BMW Championship future at Conway Farms? Medinah No. 1?

[Howard Riefs]

Our friend Teddy Greenfield of the Chicago Tribune writes that there's "little doubt that Conway Farms will host (the BMW Championship) again in 2015." (The 2014 event is at Cherry Hills outside Denver.)

"Based on this week, I don't see any reason why all three parties would not want to come back to Conway Farms. This has been a great success," said John Kaczkowksi, CEO of the Western Golf Association.

Teddy references that the WGA will focus on remedying some of the logistical issues (traffic, shuttles, etc.) and notes that the WGA doesn't view the low scores negatively: "I want to see birdies and eagles. I want excitement," says a WGA VP.

He writes that beyond 2015, the tour and WGA "will consider other Chicago venues."  One interesting idea....

"A new option that Kaczkowksi called 'intriguing' will open for play next summer, when the renovation of Medinah No. 1 is completed...."

Medinah offers a smart, tempered response when asked about the possibility:

"Any time you are talking about a championship opportunity, our membership has demonstrated excitement," said Medinah official Mike Crance. "We will see how it plays out."

Indeed, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.  


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/golf/ct-spt-0916-golf-bmw-greenstein-20130916,0,1506198.story

[JR Potts]

Premature discussion.

[Paul OConnor]

Our friend Teddy Greenfield of the Chicago Tribune writes that there's "little doubt that Conway Farms will host (the BMW Championship) again in 2015." (The 2014 event is at Cherry Hills outside Denver.)

Let's hope that if this is the case that the in the next two years they come up with a better logistics plan.  This year's debacle can only be described as a clusterfuck.  Drunk fans starting fights yesterday in the endless line waiting for shuttle buses, complete gridlock getting into the area, and a course spectator flow design that could charitably be called compromised.  

Anyone going out today is parking at Great America in Gurnee.  Have fun.

Cog Hill is looking pretty good compared to this mess.  

[Tim_Cronin]

Greenstein.

[Bill Seitz]

Let's hope that if this is the case that the in the next two years they come up with a better logistics plan.  This year's debacle can only be described as a clusterfuck.  Drunk fans starting fights yesterday in the endless line waiting for shuttle buses, complete gridlock getting into the area, and a course spectator flow design that could charitably be called compromised.  

Anyone going out today is parking at Great America in Gurnee.  Have fun.

Cog Hill is looking pretty good compared to this mess.  

I didn't have any shuttle issues on Thursday, but traffic getting into the event was horrific, and it was largely due to a lack of foresight or preparation.  Inexcusable. 

Are they really shuttling people in from Great America today?  That's practically a 30 minute bus ride!  What do they use that field for on a normal day?

[Paul OConnor]

"Are they really shuttling people in from Great America today?  That's practically a 30 minute bus ride!  What do they use that field for on a normal day?"

All cars to Gurnee, even if you are one of the chosen who own, or borrowed, a BMW.  

The field close to the course where they were parking VIP cars is not part of the club.  A mud bath is what they are probably using it for today.  

[J_ Crisham]

I wouldn't be surprised to see it in San Francisco in 2016. Harding Park or Olympic Club are the ones that could handle the event. Goes with the rota of a major city outside of Chicago in the even years.  Would enjoy it in Minneapolis at interlachen

[C. Squier]

Exiting on Saturday was a NIGHTMARE. I've never been to any other event that had such poor ingress/egress. Literally a sea of people corralled in a pen. People had to wait hours in line just to leave....even if you wanted to walk to your car.

The golf course was also very difficult to navigate, IMO. Felt like you were at a county fair, not a golf course.

[JR Potts]

Sadly, I agree with what has been written.  Cog Hill was always a breeze to get in and out of.  It took my 2 hours to get home on Thursday and 2 1/2 hours to get home on Friday.

The support for the event was great....but the logistics left a lot of people out in the dust.

Given the comments I've heard from many of my clients/friends, I couldn't give away a ticket to the next event at Conway.  It's just not worth the time sacrifice to many.

Sad...Chicago and the Evans Scholars/WGA deserve better.

[Tim_Cronin]

It appeared the bus dropoff wasn't built to handle more than a couple of busses at a time. JR, slip the WGA a copy of the bus drop for the Ryder Cup, which had what, 16 or 20 stations? They could probably fit eight on the footprint at Conway.

The amazing thing to me was nobody getting their foot run over at the intersection of the club's driveway and the fan crosswalk. Looked like a Tokyo transit station.

[Howard Riefs]

Exiting on Saturday was a NIGHTMARE. I've never been to any other event that had such poor ingress/egress. Literally a sea of people corralled in a pen. People had to wait hours in line just to leave....even if you wanted to walk to your car.

Exhibits A and B:

https://twitter.com/KinZ81/status/379089943181553664

https://twitter.com/annalisan/status/379022541316046848

Strangely, thankful that reports of the bad traffic from Thursday and Friday rounds scared me from going on Saturday ... and being a part of this mess.

[John McCarthy]

Very glad I skipped this. 

OK, what other courses in Chicagoland wants or can handle this event? 

[Andrew Buck]

Unless Butler admits women, it's really hard to think of any courses in the area that are made for tour golf outside Medinah, Olympia and Cog Hill.

I guess Rich Harvest could handle it fine and would be tough enough if he wants it.  

Maybe someplace like Exmoor could utilize Highland Park CC the way Bulter did with Oak Brook, however every experience I've ever had going to Ravinia Festival makes me think getting to any event on the North Shore east of 41 is going to be impossible.  

[PCCraig]

Other courses in Chicago that the BMW could go to:

Olympia Fields
Chicago Highlands
The Glen Club
Harborside
Medinah #3
Conway Farms
Cog Hill

[John McCarthy]

Does Olympia have an interest? 

I know Highlands does but they need a clubhouse.  But tons of parking and access there.

Medinah?  So soon? 

I would guess The Glen would take it

Merit?

[Brian_Sleeman]

It has been overstated how tough it was to get in.  Parking was not restricted to Gurnee - you could easily park in either the West or East Lake Forest train stations and take a quick shuttle in to the tournament grounds.  All told it took about 15/20 minutes.  The free parking and frequent shuttles were a big plus.

Getting out was as bad as has been stated, though.  I left on Saturday well before the final groups finished their rounds, and it was a solid hour until we reached a shuttle.  They needed a much wider walkway, better signage instead of volunteers having to shout over the masses (left lanes to West Lake Forest, middle lanes to East Lake Forest, right lanes to on-site parking for example), and a far more organized and spacious shuttle parking situation that matched up to the foot traffic lanes.

On the course itself, the best vantages for viewing were either in the raised grandstands on the last four holes or on foot somewhere on the front nine.  The back nine's routing made following anyone on foot a near impossibility.  As I made my way over toward the 16th on Saturday, through a crosswalk with about 200 others, I was nearly run into by a noticeably perturbed Webb Simpson trying to make his way through the masses on his way to the 18th tee.  Bubba Watson was right behind him.  It was a mess.

I'm hopeful that they'll figure out the traffic patterns and organize things a little better for the next go-round, as it was a treat to be able to catch the best players in the world so close to home.

[Andrew Buck]

Played Dubsdread this morning and it's kinda too bad they don't just play there again.  There is really no other reason for that course other than to test the best golfers, as the bunkering, length and elevated greens make it pretty much unplayable for most golfers.

It's clearly not great architecturally, but it does seem to have merit as a test of championship golf.  I wonder if the initial reaction wouldn't have been so poor if it wasn't in bad shape due to weather the first year?

Looking back at the "Are bunkers too perfect" thread, I was in the 2nd group out and these certainly weren't too perfect, even though these would be a challenge if they were perfect.  Then again, I'm not sure any of there bunkers are designed for strategy, as opposed to just punish misses.  

[HarryBrinkerhoffDoyleIV_aka_Barry]

[REMOVED]

[Tim_Cronin]

My understanding is the WGA is going to have the BMW come back to the Chicago Land area every other year, with the general mid-west area hosting the tournament on years that it is not located in Chicago.  It will be interesting to see how Cherry Hills will accommodate the PGA's infrastructure/setup next year, which is clearly no small setup.  I would love to see this tournament roll through Colorado Golf Club at some point, and see how the men's tour fares on C&C greens.

Unless things change, here's what's coming up:
2014: Cherry Hills CC
2015: Conway Farms GC
2016: Harding Park GC (the Tour has a contract with San Francisco to play a playoff-series tournament there, and this is the one that travels)
2017: Chicagoland TBA
The tournament has been played in San Francisco before, when everyone still called it the Western Open: Presidio, 1956. Mike Fetchick won a four-way playoff and a record first prize of $5,000.

[Josh Tarble]

Traffic could just be first time venues working out the kinks...that's unfortunately part of it.  Last year at Crooked Stick it was a disaster getting in and out as well.  Just one of those things and I'm sure next time around would be better.

[JR Potts]

Traffic could just be first time venues working out the kinks...that's unfortunately part of it.  Last year at Crooked Stick it was a disaster getting in and out as well.  Just one of those things and I'm sure next time around would be better.

Agreed.  The North Shore of Chicago is a nice target market for BMW as well.  That said, unless you're from the North Shore, getting to and from the same is a disaster - golf tournament or not.  However, if you ask a North Shore'er, if you're not the from the North Shore, you're just a plebeian and don't have standing to complain anyways.

[PCCraig]

Edited.

[Howard Riefs]

Official... 


2016:  Crooked Stick
2017:  Conway Farms
2018:  Aronimink
2019:  Medinah, No. 3


http://www.pgatour.com/news/2015/09/10/future-bmw-championship-sites.html


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150910/BLOGS04/150919998/bmw-championship-returns-to-medinah-country-club

[Tom_Doak]

Medinah #1 was never built long enough to test the PGA Tour players.  There was no talk of having such an event until after we were halfway done with the course.  You could still have them play it, and the best player would win, but he'd be 20 under par or more.  [Or maybe 30 under, when you think that Jason Day was -20 at Whistling Straits.]


Course One probably makes more sense for one of the USGA events where they need two courses for qualifying, but I am not party to any such discussions.

[JStewart]

Official... 


2016:  Crooked Stick
2017:  Conway Farms
2018:  Aronimink
2019:  Medinah, No. 3


http://www.pgatour.com/news/2015/09/10/future-bmw-championship-sites.html


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150910/BLOGS04/150919998/bmw-championship-returns-to-medinah-country-club

I like the fact they move around the BMW and the Barclays. Wish they would do the same for the Tour Championship.