� Thirty-three years later, he’s now the unofficial ambassador of this Open Championship. Many players getting their first look at Royal Portrush have sought his advice. Adam Scott, still seeking his first Open win after so many near-misses, played three practice rounds with Clarke. “He’s gone out of his way to spend way too much time with me,” Scott told Sports Betting News. ”I love watching how he plays the links he grew up on, to see what he thinks and how he navigates. He’s been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to have a good level of comfort to go play the tournament.” Clarke was asked about all the advice he’s been dispensing. “Probably told them too much, really,â€� he smiled. But just like the invitation to hit the first tee shot, Clarke doesn’t hesitate when asked how to navigate Royal Portrush. He noted the importance of finding the right angles and being committed to shots, pointing out the areas from which to attack. He keeps stressing the need to hit fairways. “If you’re not in the fairways,â€� he said, “you’re going to struggle to get around.â€� And if the winds don’t kick up as much as they usually do, he warned players to expect more challenging pin placements. “The thing about Royal Portrush, it’s a fair golf course,â€� he said. “If you play well around Portrush, you should have the opportunity to score well. If you’re missing too many shots, you’re not going to get around Portrush. That’s the way it is.â€� On Thursday at 6:35 a.m. – the sun will have already been up for approximately 90 minutes – Clarke will get things started in earnest. The gallery, even at that early time, should be substantial. The Open was sold out 11 months ago. Golf fans in Northern Ireland have waited 68 years for this championship. Clarke, so proud that his country is once again the host, will be emotional. But he won’t be misty-eyed. After all, he has a job to do. “I just hope I manage to get one going straight down the fairway,â€� he said.

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