Byron Nelson tournament to have new home on PGA Tour in 2021

Hunter Haas at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. (Mark M. Hancock/AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News)

MCKINNEY, Texas — The Byron Nelson will have a new home when the tournament returns to the PGA Tour schedule next year.

TPC Craig Ranch, about 30 minutes north of downtown Dallas, will host the Nelson for at least five years, starting in 2021.

The announcement Wednesday from the PGA Tour and the Nelson came three months after officials said the tournament was moving from the links-style Trinity Forest Golf Club.

TPC Craig Ranch, which was completed in 2004, will be the first course outside of Dallas County to host the tournament that dates back to Bryon Nelson winning the inaugural event in 1944. Before moving to Trinity Forest in 2018, the Nelson was played for 35 years at TPC Four Seasons in suburban Irving.

Trinity Forest, which was built on a former landfill south of downtown Dallas, was scheduled to host the Nelson for the third and final time in May. But the Nelson is among the tournaments cancelled by the PGA Tour because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trinity Forest officials said in January that the PGA Tour cited weather issues during the first two years that exposed deficiencies with tournament infrastructure, and that it was determined by the course and the Salesmanship Club of Dallas, which hosts the event, that those issues couldn’t be remedied easily.

Disappointing attendance and decreased revenues for charity were also significant factors in the decision.

TPC Craig Ranch is about 10 miles from the future site of the PGA of America headquarters, where two championship courses are under construction and the PGA Championship is scheduled to be played in 2027.

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