By Greg Robertson
ESPN Golf Online
Sunday, May 21

Details
When	Thursday-Sunday
Course	Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas
Par/Yardage	Par 70; 7,080 yards
Purse	$3.3 million (Winner: $594,000)
1999 champion	Olin Browne
Tournament record	16-under 264 (Fulton Allem, 1993)
Television	Thursday-Friday: 4-6:30 p.m. ET (TGC) Saturday-Sunday: 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS)

The tournament

	Hole by hole
	Hole	Par	Yards
	1	5	565
	2	4	400
	3	4	476
	4	3	246
	5	4	470
	6	4	393
	7	4	427
	8	3	192
	9	4	402
	Out	35	3571
	10	4	404
	11	5	609
	12	4	433
	13	3	178
	14	4	457
	15	4	430
	16	3	188
	17	4	383
	18	4	427
	In	35	3509
	Total	70	7080
	Key holes: Already one of the toughest holes on the course, No. 14 will play even harder with the tee box moved back about 10 yards this year. Fairway bunkers will gobble up plenty of drives down the right, and players will be hitting long irons to a small, usually hard green. The 16th is a tricky par-3 as players try to judge the wind. It also features the most undulating green on the course, making three-putts a regular occurrence, especially when the pin is on the back right shelf.

Last week was about Byron Nelson. This week is about Ben Hogan.

The MasterCard Colonial is an event Hogan dominated in his day, winning it five times. He is the only player to successfully defend a title here, and he did it on two occasions.

Does that mean Olin Browne doesn't have a chance this week? Certainly not, but the odds are against him. Browne shot consecutive 66s on the weekend last year to vault past a crowd of players and win by one shot over five others.

The odds are also against a first-time winner emerging this week. It's been 11 years since anybody made the Colonial their first win on the tour, and it's happened just five times in the 55-year history of the tournament.

Browne is back this week, along with just 111 others, at a tournament where the big hitters usually struggle. The par-70 setup at Colonial Country Club offers just two par-5s -- one on the first hole and one on No. 11 -- and they rank as the easiest holes on the course.

The rest of Colonial is another story.

With narrow fairways and undulating greens, players are happy to get away with pars on many of the tree-lined holes. Browne's victory last year at 8-under is typical of the scoring which takes place on the third and final stop on the Texas swing.

With a field that includes players like Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Fred Couples and Davis Love III, there are plenty of big-name stars to watch. But several of the top attractions are bypassing this event in favor of the biggest money event on the European Tour. Tiger Woods, Jesper Parnevik, Nick Price and Sergio Garcia are all in Germany this week.

Those who do come to Colonial will get a chance to prepare their games for the U.S. Open next month at Pebble Beach. Colonial is one of the final opportunities to play on a course where placement off the tee is more important than distance.

A dozen players to watch
Mark Brooks: The Texan has already played well on the first two Texas stops, finishing fifth in Houston and seventh at the Byron Nelson. He has played 12 consecutive rounds at par or better.

Olin Browne: The defending champion hopes to turn his game around at Colonial. He's missed six of 14 cuts this year with his best finish a tie for 16th in January at the Bob Hope Classic.

Fred Couples: Couples had to pull out of last week's Byron Nelson Classic with back problems. He had a pair of fifth-place finishes on the West Coast and has played a limited schedule since.

Carlos Franco: Franco picked up his first win of the season two weeks ago in New Orleans, then skipped the Byron Nelson Classic. If he can hit fairways and greens like he did in New Orleans, he'll be a factor this week.

Fred Funk: Nobody is more accurate off the tee than Funk, one of only two players to play all four rounds in the 60s last year as he tied for second. He hasn't put together four solid rounds in any event this year, but he came close at Houston three weeks ago.

Jim Furyk: Another accurate driver, Furyk was runnerup in this event two years ago. He hasn't missed a cut in 12 starts this season, including a victory at Doral, one of four top-10 finishes.

John Huston: Huston is a streaky player, and he appears to be heating up. He finished one stroke out of a playoff last week at the Byron Nelson and tied for seventh in this event last year.

Greg Kraft: Still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour, Kraft came close on a couple of occasions last year, including at this event where he broke the course record with a third-round 61. He eventually tied for second. This year has been a struggle, with no top-20 finishes.

Davis Love III: Love picked up his seventh second-place finish since his last victory last week at the Byron Nelson, where he let a big lead slip away on the weekend. One or two shots during the tournament could be the difference.

Phil Mickelson: Came within one putt of matching Tiger Woods' three victories this season last week, making bogey on the 72nd hole at the Byron Nelson to drop into a playoff, which he lost to Jesper Parnevik. Nobody is playing any better right now.

Vijay Singh: Not an event Singh would normally shine in because of the lack of par-5s for him to master, but Singh proved at Augusta that he can win on any course at any time, especially when the putts are rolling.