Thursday
Dec172009
Finchem: It's Chicago in 2013 and 2014
Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 12:18PM
Writing from Chicago
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Worries that the 2014 edition of the Western Golf Association's professional championship would be held out of the Chicago area are worries no longer. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, in confirming Golf In Chicago's earlier report that BMW's deal to sponsor the BMW Championship, a.k.a. Western Open, would be extended through 2014, assured all that it would remain in the area.
There was considerable criticism received by the Tour from fans, reporters, and even Cog Hill fan Tiger Woods for taking the 2008 championship from Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont to Bellerive Country Club, near St. Louis. Finchem remembered that during his teleconference on Thursday:
"Well, we've been pushing hard to move it out of Chicago because we enjoyed so much the beating we took the last time we took it out of Chicago," Finchem said. "No, I think that we'll follow our plan. We currently – with the Ryder Cup coming to Chicago in '12, we currently plan that year to play at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis, which we're actually excited about. But the fans in Chicago have the Ryder Cup that year.
"And other than that, we have no plans to play it away from Chicago.
A questioner persisted: "So in Chicago in '13 and '14?"
"That's our plan, yes, sir," Finchem responded.
The move to Crooked Stick, like Bellerive traditionally a strong backer of the WGA's Evans Scholars Foundation, plus a proven major championship site – beginning with John Daly's surprise win in the 1991 PGA Championship – makes complete sense. With the Western now scheduled for early September, and the Ryder Cup later the same month, it would be impossible for the WGA to sell corporate hospitality at anywhere near the usual level of support. But Indianapolis, as golf-starved as St. Louis was, has enough corporate capital to join the party for one year.
So here's the schedule for the championship for the next few years:
2010: Cog Hill
2011: Cog Hill
2012: Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind.
2013: Cog Hill
2014: Cog Hill
Beyond that, the PGA Tour still has commitments to Harding Park in San Francisco, a deal that includes playing at least one FedEx Cup playoff tournament there. The other two run-up tournaments are in the New York area (the old Westchester Classic, now the Barclays, and played everywhere but Westchester Country Club) and near Boston.
It's hard to imagine the Tour not playing one tournament a year in metropolitan New York, so that leaves Boston and Chicago. Since the Western Open has been played in the West, including at the Presidio in San Francisco in 1956, Boston would be more likely to stay put, unless the Tour finds a way to convince Coca-Cola, the presenting sponsor of the climactic Tour Championship, that it should leave East Lake in Atlanta and be played in San Francisco, just as it was at the Olympic Club in 1993 and 1994.
That argument, however, is years away. For now, excepting 2012, the third oldest championship in big-time golf stays at home, with BMW the corporate title sponsor.
– Tim Cronin
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Worries that the 2014 edition of the Western Golf Association's professional championship would be held out of the Chicago area are worries no longer. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, in confirming Golf In Chicago's earlier report that BMW's deal to sponsor the BMW Championship, a.k.a. Western Open, would be extended through 2014, assured all that it would remain in the area.
There was considerable criticism received by the Tour from fans, reporters, and even Cog Hill fan Tiger Woods for taking the 2008 championship from Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont to Bellerive Country Club, near St. Louis. Finchem remembered that during his teleconference on Thursday:
"Well, we've been pushing hard to move it out of Chicago because we enjoyed so much the beating we took the last time we took it out of Chicago," Finchem said. "No, I think that we'll follow our plan. We currently – with the Ryder Cup coming to Chicago in '12, we currently plan that year to play at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis, which we're actually excited about. But the fans in Chicago have the Ryder Cup that year.
"And other than that, we have no plans to play it away from Chicago.
A questioner persisted: "So in Chicago in '13 and '14?"
"That's our plan, yes, sir," Finchem responded.
The move to Crooked Stick, like Bellerive traditionally a strong backer of the WGA's Evans Scholars Foundation, plus a proven major championship site – beginning with John Daly's surprise win in the 1991 PGA Championship – makes complete sense. With the Western now scheduled for early September, and the Ryder Cup later the same month, it would be impossible for the WGA to sell corporate hospitality at anywhere near the usual level of support. But Indianapolis, as golf-starved as St. Louis was, has enough corporate capital to join the party for one year.
So here's the schedule for the championship for the next few years:
2010: Cog Hill
2011: Cog Hill
2012: Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Ind.
2013: Cog Hill
2014: Cog Hill
Beyond that, the PGA Tour still has commitments to Harding Park in San Francisco, a deal that includes playing at least one FedEx Cup playoff tournament there. The other two run-up tournaments are in the New York area (the old Westchester Classic, now the Barclays, and played everywhere but Westchester Country Club) and near Boston.
It's hard to imagine the Tour not playing one tournament a year in metropolitan New York, so that leaves Boston and Chicago. Since the Western Open has been played in the West, including at the Presidio in San Francisco in 1956, Boston would be more likely to stay put, unless the Tour finds a way to convince Coca-Cola, the presenting sponsor of the climactic Tour Championship, that it should leave East Lake in Atlanta and be played in San Francisco, just as it was at the Olympic Club in 1993 and 1994.
That argument, however, is years away. For now, excepting 2012, the third oldest championship in big-time golf stays at home, with BMW the corporate title sponsor.
– Tim Cronin