2011 BMW Championship: Final PGA Event at Cog Hill?

Last season, the 2010 BMW Championship player field panned Cog Hill Golf & Country Club for its “bumpy greens”, overgrown collars, and “silly” layout. Thanks to the 2008 Rees Jones rennovation a few years prior, many PGA players were left less-than-pleased with many features of what was once considered one of Chicagoland’s greatest courses. What followed was, quite literally, a war of words between PGA TOUR players and Western Golf Association officers, including course owner Joe Jemsek (who blamed the spotty Midwestern weather for the poor playing conditions a year ago).

In 2011, however, many players are saying the course has improved in terms of cosmetic value, however the layout is still “sad” for a test that many players once loved during the Western Open years. With all things considered, then, should this be the final year any PGA event is held at the Lemont, Illinois track?

According to PGA TOUR player Steve Stricker, Cog Hill is now a mere shell of what it once was not too long ago.

“The players just don’t like it,” Stricker recently told golf writer Rory Spears. “They liked it before, to some extent, but the redo is not good. Sorry to say.” Stricker would go on to suggest that he “felt sorry” for the Jemsek Family, especially since Stricker attended college in Illinois and had played many rounds at what was at one time one of his favorite courses.

Last year, many players (including Stricker) incessantly ripped the course. Phil Mickelson was the front man of this overwhelming opinion among the players, as many recall, but Stewart Cink called it a “wreck,” Tiger Woods described the greens as “slow and a bit bumpy,” and Zach Johnson was quoted as rating the course a “minus-3” on a scale of 1 to 10.

The BMW Championship is already set to move to Crooked Stick in Carmel, Indiana next year, and then Cheery Hills in Denver, CO in 2014. However, 2013 is still unscheduled as of the time of this writing.

Cog Hill Golf & Country Club is a public course, and the Midwestern weather hasn’t exactly been the greatest over the past few summers. However, the main problem seems to lie in the rennovations that took place in 2008. Grass will always grow back (as it has this season); golf tees and hole layouts cannot change overnight, unfortunately.

What is even more unfortunate is that many punduits are suggesting that Cog Hill will “need a miracle” to ever host another TOUR event, especially one the likes of the BMW Championship.