Five of the world's top 10 players are here, including No. 5 Jim Furyk, who last year was the only one from that group.
Two weeks after getting his first pro victory on the Nationwide Tour, former SMU golfer Colt Knost is playing about an hour from where he went to high school. He shot 62 in a pro-am round Monday, including a double-eagle at the 611-yard 11th hole when he knocked a 3-wood shot in from 290 yards.
"Honestly, I don't know even now what I shot," Knost insisted Wednesday. "It was just one of those days. All of the pins were in the middle of the green, it wasn't set up too hard."
Furyk got into the playoff last year with Bernhard Langer and Sabbatini, who ended it with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. The last two Colonials have finished with playoffs after none the previous 12 years.
Hogan is still the only player to win consecutive Colonials. He did that twice (1946-47, 1952-53).
Sabbatini was 27th two weeks ago at The Players Championship, his best finish in eight tournaments he's played since consecutive top-three finishes in January. He said his game suffered after he had the flu early in the season.
"I played well, got sick. ... It took a lot out of me," Sabbatini said. "By the end of the West Coast, I was so drained of energy, bascially I let a couple of areas creep in my game. You start practicing bad habits, just not being as focused as you need to be out there, and all of a sudden those habits are kind of ingrained."
That led Sabbatini to start overanalyzing his game, something he said he won't do at Colonial.
"I'm really just trying to take it easy this week," Sabbatini said. "I am just going to go out there and just focus on hitting the golf ball and putting it in the hole."
