Monday
Sep122011
What's the Western / BMW's next Chicago stop?
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:59AM
Writing from Lemont, Illinois
Monday, September 12, 2011
It’s Western Open / BMW Championship week at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, perhaps for the last time, perhaps not.
The grand affair will come back to Cog Hill in 2013 if all of the following take place:
1. Every pro in the 70-man field, to a man, says Dubsdread’s condition is perfect and Rees Jones is their favorite golf course re-designer.
2. They all score under par every day.
3. Crowds approaching 50,000 show up on the weekend.
and, most important:
4. BMW’s executives decide that there’s no reason to hobnob with the swells of suburban Chicago’s north shore two years from now, that Cog Hill is better than Conway Farms, Kemper Lakes, the Merit Club or The Glen Club – the quartet most often mentioned as a potential successor, at least for one playing, to Cog Hill.
But that’s not the way to bet.
Expect one of those four facilities, all of which have pluses and minuses, to be awarded the 2013 championship, perhaps as soon as October 1.
Conway Farms is an interesting Tom Fazio layout that might be long enough for the top 70 players on the PGA Tour – it plays 7,198 yards from the blacks – but could be a logistical nightmare. Spectators would have to be bussed in, and, with the course in a residential neighborhood, several of the holes are lined by back yards. Would homeowners want people stumbling into their yards? There’s also the question of how many corporate suites could be located on the course.
Kemper Lakes, which held the 1989 PGA Championship and several Champions Tour tournaments, is a 7,217-yard Dick Nugent-Ken Killian design slated for an refurbishment by Rick Jacobsen at an early date. The timing hasn’t been announced. Despite considerable growth in that area of Lake County, there’s still enough land nearby for adjacent parking, though some fans would, as in 1989, have to be bussed in.
The Merit Club, host of the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open, is the most private of the four most-discussed sites. It plays 7,119 yards from the tips. The Libertyville layout, designed by Bob Lohmann, had across-the-street parking for the Women’s Open, and that spot is still available. But Merit Club, like Kemper Lakes and Conway Farms, is farther from downtown Chicago than Cog Hill. And, like Conway, there are some homes – high-end homes – backing up to the course.
Then there’s The Glen Club. Fazio created the hilly, pseudo-prairie 7,149-yard course from the flat land on the edge of the old Glenview Naval Air Station. It’s hosted a handful of Nationwide Tour tournaments, but would likely be torn apart by the best players on the Tour. And while it’s closer to downtown than the other three contenders, parking would be difficult. It’s not as if the Glen shopping complex would shut down for four days to allow people to park in their lots and garage. A nearby commuter line might offer some relief, but again, it’s another bus-’em-in situation.
The Glen Club is 18 miles from downtown, compared to 20 for Cog Hill, 29 for Conway Farms, 33 for Kemper Lakes and 34 for the Merit Club.
While those four contenders may offer a more stylish zip code, individually, they fail to offer as good a test of golf as Cog Hill, the overall convenience of Cog’s parking – which even BMW fails to take advantage of, not using the Mount Assisi lot adjacent to the 15th hole – the ample room for corporate hospitality, and the rent deal the Jemsek family offers. They give the Western Golf Association the course for free.
So why move? Because attendance has dropped compared to the glory days of Fourth of July weekend dates. Perhaps BMW, which has forced the issue of moving around the Midwest from the start, has done surveys that find north suburbanites don’t care about football, either high school, college or pro, and will storm the gates.
But, to repeat, that’s not the way to bet.
The week at hand
Monday’s pro-am was renamed the Chick Evans Memorial Pro-Am, and Wednesday’s, previously the Evans, was renamed to honor Gardner Heidrick, a long-time participant who also endowed an Evans scholarship. ... Players will go off the first and 10th tees the first three days, Saturday’s schedule forced by an early finish to benefit NBC, which televises Michigan State at 0-2 Notre Dame at 2:30 p.m. CT. Sunday, everyone goes off No. 1 with a 5 p.m. finish in mind.
– Tim Cronin
Monday, September 12, 2011
It’s Western Open / BMW Championship week at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, perhaps for the last time, perhaps not.
The grand affair will come back to Cog Hill in 2013 if all of the following take place:
1. Every pro in the 70-man field, to a man, says Dubsdread’s condition is perfect and Rees Jones is their favorite golf course re-designer.
2. They all score under par every day.
3. Crowds approaching 50,000 show up on the weekend.
and, most important:
4. BMW’s executives decide that there’s no reason to hobnob with the swells of suburban Chicago’s north shore two years from now, that Cog Hill is better than Conway Farms, Kemper Lakes, the Merit Club or The Glen Club – the quartet most often mentioned as a potential successor, at least for one playing, to Cog Hill.
But that’s not the way to bet.
Expect one of those four facilities, all of which have pluses and minuses, to be awarded the 2013 championship, perhaps as soon as October 1.
Conway Farms is an interesting Tom Fazio layout that might be long enough for the top 70 players on the PGA Tour – it plays 7,198 yards from the blacks – but could be a logistical nightmare. Spectators would have to be bussed in, and, with the course in a residential neighborhood, several of the holes are lined by back yards. Would homeowners want people stumbling into their yards? There’s also the question of how many corporate suites could be located on the course.
Kemper Lakes, which held the 1989 PGA Championship and several Champions Tour tournaments, is a 7,217-yard Dick Nugent-Ken Killian design slated for an refurbishment by Rick Jacobsen at an early date. The timing hasn’t been announced. Despite considerable growth in that area of Lake County, there’s still enough land nearby for adjacent parking, though some fans would, as in 1989, have to be bussed in.
The Merit Club, host of the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open, is the most private of the four most-discussed sites. It plays 7,119 yards from the tips. The Libertyville layout, designed by Bob Lohmann, had across-the-street parking for the Women’s Open, and that spot is still available. But Merit Club, like Kemper Lakes and Conway Farms, is farther from downtown Chicago than Cog Hill. And, like Conway, there are some homes – high-end homes – backing up to the course.
Then there’s The Glen Club. Fazio created the hilly, pseudo-prairie 7,149-yard course from the flat land on the edge of the old Glenview Naval Air Station. It’s hosted a handful of Nationwide Tour tournaments, but would likely be torn apart by the best players on the Tour. And while it’s closer to downtown than the other three contenders, parking would be difficult. It’s not as if the Glen shopping complex would shut down for four days to allow people to park in their lots and garage. A nearby commuter line might offer some relief, but again, it’s another bus-’em-in situation.
The Glen Club is 18 miles from downtown, compared to 20 for Cog Hill, 29 for Conway Farms, 33 for Kemper Lakes and 34 for the Merit Club.
While those four contenders may offer a more stylish zip code, individually, they fail to offer as good a test of golf as Cog Hill, the overall convenience of Cog’s parking – which even BMW fails to take advantage of, not using the Mount Assisi lot adjacent to the 15th hole – the ample room for corporate hospitality, and the rent deal the Jemsek family offers. They give the Western Golf Association the course for free.
So why move? Because attendance has dropped compared to the glory days of Fourth of July weekend dates. Perhaps BMW, which has forced the issue of moving around the Midwest from the start, has done surveys that find north suburbanites don’t care about football, either high school, college or pro, and will storm the gates.
But, to repeat, that’s not the way to bet.
The week at hand
Monday’s pro-am was renamed the Chick Evans Memorial Pro-Am, and Wednesday’s, previously the Evans, was renamed to honor Gardner Heidrick, a long-time participant who also endowed an Evans scholarship. ... Players will go off the first and 10th tees the first three days, Saturday’s schedule forced by an early finish to benefit NBC, which televises Michigan State at 0-2 Notre Dame at 2:30 p.m. CT. Sunday, everyone goes off No. 1 with a 5 p.m. finish in mind.
– Tim Cronin
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