PGA's Haigh: I'll visit Cog Hill

Reporting from Benton Harbor, Michigan

Thursday, April 30, 2015

 It wasn’t exactly on the same level as Nixon saying he’d go to China during the first term of his presidency, but it’s significant, and potentially pivotal, for Chicago-area golf.

Kerry Haigh, who runs the PGA of America’s championship division, confirmed Thursday he plans to visit Cog Hill Golf & Country Club to tour the Dubsdread layout.

Among Haigh’s duties is helping select the sites for the PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup, as well as the PGA’s other tournaments, including the club pro championship.

Haigh has never been to Cog Hill.

“I’m hoping to visit shortly, to look and see that facility,” Haigh said after helping unveil a tweak to Harbor Shores, which will host next year’s Senior PGA. “I watched (the Western Open / BMW Championship) every year on television. Katherine (Jemsek) has been in touch recently for me to come and look at it. We’re always very interested to see any wonderful golf course. Cog Hill has that reputation, and I can’t wait to see it.”

The Western Open was played on Dubsdread from 1991 through 2007, and again from 2009 to 2011, the latter years as the renamed BMW Championship. Rees Jones’ 2008 refurbishing of the 1964 Dick Wilson-Joe Lee design received poor reviews from a number of pros, including usually complimentary Steve Stricker, in 2010, and declining crowds in September in comparison to big galleries in July prompted the Western Golf Association and BMW to leave Dubsdread in favor of Conway Farms, an easier course located in Lake Forest rather than Lemont, as its Chicago-area site.

Haigh said “a couple of venues” are communicating with the PGA, and identified Cog Hill and Medinah Country Club. The latter hosted a pair of PGA Championships in 1999 and 2006, and the 2012 Ryder Cup, which featured sellout crowds and 77 corporate hospitality chalets.

“We have a wonderful relationship with the club and the membership and the whole city,” Haigh said. “The community got right behind that event. We continue to hope and talk with the club about opportunities. Who knows where that may end.”

Medinah insiders say the club rejected a low-ball offer for another PGA, the 2016 or 2018 playings, with the PGA of America’s financial offer below the $3 million the club earned for the 2006 playing. Medinah collected about $12 million for hosting the Ryder Cup, some of which was used to renovate the club’s No. 1 course.

– Tim Cronin