Colonial suffers from new FedEx schedule

As the new FedEx Cup schedule moves along, its ramifications become more clear. Case in point: this week's Colonial.

The newly named Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is one of the oldest events on the PGA Tour, played at a venue that has been around longer than all but Augusta National and closely linked to the great Ben Hogan, who won the tournament five times.

Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Tom Weiskopf, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Nick Price are among the other greats who have won Colonial.

But despite its status as one of the crown jewels on tour, Colonial has attracted just one player from among the top 10 in the world, Jim Furyk. Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, both of whom have won it in past years, are not playing -- and they are hardly alone.

Although Colonial is in its usual place, just before Memorial Day, the changing schedule has conspired to make it more difficult to draw the top players. And that's part of the fallout from the new look this year.

Almost all agree that the PGA Tour made the correct decision in moving its signature event, the Players Championship, from its former March date two weeks before the Masters to May. Mickelson's victory two weeks ago was a hit, the tournament got a shot in the arm by being away from the Masters, and golf now has one big blockbuster tournament every month, April through August, with the four majors and the Players.

But the unintended consequence of that move was the negative impact on the fields at both the Byron Nelson Championship and the Colonial. The two tournaments have been played back-to-back, 30 miles apart, for years. Now they are separated by four weeks and what might as well be a million miles.

While we always hear about players flying in private jets, there are still far more who travel commercially and enjoy the convenience of being able to drive between Dallas and Forth Worth. Now that option is gone.

The Nelson suffered because it was moved up three weeks in the schedule, two weeks before the Players and a week before the popular Wachovia Championship. The tournament attracted only three of the top 10 in the world, including Mickelson, and seven of the top 20.

The Colonial is suffering because all of the top players were at the Wachovia and the Players and nearly all of them will be at next week's Memorial. There are only so many tournaments they are going to play, and somebody gets left behind. This week, it's Colonial, which has just six of the top 20.

Colonial is not alone. Several tournaments have suffered this year in terms of top players because of the big tournaments that came before or after them. The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the Honda Classic, the PODS Championship, the Zurich Classic and the AT&T Classic are a couple of tournaments that come to mind. Later this summer, the Canadian Open will likely be hurt because it follows the British Open and precedes the Bridgestone Invitational, a world golf event.

Some tournaments are simply in a bad spot on the schedule. Requiring players to compete in more tournaments is often discussed, but that doesn't mean they will pick the Colonial or any other. You could try to implement a system used by the LPGA Tour in which players are required to visit every tour stop at least once in a four-year period. Although there are numerous logistical issues to work through (top 50 players? top 100? top 125?), that would at least help to spread the wealth.

The best way is to either move the World Golf Championship around to various tour sites or eliminate them, lessening the number of "must-play" tournaments for the top players. If regular events replaced the world events, some players might skip them and put a tournament such as Colonial on their schedule. It would also help spread the top players around to other tournaments that might not get to see them.

There are no easy solutions.