With the PGA Tour abandoning Trinity Forest Golf Club after this year’s Byron Nelson, folks have begun speculating where the tournament will be played next year and beyond. On Twitter, a certain anonymous account posted some curious property records that purportedly prove the Salesmanship Club knew all along that the tournament would return to TPC Four Seasons. Not so fast.
Yes, the Salesmanship Club owns the land on which the famed Pavilion used to be erected (this is probably a better picture to see what we’re talking about). No, that continued ownership doesn’t suggest that the Salesmanship Club suspected that Trinity Forest would fail as a tournament venue. Jon Drago, tournament director for the Byron Nelson, tells me that the Salesmanship Club bought the land a long time ago as an investment. When the tournament moved to the Four Seasons, in 1983, there weren’t any houses abutting the course. As the land was developed, the Salesmanship Club brass thought it would be smart to buy some of it; they did that in 1995. The Pavilion back then was erected over the nearby tennis courts. It wasn’t until later, after the course was redesigned, in 2008, that the Pavilion moved to the land owned by the Salesmanship Club. And they still own it because, in their estimation, it’s still a good investment, not because they figured the tournament would return.
In any case, Drago says it is by no means a fait accompli that the Nelson will return to the Four Seasons in 2021. Only the PGA Tour can make that decision, and he hasn’t yet heard anything from them. Drago says they have a number of options in North Texas from which to choose. Till they make that choice, let’s keep the speculation flowing. Golf is fun. So is speculating about golf.
