I've written this in various outlets before, but the negotiation went like this: The WGA was losing Cialis as a sponsor and the PGA Tour was starting the playoff system. The Tour went to the WGA and said, "Take BMW and move to September, and play out of Chicago where they want to sell cars every other year, or you get a date in October."
Had the WGA had a sponsor ready to replace Cialis, it likely would still have the Fourth of July weekend date, even though that wasn't great for corporate sponsors. And whether Phil Mickelson or Steve Stricker like it or not, it would probably still be at Cog Hill, where the Jemseks charged free rent. Free.
With Chicagoans not inclined to go to golf tournaments in September, at least after the Western Open was renamed and reformatted, going out of town was a boost. Playing at Bellerive in 2008 and raising $3.2 million was an eye-opener to the WGA on a level with the USGA realizing how much money the U.S. Open could earn when they ran everything at Shinnecock Hills in 1986. So even-numbered years are played out of Chicago and odd-numbered years are played on the north shore, where people actually drive BMWs and sometimes trade them in for other BMWs.
Cog Hill is out of the headlines, which is bad for the Jemseks from a PR standpoint, but people still tee it up there. And otherwise, things are working out. You can't knock the success financially, artistically or otherwise from trips to Crooked Stick and Cherry Hills the last few years. I could fall out of bed and be on the first tee at Cog, but I've had worse experiences in golf than standing on the first tee at Cherry Hills with the Arnold Palmer plaque and the Front Range in my view.