The HP Byron Nelson will be played this week at the TPC Four Seasons golf course in Dallas. I had the privilege of playing there last year, and it is a beautiful little course and very different to ours. Different in that many of our courses are long whereas this course has quite a few short holes, which are actually extremely difficult to master. There are greens with quite dramatic slopes so that if you land on the green but in the wrong area, while you might think you are about in a position to be able to score, you may as well not be on the green and still be on the fairway.

The reward for being on the fairway is excellent – the grass really sits the ball up beautifully and you can chip very easily. Stay on the short grass and you will be rewarded with great places to chip from, hit your irons from and putts that I found very readable. Stray from the fairway and you are going into very thick but fine grass where the ball sits down very quickly and you can be faced with balls that either fly further than you expect when you hit them or don’t move very much. Dallas is extremely hot and those in contention are certainly going to have one or two hot days this weekend as they finish in the afternoon! The tournament has been won over the years by the Who is Who of golf including Jason Dufner, Adam Scott, Lanny Watkins (whom I met during my visit), Tom Watson, Fred Couples and now that I have mentioned a whole lot of names that you may not know, let me toss in as well Ernie Els, Phil Nickelson, Jack Nicklaus and of course Tiger Woods.