A regular tournament on the PGA golf Tour is the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. The Crowne Plaza Invitational has been played every year in the month of May in the area of Forth Worth, Texas at the famous Colonial Country Club. It is actually one of four invitational tournaments which are held during the PGA tour. This is also the most long running event on the tour which is still being held at its original site.

The Colonial Country Club on July 25, 2006 announced that the Crowne Plaza hotels and resorts had formally signed a six year contract to sponsor the Crowne Plaza Invitational right up to 2012. The hotel chain has replaced its previous sponsor i.e. Bank of America which after four years decided to renew their deal which also included the Crowne Plaza invitational 50th anniversary in the month of May.

This year the Crowne Plaza Invitational purse for 2009 was $6,200,000 with around $1,116,000 that goes to the winner of the Crowne Plaza Invitational tournament. The tournament was originally formed in 1946 and was called the Colonial National Invitation tournament. This tournament officially honors the Scottish tartan plaid jacket which is worn by champions and top committee chairmen. The other thing that feeds Colonial history is the wall called the wall of champions located on the first tree. This tree houses the name as well as the score of each champion and dates back to 1941’s U.S. Open. When you look at the marble display it actually casts a over the beginning of any player. This tournament has also been played by women as well.

Now as the name suggests players need to be invited into the Crowne Plaza Invitational in order to be allowed to play. This is a restricted field event of the PGA tour. However the initial 80 players from the list of last year’s players are automatic invites. The Crowne Plaza Invitational is also unofficially associated with the great Ben Hogan, who was a long time resident of Forth Worth and won the Crowne Plaza Invitational tournament five times which is the most times that any player has ever won.

There is also a unique feature of the Crowne Plaza Invitational that which is called the Champion’s choice. This is probably the only such tournament that has such a feature. This entails that a former champion of the tournament selects two players that he thinks deservers to play in the Crowne Plaza Invitational. There is usually a lot of completion for this spot and there is a lot of pressure on the person who needs to select two young players simply because of the number of talented players on the circuit.

The pros who made their initial appearance through the Champion’s choice include Tom Weiskopf, Curtis Strange, Al Geiberger, Craig Stadler, Davis Love III, Mark O’Meara, and Paul Azinger. Five of the selected players from the champions have gone on to win the Crowne Plaza Invitational.