The TOUR Insider: EDS Byron Nelson Championship

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Scott Verplank has been looking forward to seeing all the changes at the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas, which serves as the lone venue for the EDS Byron Nelson Championship for the first time since 1993.

Verplank fired a final-round 66 to win by a shot over Luke Donald (68) in 2007. (Getty Images)

But he also has been feeling a bit of trepidation.

"I know the greens needed to be fixed, but I putted on them OK," the Dallas native said with a grin. "You never want to see a course changed after you win on it, even if you know the changes are going to be good."

Verplank, 43, realized a career-long dream last year when he captured the EDS Byron Nelson Championship by a stroke over Luke Donald for his fifth career PGA TOUR title. He looked skyward after the victory, remembering the late Byron Nelson, whom he had known since he was a teenager, and he later called the victory in the first edition since Nelson passed away as "my fifth major."

In January, at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, Verplank was still a bit in awe of having won.

"You know, I wasn't playing that well. I really wasn't," said Verplank, who used to volunteer as a standard bearer at the tournament and who later received encouraging notes from Nelson when he turned professional. "My shoulder was hurting, and I wasn't putting well, and then we saw those greens ... it didn't look like my week, and then, all of a sudden, everything came together."

Everything came together slowly in the long-overdue redesign and renovation of the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas, but better late than never. D.A. Weibring, based in nearby Plano, Texas, oversaw an overhaul of the Jay Morrish-designed course with help from TOUR players J.J. Henry and Harrison Frazar. Weibring also tried to incorporate suggestions from other TOUR members.

In addition to altering every tee, fairway and green on the TPC layout, Weibring moved 165 trees, softened peripheral mounding areas, rebuilt nearly 70 bunkers and re-routed several of holes to improve the sightlines off the tees. Overall, the course is simply in much better shape for a TOUR event after the $8 million upgrade that brought the par-70 course to 7,166 yards.

"In redesigning the course, our goal was to honor the legacy of Byron Nelson," Weibring said recently. "To that end, we created a cleaner, more defined course that incorporates traditional tee, bunker and green elements throughout. PGA TOUR players will be faced with more shot options from tee to green, creating additional drama for spectators and TV viewers. At the same time, for resort guests and Sports Club members, we created a very playable layout for all skill levels."

"I've played 10 or 11 events this year and I'd be hard-pressed to say I've seen a golf course in better shape," Henry told reporters late last week after playing an exhibition there. "There's no question about how lush everything looks. I think there will definitely be a 'wow' effect when the guys get here next week."

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• Among the 156 players in the field, defending champion Scott Verplank has the most top-10 finishes in the EDS Byron Nelson Championship with five, one more than Mark Calcavecchia and Shigeki Maruyama, who won the 2002 edition. Maruyama's four top-10s have come in just eight starts.

• Calcavecchia, who has had bad feet for years from plantar fasciatis, withdrew from the Verizon Heritage after 27 holes because of a sore foot. Something to keep an eye on this week.

Multimedia

Video: Verplank's final putt in 2007
Video: Verplank's emotional win
Video: Lehman remembers Nelson
Video: Nantz remembers Nelson

• Sergio Garcia, the 2004 champion, has three top-10 finishes in nine starts Dallas, but he also has missed the cut three times. Garcia has yet to finish in the top-10 this year.

• Corey Pavin is among nine players (including Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer) to win three different events in Texas, but no one has ever won all four. The one title Pavin is missing in the Lone Star State is the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, where he has finished in the top-10 three times in 20 starts. One of those top-10s, by the way, came in 1993, which was the last year that Las Colinas was the sole venue. Pavin tied for second with Billy Mayfair and D.A. Weibring.

• There were 26 players who made the cut at the Verizon Heritage out of the 37 men who competed at the Masters the previous week. The list of players who are playing for at least the third week in a row includes just seven names: Verplank, Calcavecchia, Justin Leonard, Daniel Chopra, Sean O'Hair, Jerry Kelly and Verizon Heritage winner Boo Weekley.

• Masters champion Trevor Immelman will be playing his first golf since winning at Augusta National, and he might be expected to do well; he was runner-up at the Nelson in 2006.

• Ernie Els, who began working with Butch Harmon prior to the Masters, missed the cut for the first time in 10 starts at the Verizon Heritage, and the Big Easy has now missed the cut in his last three starts (not counting the World Golf Championsip-CA Championship, where there is no cut) since winning the Honda Classic. The last time Els missed three straight cuts was in 1993, the year before he joined the PGA TOUR. Only twice has he missed more than three cuts in a season -- and he's never missed more than four.

• Ian Poulter, who tied for third last year in his debut at the Nelson, put a new Odyssey Black Series putter in his bag at the Masters, where he finished joint 25th.

• Brett Wetterich's tie for 10th place in 2007 in defense of his '06 EDS Byron Nelson title made him the first defending champion since Fred Couples in 1988 to follow a victory with a top-10 showing. Wetterich is still trying to shake off a shoulder injury that sidelined him earlier this year and which may yet require surgery down the road. He has so far staved off an operation with intense physical therapy.