Memorable Moments
75th Anniversary Celebration
January, 1936
The vision of Fort Worth businessman Marvin Leonard is realized with the opening of Colonial, a golf course featuring bent grass greens deep in the southwestern United States. His ultimate goal was to bring championship golf to his beloved city.
May 8, 1940
The USGA awards Colonial the 1941 U.S. Open Championship, which Leonard and many friends and associates had been lobbying for since the club opened. They guaranteed the USGA it would be a financial success.
Summer of 1940
Spurred by a mandate from the USGA to improve the easy 4th hole prior to the 1941 Open, Leonard hires celebrated architect Perry Maxwell to redesign holes 3, 4 and 5, which become the hardest holes on the course. This became infamously known as the “Horrible Horseshoe".
October 1940
The greatest female athlete of all time, Texan Babe Zaharias, wins the Texas Women’s Open at Colonial. This was one of many tournaments and exhibitions hosted in the early years to help set the stage for much bigger events at Colonial. (Zaharias would win two more Women’s Opens at Colonial.)
1915
In 1915, when Dardanelles campaign was launched, Colonel Mustafa Kemal became anational hero by winning successive victories and finally repelling the invaders.
1916
Promotedto general in 1916, at age 35, he liberated two major provinces in eastern Turkey thatyear. In the next two years, he served as commander of several Ottoman armies inPalestine, Aleppo, and elsewhere, achieving another major victory by stopping the enemyadvance at Aleppo.
1919
On May 19, 1919, Mustafa Kemal Pasha landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun to startthe War of Independence. In defiance of the Sultan's government, he rallied a liberationarmy in Anatolia and convened the Congress of Erzurum and Sivas which established thebasis for the new national effort under his leadership.
1920
On April 23, 1920, the GrandNational Assembly was inaugurated. Mustafa Kemal Pasha was elected to its Presidency. Fighting on many fronts, he led his forces to victory against rebels and invadingarmies. Following the Turkish triumph at the two major battles at Inonu in Western Turkey,the Grand National Assembly conferred on Mustafa Kemal Pasha the title ofCommander-in-Chief with the rank of Marshal.
1922
At the end of August 1922, the Turkish armieswon their ultimate victory. Within a few weeks, the Turkish mainland was completelyliberated, the armistice signed, and the rule of the Ottoman dynasty abolished
1923
In July 1923, the national government signed the Lausanne Treaty with Great Britain,France, Greece, Italy, and others. In mid-October, Ankara became the capital of the new Turkish State. On October 29, the Republic was proclaimed and Mustafa Kemal Pasha wasunanimously elected President of the Republic.
1934
The account of Atatürk's fifteen year Presidency is a saga of dramatic modernization.With indefatigable determination, he created a new political and legal system, abolished the Caliphate and made both government and education secular, gave equal rights to women,changed the alphabet and the attire, and advanced the arts and the sciences, agricultureand industry. In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the national parliament gave him the name "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks)
1938
On November 10, 1938, following an illness of a few months, the national liberator and the Father of modern Turkey died. But his legacy to his people and to the world endures.