BMW to Conway Farms? Yes, if...
[Your Name Here]Writing from Chicago
Thursday, February 9, 2012
It was about three weeks ago that a source close to Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest confirmed that the club and the Western Golf Association had agreed to hold the 2013 BMW Championship – the Western Open in days past – at the elite north suburban course.
So why no announcement? When asked about the delay, a WGA spokesperson said, "It'll be a while."
Here's why, according to another source close to the situation: Conway Farms also wants the 2015 BMW, and wants an agreement for it now, so both can be announced at the same time.
Easy to accomplish, right? One would think the stars were lined up.
After all, the WGA, stung by player criticism of the revised Dubsdread layout at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, wanted a new Chicago-area site. Conway Farms proved a better site than The Glen Club, the Glenview layout that was also in the running. The WGA wanted Conway, a club that emphasizes walking and caddies, and thus is a big supporter of the Evans Scholars Foundation, the WGA's caddies to college charity arm. Conway wanted the WGA for the prestige, headaches of staging a big-time tournament aside.
But 2015 is taken. The PGA Tour's deal with San Francisco calls for Harding Park to host "the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup playoffs," to paraphrase the contract's terms, no later that 2015. The BMW is that tournament.
So the Tour, by contract, has to be in San Francicso in 2015. The WGA is being told by Conway Farms it has to be at Conway Farms in 2015. And, oh by the way, the whispers are that the WGA's deal with the Tour calls for a tournament in Chicago every other year, and Cherry Hills Country Club, just outside of Denver, is hosting the BMW in 2014.
If there's a year between 2014 and 2015, only the Incas know, and their calendar runs out in December.
There is a solution, though it would entail arranging many dominoes, some of which may have already fallen. Move the 2015 BMW to the second week of the playoffs, and switch the tournament played in Boston to Baghdad by the Bay. That would give Conway the BMW it demands, give San Francisco the penultimate tournament its contract requires, and give the Tour a playoff tournament on the West Coast for the first time since the Tour Championship was played at the Olympic Club well over a decade ago.
Easy, right? Not necessarily. Details of the Deutsche Bank Championship's contract with the sponsor and the course, Tour-operated TPC Boston, are unknown.
That's why it might be "a while" before the official word is forthcoming. And while it's highly unlikely, what if Conway's brass insist on a 2013-2015 combination and the Tour and WGA can't make it happen? Do they reject the 2013 BMW after all the planning? Not likely, but if that happens, where would the BMW end up?
It would take a while for that question to be answered.
– Tim Cronin
Reader Comments (1)
I'm a little surprised it can get that complicated to organize a golf tournament. Still, considering the venue, it's going to be well-worth the effort. The course itself should make things a decent challenge for the golfers.
golf shop online