2011 BMW Championship Discussion

[Chilli Dipper]

Originally Posted by FowlPlay

Yes, I'm completely aware Rickie Fowler does not pay attention when he's putting within 6 feet. I'm still gonna stick by and root for him.

Case in point: look what he does on a putt-putt course.

Geoff Ogilvy had to finish third or better to qualify for the Tour Championship, which is precisely where he sits after 54 holes. If he can hold his position during the final round, he'll be at East Lake. Sergio Garcia needed to finish fourth or better to break the top 30 in the overall standings, and he is currently tied for eighth; another round of 67 tomorrow might be enough to push him over the threshold.

[onintwo]

What do you guys think of the redesigned course?  Majority of players seem to hate it, will be cool when it goes to Crooked Stick next year

[Chilli Dipper]

Originally Posted by onintwo

What do you guys think of the redesigned course?  Majority of players seem to hate it, will be cool when it goes to Crooked Stick next year

The 2012 event was already going to be held outside of Chicago, since the Ryder Cup is going to be held at Medinah only a couple of weeks after the BMW Championship. The original plan for the tournament was to rotate the date around different venues in the Midwest, in the way the old Western Open did until it settled in the Chicago area for good in the 1960s. Those plans appeared to be nixed when Rees Jones renovated Cog Hill, but consensus amongst the players is so negative that the course probably will not host another BMW Championship for a while.

The 2014 event has already been awarded to Cherry Hills in Denver, a course that hasn't hosted top professionals since the 1985 PGA Championship, in a city that hasn't had a PGA Tour event since the International folded in 2006. The 2013 event host has not been announced yet, but it is presumed that a Chicago course will host it. During the 2009 Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco, it was revealed that the course was promised a FedEx Cup event sometime in the near future. The tour's TPC network recently took over management duties at Harding Park; all signs point to the BMW Championship heading over there in 2015 (2013 is still a possibility, but the tour doesn't want to leave the Chicago area three years in a row; 2012 wasn't an option, since the US Open is being held at Olympic Club on the other side of Lake Merced).

[B-Con]

I like the camera angle that the Live@ coverage is using on hole 18 today. It's an overhead camera off to one side of the fairway that appears to stare almost directly at the teebox. Then the camera pulls back and tracks the tee shot as it passes the camera tower and follows it from behind as it goes up the fairway. I like it because you get a good sense of how the ball flight starts and you get to it as it traverses up the fairway. None of the ultra-close zooming nonsense, and none of the awkward angles that don't give you a clue where the ball is in relation to the fairway until it lands.

[Ben]

This was one of the very few tournaments I actually watched all season. Oddly enough, working in a golf shop, I have no TV to watch golf tournaments. Go figure...

Anyway, yeah, I took the time to watch at home. I thought the course looked awesome! Particularly, 16, I think it was, a dogleg left with a fairway that sloped right to left. I hate a draw too, yet that hole really looked fun to play! I don't think courses should be a pushover, particularly for the "best golfers in the world", which, they are. But still, let a course have some teeth. Driving areas didn't look over terrifying. Rough up but not unfair. Sectioned greens, but they were massive.

As far as the commentatry. I've never been a Peter Jacobson fan, but on Sunday I actually liked his opinions and delivery. At least I think that was Jacobson, sounded like him anyhow. I don't know why they were getting on Rose late, talking about "falling apart". So he didn't hit many fairways nor greens the final round, but he kept it at par and went on to win. For a course that was eating up most, I can't condemn a round at even for the win...