WGA will look “long and hard” at BMW in Chicago in 2028

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Sunday, August 20, 2023

The next four playings of the BMW Championship, a.k.a. the Western Open in dramatic lore, are scheduled to be played outside the Chicago area, the home of the Western Golf Association.

That will raise as-yet untold millions for the caddies-to-college Evans Scholars Foundation, help the WGA broaden their caddie programs to more universities, and likely held BMW sell more cars.

But it does nothing for the Chicago golf fan that has loyally supported the WGA, through the Western Open and other ways, for decades, and especially since 1962, when the then-vagabond Western Open came to Chicago to stay. Or so it seemed.

Since 2008, when it visited Bellerive Country Club in Town and Country, Mo., just outside St. Louis, the BMW has been played in the Chicago area nine times and elsewhere seven times. The upcoming run of Castle Pines in 2024, Caves Valley in 2025, Bellerive in 2026 and Liberty National in 2027 will run the ratio to nine here and 11 elsewhere. The every-other-year pledge to play in Chicagoland has vanished.

So what of 2028? What about a return to Olympia Fields, a hit with both the players and the spectators?

“It would make sense to look long and hard at Chicago in ’28,” said John Kaczkowski, the WGA’s president and CEO, Sunday at the lunch hour. “This has been great so far, fantastic. Great crowds. I haven’t heard one negative comment from players.”

Olympia members would likely welcome a return visit in five years. At least one Olympia employee thinks it’s a done deal, which is not the case.

“We haven’t had formal discussions with these guys, but I think our intent is to,” Kaczkowski said. “And we’ll have discussions with Medinah, but they’ve got to be a willing participant, Olympia, Medinah, Conway (Farms).”

Those are the three private clubs hosting the BMW since it last played at Cog Hill in 2011.

“They’ve shown they can host this tournament.”

Olympia Fields has been paid a flat site fee this year, with the WGA reaping the rewards of the ticket sales and many luxury suites. For instance, the largest-in-golf three-story structure behind the 17th tee and 18th green holds about 1,800 people, and probably returned about $1 million to the WGA after construction expenses.

Conway Farms hosted three times from 2013 to 2017, and Medinah, its No. 3 course currently behind rebuilt in advance of the 2026 Presidents Cup, hosted throngs in 2019. Cog Hill, of course, hosted the Western / BMW 20 times in 21 years from 1991 to 2011.

“With the Presidents Cup at Medinah in 2026, it just kind of made sense for us to not be in the marketplace prior to that, but I would say it’s coming back shortly thereafter,” Kaczkowski said.

But a former president of BMW North America soured on the south suburbs in general and Cog Hill in particular, as did some players after the course was remodeled by Rees Jones. Medinah probably wouldn’t want to host a tournament two years after the Presidents Cup. Conway Farms might be the best possibility outside of Olympia Fields.

“From our perspective, rotating the BMW Championship in and out of Chicago has worked tremendously well,” Kaczkowski said, recalling that the average net income for a Western or BMW was averaged $2 million in its final years there. But the excursion to Bellerive in 2008, while Cog Hill was being renovated, opened eyes. It raised over $3 million, which translated into more scholarships.

“Financially, we raise a lot more money for the Evans Scholars Foundation when we’re out of town. We build a network of supporters and potential supporters by going to places like Wilmington (Del., last year’s BMW site) and Caves Valley in Baltimore. Plus it gives a lot of visibility to the Evans Scholars Foundation.

“For those reasons, it’s worked out great. From the Chicago golf fans’ perspective, it hasn’t maybe worked out that well.”

Kaczkowski noted that the WGA’s Korn Ferry Tournament isn’t on a par with the BMW Championship, but added the prime time to add a tournament on the PGA Tour schedule in Chicago, from mid-June through mid-September, has no dates available.

“Unless you want an opposite field event versus a major, and I don’t think the fans of Chicago would respond to that,” Kaczkowski said.

• Max Homa was understandably livid after a fan barked “pull it” as he was putting on the 17th green Saturday, just after the guy had cheered fellow competitor Chris Kirk for missing his putt on the same green.

“Probably drunk, I hope for his case,” Homa said late Saturday. “Or else he’s just the biggest loser there is, but he was cheering and yelling at Chris for missing his putt short.”

Homa said the spectator and his pal evidently had betted on the outcome of the putts via one of the online betting outlets on their phone.

“He kept yelling that … one of them had $3 for me to make mine,” Homa said. “I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing I’m worried about. I don’t know what he had to lose.”

• Through three rounds, the North Course has held up despite the two inches of rain (1.71 inches Monday and .29 inches Thursday morning) prior to the first shot struck in anger. No water has been put on the course since, and the rough, at least inside the ropes, has grown to over five inches.

The three-round scoring average of 69.588 compares with the dry-condition average of 72.314 through three rounds in 2020, when the rough was similarly high, and there were no spectators to mat down the rough outside the ropes. For that matter, there were no ropes. 

– Tim Cronin