High times for the circuit riders

Writing from Castle Rock, Colorado

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

The password for this week in golf is high.

High altitude.

High revenue.

High stakes.

First things first. Castle Pines Golf Club is the highest-elevation course on the PGA Tour. It was in the days of the International, the modified-Stableford tournament that, like this course, was the realized dream of oil tycoon Jack Vickers. The clubhouse sits – or teeters – at 6,332 feet, more than a thousand feet higher than a mile. Sherpas handle the valet parking.

That elevation makes for both exalted views – of the Jack Nicklaus-designed course, of the fine homes of the local mountain climbers, of the breathtaking Front Range – and a dire dearth of short hitters in this week’s BMW Championship. Ludvig Aberg, who is not short, is even longer this week. He said he took Tuesday’s practice round and today’s back nine of the pro-am “to adjust the baseline.” His normal 170-yard 7-iron goes 190 up here near the treeline. His driver? That’s classified.

Billy Horschel knows about this kind of thing. He won the BMW at Cherry Hills, 20 miles closer to Denver and 1,000 feet lower, a decade ago, then won the following week at East Lake.

“I think it's set up for some risk-reward and you're going to see some stuff with that altitude and the ball going,” Horschel said. “You're going to see some shots fly a long ways and you're going to see some shots come up way short.”

Justin Thomas, noting that a pause before a shot after walking uphill would be a good plan, said of contending, “it's just going to be who can control their distance the best and take advantage of those opportunities when they get them.”

The scorecard maxes the yardage out at 8,130, a world record, though it won’t play quite that long. Still, when an eight is the first number, it draws attention.

Second, the return of the BMW – ye olde 121st Western Open to those with more white hair than black – to the Denver area means a bonanza for the Western Golf Association.

The WGA has sold more hospitality for this year’s tournament than last year’s record-setter at Olympia Fields, which netted $5.5 million for the caddies-to-college Evans Scholars Foundation while hosting about 120,000 spectators. Regular tickets sold out weeks ago, though tournament director Vince Pellegrino said Tuesday some individual hospitality tickets remained. How many people will walk the course is unknown. The threat of hypoxia may be a factor.

Whereas a generation ago the Western Open was happily ensconced at Butler National Golf Club, and thence at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, BMW, which arrived on the scene in 2007, wanted to move the renamed tournament around the country because it wanted to move cars.

The WGA went along because it wanted to please its then-new sponsor, and then discovered a double plus. Bringing the circus to a town that hadn’t seen it – St. Louis, Indianapolis, Denver, Baltimore, Philadelphia – meant boffo box office, and offered the WGA the chance to expand the Evans program, lining up with similar organizations around the country.  That in part is how the WGA now has more than a thousand caddie-scholars in school.

This year’s carnival, next year’s BMW is at Caves Valley near Baltimore, 2026’s at Bellerive near St. Louis, and 2027’s at Liberty National, across New York Harbor from the Big Apple. A Western Open in the east. Go figure.

Third, and of most interest to the spectators, is this week’s competition, which happens to be the last real tournament of the PGA Tour season, and with $20 million on offer – $4 million to be stuffed in the winner’s wallet. In Castle Pines, currently 46th in Golf Digest’s top 100 American courses, they’ll find a Nicklausian layout which allows one to belt it in places and demands precision in others.

Rare is the non-major layout where few in the field have played, but this is one of them. There’s a lot of turnover on the PGA Tour in 18 years.

Jason Day, who played in the International finale in 2006, didn’t remember a lot beyond the first hole’s drop and noted chances on the sixth and seventh holes.

“It’s all kind of fuzzy after that,” Day said.

Thus so is the outlook for who’ll grab the J.K. Wadley Trophy on Sunday afternoon, but the usual suspects – Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, no longer confused for each other, at the top of the point and money lists, is where to start looking.

We note the BMW as the last legit tournament because next week’s cash grab at East Lake once again will be a handicap affair, with the top player starting 10 strokes ahead of the poor guy in 30th – and last – place, and the rest of the field allotted a commensurate number of strokes. So the low scorer for 72 holes may not win if he wasn’t gifted with a fat red number going into the week. (Smartly, the operation running the world ranking pays no mind to the nonsense and awards ranking points based on the real 72-hole score.)

The favored 50 this week are already rich beyond their dreams, so the cash flow is really for accounting and tax purposes. Scheffler, for instance, is the leader of the Tour pack at $29,108,691, a fantastic figure which includes the $8 million he pocketed a fortnight ago for leading the regular season. Whatever money he earns will only keep his accountant busy. But as for glory …

“He's been playing unbelievable golf,” Schauffele said of Scheffler. “I feel like we're all just chasing him. I've done probably the best job of getting the closest to him, but it's still very far away.”

Scheffler, with the Masters, the Olympics, the Players and five other wins, is the player of the year favorite, with Schauffele, owner of the PGA and British Open, a close second.

“I think since I'm in the running I probably would just refrain from voting. I think it would be a bit weird to vote for myself,” said Scheffler, who clearly wasn’t born in Chicago.

Hail to the Viktor

It took Viktor Hovland to finish in a tie for second last week at Memphis to guarantee he’d return as BMW defending champion and have a chance to repeat as Tour Championship winner (and thus playoff winner) at East Lake as well. “I kinda squeaked by,” Hovland said. “And if I have a couple good weeks, I can still win this thing,” he added of the playoff. “I think that’s an exciting thing. It is a playoff for a reason.”

Around Castle Pines

One other name bears mentioning as a contender this week: Wyndham Clark grew up in these parts and has played Castle Pines countless times. If anyone has local knowledge, he does. “Yes, I know some of the nuances that maybe other people don't know. And then maybe where it shows up, altitude is tough to play at, and I'm not here that much playing golf. So I'm a little rusty on my altitude game. But the good thing is I am used to it, and I feel like I have some tricks up my sleeve when I get into certain situations. Maybe it'll come with shot selection and distance control,” Clark said. … Castle Pines course superintendent Scott Pavalko has tournament experience. His previous stops include Cog Hill, where he replaced Ken Lapp in time for the 2011 BMW. He also was an assistant for eight years at Muirfield Village Golf Club, host of the Memorial Tournament. … Beautiful as Castle Pines is, it is not an easy walk, which is to be expected when you build something on the side of a mountain. The course runs up, down and across hills dotted with eight-figure homes, including a few under construction, with a 335-foot difference between the lowest and highest points, about twice that of Augusta National. Some holes probably have 80 to 100 feet of elevation change. The driving range goes up 50 feet from tee to the last target, which means the person driving the picker has to be careful. In comparison, Butler National, host of the Western Open from 1974 to 1990, has about 30 feet of elevation change, most all of it from the first tee on a bluff down to the fairway. … Thursday’s first round will take a page from auto racing and start with a flyover by four F-16s from the Colorado Air National Guard. … Wednesday’s pro-am included a few celebrities, including former Broncos quarterbacks John Elway and Peyton Manning, Chicago industrialist and horse lover Craig Duchossois, and former U.S. Senior Amateur champion and Walker Cup captain Buddy Marucci. Manning topped his tee shot on No. 1, prompting some gallery members to say, “One of us!”

– Tim Cronin