2014 BMW Championship Discussion Thread

[Dave2512]

No way Cherry Hills is awesome and anything but standard park style. I can play just about anywhere here and I would pass on any of the resortish mountain courses to play CH. My stepdad is a bigwig here snd he was invited to play CH last week, said it was amazing and brutal. BTW it poured rain all night here in Brighton. Radar showed clouds all over the city. Actually still raining this morning. It will be much cooler and damp today. If that rough does't dry out they will struggle. ugh tired of my tab and the crazy auto correct and difficult typing.

[DeadMan]

I'm pretty sure it rained non stop over the course for about 8 hours last night. That will soften up the greens quite a bit, but the rough is going to be brutal. The course definitely has teeth. 8 and 9 were just brutal yesterday, and I don't think softening the greens will change that.

[Dave2512]

PSA if you are going today and check in here first and didn't see the news. Grass parking lots are closed all day due to rain. They are running shuttles ftom Broncos stadium if you have passes for those.

[skydog]

I have no doubt the course is good one and I admittedly didn't watch much of the coverage yesterday so was just commenting on my initial impression. That said, as an east coaster I was looking forward to turning on the tv and seeing something different from what we see every week, and I didn't really get it. Just my observation.

[RJH999]

Phil Mickelson praises Cherry Hills: [Quote]“It's really fun,” Mickelson said. “What I really like about Cherry Hills is that the easy holes are easy. You can make birdies on the reachable holes. They have some of the hardest holes anywhere. The fifth hole is one of the hardest par 4s you'll ever see. The 8th hole is like a 285-yard par 3. It's a long beast of a hole.[/Quote] Why does Figjam feel the need to kiss every courses ass? I dunno.

[Dave2512]

I have no doubt the course is good one and I admittedly didn't watch much of the coverage yesterday so was just commenting on my initial impression. That said, as an east coaster I was looking forward to turning on the tv and seeing something different from what we see every week, and I didn't really get it. Just my observation.

There are plenty of awesome out of the ordinary courses here but I suspect it was Cherry Hill's muscle and historic past that helped host the event there. As cool as CH is I probably would have preferred to see them on one of the longer courses. I have no doubt they could have stretched a few out beyond 8000 yards. I play courses in the 7700 yard range and it's crazy how far the back tees are. I am certain they could have got the par 5's over 700 yards at one course.

The pros are getting the full CO experience today. It was 48 degrees when I left my house an hour ago. Just being 90's a couple days ago it feels like winter. It's the first day I've worn pants since late spring. No shit I saw trees that were green and leafy earlier in the week start to yellow and drop leaves just from the colder temps at night. Fall is in the air here.

[DeadMan]

Phil Mickelson praises Cherry Hills: Why does Figjam feel the need to kiss every courses ass? I dunno.

I mean, he did win the US Am at the course, so I'm guessing he has an affinity for it. [quote name="Dave2512" url="/t/76975/2014-bmw-championship-discussion-thread/36#post_1051261"] There are plenty of awesome out of the ordinary courses here but I suspect it was Cherry Hill's muscle and historic past that helped host the event there. As cool as CH is I probably would have preferred to see them on one of the longer courses. I have no doubt they could have stretched a few out beyond 8000 yards. I play courses in the 7700 yard range and it's crazy how far the back tees are. I am certain they could have got the par 5's over 700 yards at one course. The pros are getting the full CO experience today. It was 48 degrees when I left my house an hour ago. Just being 90's a couple days ago it feels like winter. It's the first day I've worn pants since late spring. No shit I saw trees that were green and leafy earlier in the week start to yellow and drop leaves just from the colder temps at night. Fall is in the air here. [/quote] I think the scuttlebutt was that this was a test to see if the USGA could bring the (men's) US Open back to Cherry Hills. That could be part of the reason why they went to Cherry Hills.

[iacas]

Phil Mickelson praises Cherry Hills:

Why does Figjam feel the need to kiss every courses ass? I dunno.

He doesn't do that.

He's been very critical of courses in the past.

[RJH999]

He doesn't do that. He's been very critical of courses in the past.

Upon a google search: He has. Ok. Maybe it just seems like it because I see articles like "Mickelson praises course". Other players probably do the same, but they don't make news with it.

[Donny Smithern]

Jason Day rubbing his lower back a lot.  Just a personal tick?  or maybe he strained it..

Good Call, though surely you understand that I have to blame you for ruining my fantasy team this weekend.

[Dave2512]

Being there the course appears much tougher. The elevation and blind shots was eye opening. I haven't been to a pro event since 1979ish but these guys looked like they were not enjoying it there. Frownie city. My neck is sore from watching balls.

[Pretzel]

There are plenty of awesome out of the ordinary courses here but I suspect it was Cherry Hill's muscle and historic past that helped host the event there. As cool as CH is I probably would have preferred to see them on one of the longer courses. I have no doubt they could have stretched a few out beyond 8000 yards. I play courses in the 7700 yard range and it's crazy how far the back tees are. I am certain they could have got the par 5's over 700 yards at one course.

The pros are getting the full CO experience today. It was 48 degrees when I left my house an hour ago. Just being 90's a couple days ago it feels like winter. It's the first day I've worn pants since late spring. No shit I saw trees that were green and leafy earlier in the week start to yellow and drop leaves just from the colder temps at night. Fall is in the air here.

Heritage at Westmoor was 8000 yards for U.S. Open Qualifiers this year. That's one course that would be fun to see played, with their nearly 700 yard par 5 up the hill. Watching pros go driver 3-wood and still having at least 100 yards in would be very different.

Arrowhead is also another nice course and, if my memory is correct, I believe it used to host a couple pro-ams a while back.

[Dave2512]

Heritage at Westmoor was 8000 yards for U.S. Open Qualifiers this year. That's one course that would be fun to see played, with their nearly 700 yard par 5 up the hill. Watching pros go driver 3-wood and still having at least 100 yards in would be very different. Arrowhead is also another nice course and, if my memory is correct, I believe it used to host a couple pro-ams a while back.

They would have the room out there too to set it up. But after being at CH this afternoon I see why it has the reputation it does. Quite opposite of the newer, longer, wide open courses like Heritage or say CO National.

[Pretzel]

They would have the room out there too to set it up. But after being at CH this afternoon I see why it has the reputation it does. Quite opposite of the newer, longer, wide open courses like Heritage or say CO National.

Colorado National, at least to me, isn't one of the better courses out here. I feel the previous owner (when it was Vista Ridge) maintained the place better in terms of the greens and fairways, but that's neither here nor there. I don't think Colorado National would hold up well against the pros just because it really isn't too penal on missed shots at all. The native grasses aren't really in play and I never saw a bunker there any of the times I played the course because they weren't placed in the spots. Cherry Hills really makes the pros hit the ball in the right spots, and Heritage just has the massive length to make it a difficult challenge. Colorado National doesn't feel like they could add too much space without some really awkward tee box positioning (they extended Heritage so much by sometimes using teeboxes from different holes since the holes there criss-cross unlike CO National).

Anyways, that's probably but an interesting discussion to be had in a different thread.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Sergio plays this weekend. My prediction is that he loses by one after a double bogey sometime late Sunday.

[iacas]

Phil has WDed.

https://twitter.com/dougferguson405/status/508222076906643456

[ChrisP]

ZJ +2, Bradley +3, Kuchar +4, Simpson +5, Mahan +6, Reed +7, Phil WD. If you're Captain Watson, you can't like what you're seeing this week, especially given that McIlroy, Garcia, Kaymer, Stenson, Donaldson and Dubuisson are all having very solid performances in their respective tournaments.  Going in with confidence is a big key. Right now we only have a few that are playing really well.

[iacas]

ZJ +2, Bradley +3, Kuchar +4, Simpson +5, Mahan +6, Reed +7, Phil WD. If you're Captain Watson, you can't like what you're seeing this week, especially given that McIlroy, Garcia, Kaymer, Stenson, Donaldson and Dubuisson are all having very solid performances in their respective tournaments.  Going in with confidence is a big key. Right now we only have a few that are playing really well.

I think confidence and "current form" are vastly overrated. Look at Phil's year, and then he contends at the PGA championship. Just one of many many examples. The matches are a coin flip.

[Dave2512]

Phil looked miserable yesterday. We sat on 15 about half the day. He started on 10 I think and just 5 holes in he was zombie Phil. Being the first PGA event here the galleries were cheerful. He barely acknowledged the applause he got and he made par on that hole. Honestly it wasn't that fun watching them. They acted like pallbearers, very somber walking tee to green.