Tiger Woods got reacquainted with an old friend Wednesday.
He walked the fairways and putted the greens at Cog Hill during the Chick Evans Memorial Pro-Am, and the memories began to flow.
Cog Hill is where Woods made his first cut in a PGA Tour event as a 19-year old amateur in the 1995 Western Open. It’s where fans flooded the 18th fairway British Open style when he won his first Western in 1997. He since has won twice more on the No. 4 course.
Now he’s a strong advocate for anchoring the new BMW Championship in Chicago on an annual basis. On the eve of Thursday’s first round, he voiced his opposition to the tournament rotating out of town every other year.
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“Hey, I don’t like the idea,” Woods said. “This is a great town. It’s one of the biggest sports towns, if not one of the biggest markets in the country. I just don’t understand why we can’t play here year after year.”
Woods eventually might get his wish. While a final decision remains a few years off, Commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday the PGA Tour continues to re-evaluate its decision to rotate the event out of Chicago.
“We understand the concern raised by fans in Chicago,” Finchem said. “They would love to see an annual event here. The players like the course here. We’re sensitive to all that.”
The 2012 BMW represents a glimmer of hope. If the every-other-year pattern were to continue, that tournament would be played elsewhere. The current plan calls for 2008 to be in St. Louis and 2010 in Indianapolis, with 2009 and 2011 in Chicago.
Finchem, though, said the 2012 BMW could be at Cog Hill. Keep in mind that’s with Medinah Country Club playing host to the Ryder Cup a few weeks later in September 2012.
“Candidly, if we wanted to play here in 2012, Chicago could support a BMW and Ryder Cup,” Finchem said.
Finchem also acknowledged that the BMW could be in San Francisco at some point in the next decade. The tour has an agreement to deliver at least one FedEx Cup event to the city by 2019. The BMW would be a likely candidate.
“This tournament could be one of our options,” Finchem said.
Finchem said there’s no rush to make a decision for 2012 and beyond. He insists the PGA Tour will not “unilaterally make this decision,” even if that seems to be the case thus far.
“The [Western Golf Association] and BMW will be involved,” Finchem said. “It will be based on their experience here this week and the next couple of years.”
This year’s BMW will go a long way toward determining Chicago’s fate as an annual Tour stop. The tournament has quite a standard to live up to after what happened in Boston last week at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
The crowds were loud and rowdy. Arron Oberholser said the event had “the feel of a major championship.”
By contrast, Woods said it was fairly quiet at Cog Hill during his pro-am round Wednesday.
“Hopefully, this event will be like it is normally here in July,” Woods said. “Hopefully, we’ll have the same kind of atmosphere and everybody will get fired up about it.”
This BMW already has a few obstacles. Moving up tee times by more than two hours Thursday and Friday because of a poor weather forecast is a crowd killer. You’re basically telling fans, “Hey, it’s going to rain.”
Phil Mickelson’s withdrawal took some of the steam out of the tournament. The BMW at Cog Hill also will have to contend with potentially successful tournaments in St. Louis and Indianapolis. The prospect of seeing players such as Woods and Mickelson (assuming they play) is a novelty in those towns. Those events could make rotating an attractive option.
Finchem still maintains the tour made the right decision by including St. Louis and Indianapolis in a BMW rotation.
“The Evans Scholar Program (the WGA’s charity) will be much better off because of the decision,” Finchem said. “The fans in Indianapolis and in St. Louis will see terrific BMW tournaments.”
The fans in Chicago saw terrific Western Opens on an annual basis beginning in 1962. Finchem joked that Woods wants to keep the BMW at Cog Hill because of his record here.
No, it goes much deeper, Mr. Commissioner. Woods has a connection to the WGA and local fans.
“They’ve always come out in droves and really supported this tournament,” Woods said. “[This tournament] always has been near and dear to my heart.”
Now that annual relationship is going to be interrupted. Here’s hoping Finchem does something about it.
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