Brian Harman has claimed one part of Colonial Country Club isn’t entirely up to standard after day one of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth.
Harman kicked off his outing in Texas with a four-under-par 66 to sit just one shot adrift of the leader Charley Hoffman.
The lefty carded four birdies on the back nine [his front] and level par on the first nine to place himself firmly in contention.
It was a tough day at Colonial with world number one Scottie Scheffler shooting two over and Max Homa an eight-over 78.
Brian Harman reveals one part of Colonial that it’s quite up to standard
Colonial has undergone major renovation over the past year, with updated greens and tee boxes coming into place, as well as a brand new 65-mile irrigation system.
Speaking after his first round, Harman claimed the course still needs time to mature, with the grass not where it needs to be.
“The fear when you do an iconic place like this is that they mess it up,” he explained. “I feel pretty confident in saying they didn’t mess it up. Now, the course needs time to mature. The grass really isn’t quite where it needs to be yet. It takes a long time for those roots to get their structure and for everything to settle down.”
Despite his concern, the 2023 Open winner is confident the designers have done a good job.
He added: “I am going to hold off judgement for another couple of years. But I don’t think they messed it up; I think they’ve done a pretty good job.”
Diplomatic answer from Harman
After criticising one aspect of the course, Harman was quick to rectify his comment by suggesting the updates to Colonial need time to settle in.
Whatever the designers have done over the past year appeared to have the desired impact during round one.
In a world dominated by big hitters and low scores, it’s refreshing to see some of the elite players battle to post under-par scores.
It’s not very often Scheffler shoots two-over in his opening round. The world number one narrowly missed out at Colonial in 2023, with eight-under enough to force a play-off.
Considering the nature of the scoring in the first round, it promises to be another tough test over the next three days.
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