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The HP Byron Nelson Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. The tournament is held in late April / early May at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, USA. It is one of two PGA tournaments held in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex – the only metropolitan area to host two PGA tournaments – and before the FedEx Cup schedule reforms, was held the week prior to the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (previously the Bank of America Colonial). The tournament is the leading fundraiser for charity on the PGA Tour and is expected to hit the $100 million mark during its 2007 event. For much of its history, it was the only PGA Tour stop named after a professional golfer; it remains one of only two such events, along with the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Nelson commonly made an appearance during the tournament.
For the tournament's first several decades, it was played at a variety of courses in Dallas. Byron Nelson was the tournament's first winner in 1944, when it was played at Lakewood Country Club. The following year it was played at Dallas Country Club, and then in 1946 moved to Brook Hollow Golf Club. For the better part of the next decade the event was not contested, until two iterations of it were held in 1956, both at Preston Hollow Country Club. In 1957 the event moved to Glen Lake Country Club before it began a decade-long relationship with Oak Cliff Country Club from 1958-67. In 1968 the event was renamed the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and its name, through a series of sponsors, has always subsequently been in conjunction with Nelson's name. That same year the event moved to Preston Trail Golf Club, where it was played from 1968-82. In 1983 the event moved to venues in Irving, first at Las Colinas Sports Club from 1983-85, and then at the TPC at Las Colinas from 1986-93. |
