Cog Hill Officials Optimistic About Future PGA Events

The BMW Championship, the PGA Tour event that has been hosted at Lemont’s four out of the past five years, will be played near Denver in 2014, PGA officials announced Tuesday.

In its prior incarnation as the Western Open, the tournament was played at Cog Hill from 1991-2006. In the announcement, the PGA cited the rich tradition of Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Co., as a factor in the selection process.

As a FedEx Cup Event, the BMW Championship was intended to alternate between the Chicago area and other Midwestern cities. The decision to move the 2014 event away from the Chicago area comes as no surprise to Katherine Jemsek, president of Cog Hill.

“The Western Golf Assocation tends to go to communities that haven’t had a tournament in a while, and from the past they have shown that they will continue to rotate in and out of Chicago,” she said.

Cog Hill has hosted the Fedex Cup Playoff event every year since its inauguration in 2007, with the exception of 2008, when it was held in St. Louis. The 2012 event has been scheduled in Indianapolis for quite some time (Illinois’ Medinah Country Club will host the Ryder Cup that year).

A site for the 2013 BMW Championship has not yet been determined.

Cog Hill received some negative comments from tournament players last year following a redesign of the Dubsdread course and months of heavy rains. The club has since hired a new superintendent, Scott Pavalko, who is in his second week on the job.

Jemsek reports that a visit by the PGA Tour agronomist earlier this week went well.

 When the BMW Championship is held in the Chicago area, Jemsek believes that Cog Hill is still the ideal location for it.

“We have the infrastructure, we have space for the corporate hospitality, for parking for spectators, to allow BMW to build the experience they want for everyone who comes through the tournament,” she said. “There are a lot of other good golf courses in Chicago, but with the space and infrastructure and parking needed to host such an event, I think that we are still the logical choice.”

This year’s event will be held September 12-18 at Cog Hill. Jemsek said the club is working with the PGA, Western Golf Association and BMW to make the event more engaging to spectators, and she hopes to have the continued support of the Lemont community.

“I hope that everyone will come out and support the tournament so it can remain in Chicago, and that we have a PGA Tour event every year or every other year,” she said.