The LIV world comes to Bolingbrook

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Long ago, some people looked askance at Roger Claar when he, as the mayor of Bolingbrook, said his little village would be a destination for tourism.

This week, it is. Claar, who ruled Bolingbrook for over three decades, had the vision to build a municipal golf course in a cornfield west of the center of town, and that golf course this week is the site of LIV Golf Chicago, the season-ending individual championship for the maverick golf operation.

Bolingbrook Golf Club? Really?

That was the first reaction when the news spread earlier this year that LIV wouldn’t be returning to Rich Harvest Links, the plush private layout on the edge of Sugar Grove, also known as software tycoon Jerry Rich’s backyard course. According to a reliable source, Rich was paid $1 million for each of LIV’s visits the past two years, but the league, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, wasn’t willing to bankroll a third such rental fee.

So, LIV looked about, found no other private club willing to take on the burden of tournament golf for a relatively minuscule fee – the WGA pays much more for a club to host the BMW Championship, for instance – and landed on Bolingbrook.

Precisely what the village of Bolingbrook, which owns the course, is receiving is clouded in mystery. A Freedom of Information Act request by Illinois Golfer for contracts between the village and LIV has not been acted upon by the village, which most recently extended its period to turn the contracts over in June and has not fulfilled the request. Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta has said, most recently on Aug. 7, that the revenue will be based on what LIV spends from Sept. 8 through 16.

“It's really based on consumption of what is used, how much is used throughout the days, so there's not a – I don't have a full amount because we don't know what we don't know,” Alexander-Basta said. “We don't know how much usage, we don't know how much food, we don't know how much beverage. We'll find out closer to the date.”

That indicates to those who know how tournament golf works that there’s no flat fee above and beyond use of the course, clubhouse and food and beverage. If there’s any benefit to Bolingbrook hosting the tournament, it’ll be in the publicity the course receives, especially on television.

An Arthur Hills design opened in 2002, Bolingbrook will play to a par of 70 over 7,131 yards. That makes it a short course by modern standards, with one par 4, the 15th (usually the sixth for public play), potentially drivable for the big hitters at 342 yards.

“They’re small greens and they’re not flat, so they play even smaller than they are,” Jon Rahm said of the putting surfaces. “It’s in fantastic condition.”

Still, scores will be low, which makes for good television – the CW is the weekend outlet, WGN-TV locally – and the possibility of multiple leaders down the stretch.

Rahm would like to be among them, and not just for the $4 million individual first prize on offer this week. He also leads the season standings, with only Joaquin Niemann able to catch him. Whoever takes the season crown will win $18 million, so if either win the tournament, they win the title and pocket $22 million before team earnings – LIV still has the team concept, which is largely ignored by all but the players, who divvy up an additional $5 million – are factored in.

The Rahm-Niemann showdown is but one attraction. The other is the tournament itself, featuring all the stars of LIV who largely built their reputation on the PGA Tour and then over the last two-plus years, shifted their allegiance to the new operation for lucrative deals of either guaranteed money or advances on future earnings. In Rahm’s case, for instance, the reported figure was $300 million guaranteed.

So Phil Mickelson, the 54-year-old whose move to LIV started all the rigmarole, will be on hand, along with U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, multiple major winner Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and all the rest.

Rahm’s move less than a year ago was the big name surprise that followed the PGA Tour and PIF agreeing to negotiate a deal that would lead to some unification of the two operations, if not the ceding of LIV control by PIF to the Tour in exchange for an ownership stake. Those negotiations go on – they have been in New York this week, a location and time that raised more than one eyebrow given the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the reported-but-denied Saudi involvement in backing ringleader Osama bin Laden – the PGA Tour’s side bolstered by the recent investment of up to $1.5 billion by a separate group of American sports team owners who see a way to make a buck themselves with a bigger PGA Tour. But no deal has been made.

Rahm is not along in his eagerness to see one.

“We have an opportunity to create a new stage for golf in the world of sports that could be better than what we had before,” Rahm said. “I think we could do some special things having both tours, with the League and the Tour. Now, you do need the ‘smarter people’ behind closed doors to decide what it looks like.”

Perhaps the TV-arranged December foursome of DeChambeau, Koepka, Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will prod the two sides to come to a deal.

“If there's ever anything like that in the future, yeah, I wouldn't mind (playing in it),” Rahm said.

Meanwhile, after Thursday’s pro-am, he and his 53 pals have three rounds of golf to play in Bolingbrook.

Really.

Around Bolingbrook

Tickets (at livgolf.com) start at $50 for a Friday grounds pass; a three-day pass is $113.31. … General parking for the tournament is about four miles away, at 200 Old Chicago Drive in Bolingbrook. That’s south of the Bolingbrook Drive exit on Interstate 55. … Most suite holders will park on a grass lot near the course.

– Tim Cronin