Olympia Fields to host 2020 BMW, whoever the sponsor is

Writing from Chicago

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Olympia Fields Country Club has found the Western Golf Association’s 2020 playoff tournament under its Christmas tree.

It may or not be called the BMW Championship, but it will be played on Olympia’s famed North Course in August of 2020, the club announced to members on Saturday.

Olympia’s board of governors unanimously approved hosting the penultimate tournament in the PGA Tour’s playoffs on Thursday night, new club president Joe Tapajna announced to the membership.

The sixth hosting of the WGA’s premier championship will mark the 100th anniversary of Olympia’s first hosting of the Western Open, when the 1920 edition was won by Jock Hutchison.

The deal had been in the works for over 18 months, Tapajna said.

“We love to host championship golf,” Tapajna said. “We think it energizes our members. It gives us the opportunity to give us a little extra push to do the things we should do in terms of improving ourselves.”

BMW’s current deal with the WGA, which began in 2007 and prompted the renaming of the Western Open, concludes with the 2019 BMW at Medinah Country Club. So far, neither a renewal of the sponsorship, the end of the sponsorship, or a new sponsor has been announced. The lack of a renewal announcement at this year’s BMW at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia has led many to believe the German automaker, whose sponsorship has included funding Evans Scholarships when a player would make a home-in-one during the tournament, will not be back.

BMW of North America, now headed by Bernhard Kuhnt, is said to be less interested in using golf sponsorship to drive sales as previous chief Ludwig Willisch.

Olympia Fields’ announcement said the club was hosting the tournament for both the financial benefit it will bring to the club and the “ability to showcase our facilities on national television and keep OFCC in the focus of the U.S. and international golf community.”

Olympia Fields jumped back into hosting tournaments with the 1997 U.S. Senior Open. Since then, it’s hosted the 2003 U.S. Open, 2011 U.S. Girls Junior, 2015 U.S. Amateur and 2017 Women’s PGA.

This will be the sixth Western Open / BMW Championship at Olympia Fields. Aside from 1920, the club also hosted in 1927 (Walter Hagen), 1933 (MacDonald Smith), 1968 (Jack Nicklaus) and 1971 (Bruce Crampton).

Olympia also has a long-standing connection with the WGA through the Evans Scholars caddies-to-college program. Only Beverly Country Club has had more caddies gain the Evans scholarship.

Cog Hill was in a long run as the host of the Western Open when BMW came in as the sponsor and the tournament was moved from July to September. Aside from moving the tournament out of Chicago every other year to boost sales, the automaker’s North American’s management quickly became dissatisfied with Cog Hill’s location, which prompted a move to the north shore for a three-tournament run at Conway Farms in 2013, 2015 and 2017. The 2019 tournament at Medinah will be the first WGA championship there since the 1966 Western Open.

In related news, Olympia is effectively adopting a wait-and-see policy with consulting golf course architect Keith Foster, whose guilty plea for smuggling endangered species into the country to sell through his Virginia antiques store will result in a sentencing in March. Foster, who could be imprisoned for up to five years, has already forfeited $275,000 and turned over the unsold illegal merchandise.

Foster has already submitted a detailed plan for upgrading both courses at Olympia Fields that would have to be approved by the membership. No work would be performed on either course until after the 2020 season.

– Tim Cronin

WGA's new offices under construction

Reporting from Chicago

Thursday, December 20, 2018

The Western Golf Association, headquartered in the tiny north suburban village of Golf since April 1955, is building a new office building in nearby Glenview.

The building, at 2501 Patriot Boulevard, two blocks south of Willow Road and around the corner from The Glen Club, will either be the association’s new headquarters or an office building to alleviate the strain on the present headquarters building on Briar Road near the Golf train station.

The WGA has needed more space and was seeking a new headquarters site for some time. It currently rents office space in downtown Chicago for its development – i.e., fund-raising – department, and in Oak Brook for tournament operations. The Evans Scholars operation, as well as the administration and public relations departments, remains in the Golf headquarters building.

This story broke in the late hours of Thursday. Western Golf has made no announcement on a groundbreaking, but the construction is well along.

Reporter Rory Spears both found the in-progress development and confirmed the WGA as the client of the construction firm with the village of Glenview building department on Thursday.

The WGA’s operations have exploded since John Kaczkowski succeeded Don Johnson as the CEO in 2010. It’s adding a Web.com Tour tournament in 2019 at The Glen Club and, thanks to increased fundraising via Kaczkowski-created initatives such as the Green Coat Gala and Match Play Challenge (the latter inspired by Mike Keiser), and revenue from the BMW Championship, is on track toward having 1,000 Evans Scholars in universities in the Midwest and Northwest by 2020, almost 200 more than when Kaczkowski was elevated from tournament director to boss. That will be the 90th anniversary of the admission of the first two Scholars to Northwestern.

– Tim Cronin

Photos of the construction site by Rory Spears / GolfersOnGolf.com

_____

This story will be updated when more specifics are available.

Bradley comes back from the depths to win BMW

Writing from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

Monday, September 10, 2018

The day Arnold Palmer would have turned 89

Six years removed from his last victory, Keegan Bradley had receded into the memories of many. He’d won a PGA Championship, he had a quirky stutter-step approach to the ball, and he was LPGA legend Pat Bradley’s nephew.

As he discarded the long putter when the anchoring bad was implemented, he’d also disappeared from leader boards.

He’s back. Scoring a tournament-record 20-under-par 260 brought him back, but he still needed to beat Justin Rose, who nearly always wins when big-time golf comes to Philadelphia. It took a playoff, but Bradley pulled it off, saving par while Rose bogeyed on the first playoff hole at Aronimink Golf Club to capture a rain-soaked and mud-caked BMW Championship.

Not bad for someone who went to bed Saturday night knowing he was within the top 30 for Tour Championship qualification thanks to big par putts on the last two holes of his third round, and would stay there if the final round was wiped out.

“It was the weirdest couple of days,” Bradley said. “I thought, man, if they call it I’m good, but I’m also glad I’m only three back. Thankfully we got out here and played, and I made it to Atlanta and more now.”

Bradley, who finished with his second 6-under 64 of the week, had birdied the 14th, 16th and 17th holes to get to 21-under and the lead, but bogeyed the last with a drive to the muddy left rough and an approach into the luxury suites to the right to fall back to 20-under.

“I played that 18th hole so bad,” Bradley said. “A mud ball on my second but a bad putt and the worst drive I hit all week. It left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Rose came in at 260 in the following group via a closing 3-under 67. He also bogeyed the last, leaving his second shot well short when his 4-iron was killed by a gust of wind, then failing to save par.

They would play the 18th again, and this time Bradley found the fairway, put his second in the collar 23 feet from the cup, and got up-and-down for his four.

Rose had made all 48 putts inside of five feet in regulation, but in the playoff from 7-feet 8 inches, he found the left edge. Bradley had no trouble converting from 17 inches for his first victory since 2012 at Firestone, erasing the bad taste. Within seconds, he was lifting wife Jillian and son Logan in the air as high as he’d lift the J.K. Wadley Cup.

“I thought to win and to have my son there, that would be the most incredible feeling,” Bradley said. “I’d seen it on TV so much. That was just awesome.”

His ride from PGA champion and a three-time winner, the last time at Firestone in 2012, to the bottom and back up was a difficult one, complicated by changing from the long putter to a conventional one.

“I went back and forth from an arm lock to a short putter, but I didn’t get mechanical with the long putter,” Bradley said. “When I got my swing to where it is, I was able to really sit down and focus on the fundamentals of putting with an arm putter.”

Bradley said watching Webb Simpson adapt similarly helped him immensely.

Two weeks ago at the first playoff tournament at Plainfield Country Club, he was in the final twosome after a third-round 62. He shot 78, and it looked like the Bradley of old was replaced by an old Bradley.

Not so Monday, when the delayed final round was conducted.

“I was calm today,” Bradley said. “I wasn’t calm that day.”

Part of his demeanor came from eyeing the leader boards, a departure from his norm.

“There were so many players up there and the quality of the players, I needed to know,” Bradley said. “It made me feel calm, which is rare.”

Rose climbed to No. 1 in the world rankings anyway, a decent enough consolation prize.

“It’s a boyhood dream,” Rose said of the achievement, which comes without a trophy but with a great deal of pride.

There almost wasn’t a playoff. Rose hit his third shot on the 72nd hole to 16 feet and had a nearly-straight putt to save par and win.

“I hit a great putt in regulation to win it,” Rose said. “It’s the best putt I’ve ever hit to try and win a tournament.”

It lipped out on the right side, prompting a groan from those remaining from the gallery of about 5,500 fans playing hooky from work on a dreary day.

“It’s obviously a big consolation being world No. 1,” Rose said. “That’s something I will look back on and think it was an incredible achievement, an incredible moment.

“Give me a half-hour maybe and I might be able to say I really enjoyed it.”

Billy Horschel (closing 6-under 64) and Xander Schauffele (3-under 67) tied for third at 19-under 261. Horschel raced to an opening 5-under 30, but a bogey on the par-4 15th, sandwiched between a pair of birdies, hurt his cause. Schauffele rallied with birdies on the 15th and 17th, and needed one more.

Rory McIlroy had a day that might have been spectacular. He hit 16 of 18 greens and made but two birdies on a bogey-free day, finishing solo fifth with a 68 for 18-under 262.

Tiger Woods gave it a late run, but his 5-under 65 for 17-under 263 and a share of sixth with Webb Simpson wasn’t enough. In retrospect, his even-par 70 on Friday was the damper on his week. The field averaged 67.333 strokes that day, and he failed to take advantage.

“At the end of the season, to make it back to the Tour Championship after all I’ve been through is a pretty good accomplishment,” Woods said.

Woods is also exempt into next year’s U.S. Open. His 10-year pass from his 2008 victory ran out this year.

The moment, though, belongs to Bradley. Undoubtedly a cowbell or two has been rung back home in Massachusetts, that tradition started by the parents of aunt Pat after her LPGA triumphs. How he played all week rang especially true on Monday.

The race to East Lake

Bradley, who started the week 52nd, and Xander Schauffele moved into the top 30 and earned a berth in the Tour Championship next week. Emiliano Grillo and Jordan Spieth fell out of the charmed circle.

For Spieth, it’ll be his first failure to get to Atlanta since he arrived on Tour with a flourish five years ago. He finished with a 3-over 73 for 3-under 277, tying for 54th in the BMW and ending up 31st in the season standings.

That also means he’ll fall one short of the 25-tournament minimum Tour players must play, unless they play in a previously-unvisited tournament once every four years. He could get fined $30,000, which would make the week a loss for him since he earned 20,520, but also be suspended for up to the first three tournaments next season, which is to say, in a few weeks. Of course, those are tournaments he doesn’t play in anyway, unless he’s told to to avoid the fine.

“I assume it will either be a fine or I’m adding some in the fall,” Spieth said. “I’m not sure. I was in control of my destiny and didn’t have it this week.”

Around Aronimink

Keegan Bradley won $1.62 million. Justin Rose settled for $972,000. Brian Harman, 68th and last, collected pocket change of $18,360. ... Paul Casey withdrew before the round, citing a bad back. He was locked into the Tour Championship, having arrived at Aronimink 17th in the standings. ... Ryan Armour’s 6-over 76 was the high round of the week and dropped him from a tie for 21st to a tie for 51st. ... The field averaged 68.912 for round four and 67.884 for the week, the first time a PGA Tour tournament field has averaged under 68 strokes. The last two rounds were played under lift, clean and place. ... It was the 18th playoff in Western Open / BMW Championship history, and the first since 2000, when Robert Allenby beat Nick Price at Cog Hill. ... The scoring mark of 260 eclipsed by a stroke the 261 fired by Marc Leishman last year at Conway Farms Golf Club. Leishman tied for 41st at 6-under 274.

– Tim Cronin

Sunday play at BMW washed out

Writing from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president of rules and competition, said it best.

“We’ve got kind of a mess out there,” White said of the conditions at Aronimink Golf Club, site of this year’s BMW Championship and, the way things are going, a future America’s Cup regatta.

As he said that around 11 a.m. Eastern Time, it was raining. Three hours later, it was still raining, and play was called for the day.

The plan is to try to play the final round on Monday. PGA Tour meteorologist Joe Halverson says there’s a window from about 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, which could allow for preparing the course – fairways are soaked and greens have casual water – and playing the last 18 holes before a potential for afternoon thunderstorms increases. If at least half the field finishes, play would be concluded on Tuesday. If half the field doesn’t finish, the scores revert to 54 holes. But the tour wouldn’t start on Monday if there wasn’t a reasonable chance half the field wouldn’t finish.

Plans call for tee times to run from 7:30 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. Eastern time. If play starts on time, it will conclude around 2 p.m. Golf Channel will televise beginning at 9 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Eastern.

Getting in 72 holes is a Tour tradition, though some tournaments end up as 54-hole affairs. The 1987 Western Open was one, starting with 18 holes on Saturday and 36 on Sunday after Butler National Golf Club was inundated with more than 14 inches of rain in the week before the Western, and more in tournament week.

In this case, there’s an extra imperative to play four rounds. The 30 qualifiers for the Tour Championship are set from the BMW finish, and those just outside the top 30 – including Jordan Spieth, who’ll finish a tournament short of the 25 he has to play if he doesn’t qualify. Through 54 holes, he’s projected 31st, and thus out of the field.

Justin Rose leads at 17-under 193, with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele tied for second a stroke back. Tommy Fleetwood and Rickie Fowler are joint fourth at 15-under 195. There are 15 players within five strokes of Rose, including Tiger Woods (12-under 198), and 19 within six strokes. Spieth is at 6-under 204.

With another inch of rain falling on an already inundated course by 2 p.m. (2.4 inches fell overnight Thursday into Friday), the chance for any play on Sunday was unlikely, but the Tour kept assessing until it was obvious they would run out of daylight.

WGA vice presidents of tournaments Vince Pellegrino said adding a day will affect the week’s bottom line.

“We don’t know how much,” Pellegrino said, noting it depends on how large Monday’s crowd is. But vendors and the many people working the 12 hospitality areas and the merchandise tent have to be paid for an extra day.

White has been with the PGA Tour forever, and knows his messes.

“We had iffy (low-lying) fairways, sloshy tee boxes,” White said. “The greens were fine and bunkers were OK, but we had nowhere to move the water. We’re shoving sand against the tide.

“We’ll do everything we can to play tomorrow. We’ll just see what Mother Nature gives us. If it stopped raining, we could get ready in a couple hours.”

If is the key word.

– Tim Cronin

Soggy Aronimink pummeled by golf's best

Rose leads McIlroy, Schauffele by one entering final round of BMW

Writing from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

Saturday, September 8, 2018

A soggy golf course, and Aronimink Golf Club fits the description, will giveth and taketh away.

It giveth birdies in abundance, and even the occasional eagle. Low scores have been routine, and if a traditional manual scoreboard was used at the 18th hole, the crew would have run out of red numbers by now.

It taketh away the concept of strategic placing of golf shots on a course with wide fairways designed to optimize the best spot from which to attack a pin. If Aronimink was dry – as it will be by, say, next May – you would need to be on the left side of the fairway for the best angle to avoid the many bunkers for a good chance to get close to a cup on the right side of the hole.

But with a wet summer, plus rain directly in advance of the BMW Championship, and 2.4 more inches from Friday’s dinner hour through breakfast Saturday morning, strategy is moot. High-level golf has been replaced by Olympic-class lawn darts. Players can hit the left, middle or right of the fairway, got their hand on the ball on Saturday thanks to the PGA Tour’s employment of the lift, clear and place option, and took dead aim, intervening bunkering be damned.

The result: A sea of under-par rounds unlike any seen in the 115-year history of the Western Open / BMW Championship, played under the latter title since the German automaker assumed the sponsorship and it became the circuit’s playoff semifinal in 2007. This was the 453rd stroke-play round in championship history, and the field of 69 of golf’s elite pummeled the 93-year-old par-70 layout, averaging 67.159 strokes, beating the old record average of 67.333. Which, by the way, was set on Friday under the standard Rules of Golf.

It’s like this: Whiz kid Bryson DeChambeau tooled around in 6-under 64 on Saturday and was disappointed because he couldn’t figure out the greens. He’s also tied for 26th at 9-under 201 with a round to go.

“Tomorrow I’ll be ready,” DeChambeau said of his Sunday prospects.

And like this: Tommy Fleetwood birdied seven of 10 holes and scored a second straight 8-under-par 62 – the fourth of the week – to match the two-round tournament total of 124 set by Jason Day in the first two rounds at Conway Farms three years ago. He’s tied for third at 15-under 195 and eager for more.

“I don’t think it’ll do any harm if I shoot another 62,” Fleetwood said.

And like this: Rory McIlroy shot 7-under 63 with a double-bogey on the par-3 eighth thanks to blading a chip shot over the green. (He eagled the next hole, a par-5, and finished his round with a 41-foot birdie bomb.)

“It’s a weird day,” McIlroy said. “They put a lot of the tees up and it was very wet. If you didn’t shoot 65 you were losing ground.”

And like this: Webb Simpson bogeyed his last two holes and still shot 5-under 65.

And like this: Tiger Woods, who drew a gallery about the size of South Philly, scored a bogey-free 4-under 66 and lost ground.

“I’ve got to take a run at it, whether it’s tomorrow or Monday,” said Woods, worried about a bad weather forecast. “You drive it halfway decent in the fairway and you’re throwing darts at the flag. There’s really no fear.”

The fearless leader to whom Woods surrendered scoring acreage is Justin Rose, who has taken to Philadelphia golf like nobody since Johnny McDermott, the youthful two-time U.S. Open champ of a century ago. Rose won the 2011 AT&T National – Woods’ mid-summer tournament – at Aronimink, and captured the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, about eight miles of winding roads away. (Rose also won the 2011 BMW at Cog Hill, the last one played at the Jemsek family’s playground.)

Saturday, his 6-under 64 moved him to 17-under 193, a stroke ahead of McIlroy and Xander Schauffele, whose 3-under 67 finished with a bogey at the last, but keeps him in the running to advance to the Tour championship in a fortnight.

Fleetwood and Rickie Fowler (5-under 65) are tied for fourth at 15-under 195, with Keegan Bradley at 14-under 196 via a 4-under 66. In all, 13 players are within five strokes of Rose, including Woods, who started the day’s adventure three strokes back and now is five behind.

Rose went out in 6-under 29, then parred every hole on the tougher back nine to settle for 64.

“I took advantage every time I had a wedge in my hand,” Rose said. “On the back, the conditions got tougher, but on 15, 16 and 18 I had nice chances at birdie.”

He also made a devilishly good par save on the par-3 17th. His tee shot leaked to the right and sat in the rough on the side of a steep hill, but he used his 52-degree wedge like a level and flipped the ball to within 41 inches of the cup, sinking that to preserve a 3.

“A fun shot but not really where I wanted to be,” Rose said. “There was a lot of improvising. Flicking it over my left shoulder was how the shot felt.”

Schauffele was 4-under for the round until his stumble on the 18th, but is in striking position with McIlroy, whose round of an eagle and seven birdies was built on hitting 12 fairways, 15 greens and taking only 26 putts. He wanted more.

“I was kind of hitting it here and there,” Schauffele said. “The fairways are big enough to hit it well and find some spots here. The biggest thing I took from the beginning of this week was trying to make the least amount of mistakes.

“I’m tired right now.”

The best work of the day was that of Aronimink superintendent John Gosselin and his tireless crew, who fought the odds and had the course playable for a noon start. But their work is not yet done, for the Philadelphia office of the National Weather Service fancies another 1.7 inches of rain over 48 hours beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday night. No lightning is predicted until Monday afternoon, so play would continue unless the course turns into a puddle.

To get the final round in on Sunday, a two-tee start will be employed again starting at 7 a.m. Eastern time if the weather allows. Tour meteorologist Joe Halvorson forecasts light rain in the morning and heavier rain after noon, hence the daybreak start.

Golf Channel will televise live beginning at 7 a.m. Central time, while NBC will show the action on tape as scheduled at 1 p.m., or go live if there’s been a delay. Nobody wants to think about options for Monday and beyond, or the prospect that Saturday’s round was the final round.

“I tried not to, but it was in the back of my mind,” Rose said of that option. “It got dark toward the end, as if weather was moving in.”

Around Aronimink

Galleries turned out in force despite the postponed start, with – no surprise – a throng around 42-year-old Woods, who still moves the needle after all his pain and turmoil in the last decade. He rewarded his faithful with birdies on the first two holes to climb back into contention and kept them in thrall the rest of the day. About 30,000 fans have turned out each day, and there was a decent gallery on Wednesday as well. Saturday, many parked in nearby front yards and walked to the course before the shuttle busses began running at noon. ... Two of Saturday’s three holes playing over par were par-3s, the eighth and 17th. ... The temperature dropped to 66 degrees with the leaders in the middle of the back nine, 29 degrees lower than Thursday’s oppressively humid reading of 95. ... The original plan was to play twosomes off the first tee beginning with dew-sweeper Phil Mickelson at 8:26 a.m., but the monsoon meant cleanup work for John Gosslein’s untiring grounds crew, so the switch was made to threesomes off both tees, which meant that even with the last group starting at 1:50 p.m., play would conclude about 7 p.m. Eastern, as was the plan originally. ... Whispers have it Mickelson was ticked by the change in tee times, because he’d ordered an extra TV for his hotel room and was planning to watch college football all afternoon and into the night. He was spied sneaking a glance at a game on his phone before teeing off.

– Tim Cronin