5 things toknowabout thisweek’s PGA event
BMW Championship CHICAGO — marshals will be busy thisweek. But theywon’t be raising their arms to hush spectators because there won’tbeany. Youknowwhy: COVID-19 protocols.
The marshals will be entrusted to help the PGA Tour’s top players find their stray drives.
“The rough is thick and gnarly,” said Mike Bruni, the tournament chairman and a decades-long member at Olympia Fields Country Club, which is returning to the national spotlight.
Here are 10things to know about thisweek’s FedEx Cup playoff event.
■ 1. Dustin Johnson will not shoot 30 under.
Johnsonwas freaky-good last week at the Northern Trust, lapping the field by 11 shots atTPCBostonandmaking five eagles. He expects Olympia Fields to yield fewer circled scores.
“Olympia Fields is a real golf course,” he said. “It’s tough and you’re not going to make a ton of birdies. You need to drive it in the fairway.”
Last year the field feasted at Medinah, taking advantage of soft conditions. Justin Thomaswon at 25 under. With the Chicago area dry and no rain expected until Friday, the greens will be “very firm,” competitor Brendan Steele said. “With the slope and speed of the greens, it will be dicey.”
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2. TigerWoods is one of six past champions in the field.
But that won’t necessarily give them an advantage. Woodswon this event twice at Cog Hill — five times if you count the Western Open, which the BMW replaced. Johnson won at Cog Hill and Crooked Stick in Indiana. Rory McIlroy also triumphed at Crooked Stick. Jason Day and Marc Leishmanwon at Conway Farms, and Billy Horschel took the hardware at Cherry Hills in Colorado.
Olympia Fields is a new course for most, but not all, of the pros. BrysonDeChambeau won the 2015 U.S. Amateur there, throttling Derek Bard 7 and 6 in his final match. The ChicagoTribunedescribedDeChambeau at the time as a “strapping 6-foot-1, 190-pound physics major at SMU.” Now he’s a cartoonish 240 pounds and can snap a driver just by leaning on it.
Matthew Wolff was low man at the 2018 Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields, firing 65-69-70 for Oklahoma State. Cal’s Collin Morikawa, who won the PGA Championship earlier thismonth, finished one shot behind.
And four players in this week’s field — Woods, Adam Scott, Paul CaseyandCharles Howell III — played there in the 2003 U.S. Open, won by Jim Furyk.
■ 3. A slewof big names are missing.
How tough is it to be in the top 70 in FedEx Cup points? Consider who did notmake the cut: Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson, who shot a 61 onMonday in his PGA Tour Champions debut.
The field shrank from 70 to 69 after Webb Simpson opted out, citing fatigue from playing four straightweeks. Simpson, third in the FedEx Cup standings, canceled a Wednesday practice session with Pat Goss, Northwestern’s director of golf and player development.
■ 4. Stay home, be safe. Theworld’sbestmaleplayers are returning to Olympia Fields for the first time since the 2003 U.S. Open, and Chicago-area golf fans will not be able to see them.
“It’s disappointing to say the least,” Bruni said. “But the spirit remains intact. We’rewelcoming the 70 top players to Chicago and raising funds for theEvans Scholars Foundation.”
Not even Olympia Fields members are permitted to attend, unless they are among the 300-plus volunteers required to wear masks at all times. Media credentials were limited to 68, including some TV personnel, PGA Tour Entertainment and public relations, after 235were approved last year at Medinah.
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5. Olympia Fields has been doing this for 100 years.
The club hosted the 1920 Western Open, five years after it was founded. (The first club president: Hall of Fame college football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.) Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus wonWestern Opens at Olympia Fields, and Hagen and Jerry Barber won PGA Championships. Danielle Kang won a thrilling Women’s PGA Championship in 2017, sinkingwhat she called “the hardest two-footer I’ve ever had to putt” to edge Brooke Henderson.
TheNorthCourse checked in at No. 75 in Golf Digest’s latest “America’s 100 Greatest” ranking. A $2.9 million restoration improved conditioning and bunkering and unearthed some bunkers that were pivotal to Willie Parker’s original parkland design.
Club members are thrilled the tour will use the course’s “traditional” routing, as they play it every day, with a 510yard 18th hole and a green fronted by four bunkers. The “championship” routing flipped the nines and allowed for grandstands by the 18th green thatwon’t be needed this week.
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