The BMW Championship is set for August 20 – 25 at the Castle Pines Golf Club (CPGC) in The Village at Castle Pines. The top 50 golfers in the world will be playing in our backyard in the PGA’s penultimate competition for the venerable trophy, the FedEx Cup.

To understand the stakes, Scottie Scheffler (U.S.), Xander Schauffele (U.S.), Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Ludvig Aberg (Sweden) are among the top golfers in the world. Colorado native, Valor Christian High School alumnus and pro golfer Wyndham Clark (ranked fifth) is also participating in the tournament. The defending champion from 2023 is Norway’s Viktor Hovland. The purse is $20 million with the victor winning $3.6 million.

To appreciate what goes into securing a world-class event like this, CPGC has been on the “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” list every year since 1987. For this tournament, which has been two years in the making, the course has had a complete overhaul. CPGC has added 600 yards in length for championship tees to reach 8,130 yards; redesigned and rebuilt 10 water features; reimagined every tee complex and rebuilt all 79 bunkers; planted more than 500 new pine trees and roughly 80,000 flowers; and 250,000 square feet of structure is being built.

In addition to the tangible efforts, there will be 2,297 volunteers from 37 states and four countries, who combined will put in 35,000 hours of work. In the Clubhouse, the culinary team expects to serve 15,000 meals and 2,500 milkshakes in five venues throughout the week. Spectators will have access to 28 food and beverage outlets and two merchandise tents. The estimates are that 25,000 plus visitors are expected each day.

Many have put their hearts and souls into making the CPGC’s operations, the course and the experience first-class.

This issue of The Connection is dedicated largely to those individuals behind the scenes and to the “Building of the BMW Championship.”

The last BMW Championship in Colorado was in 2014 at Cherry Hills Country Club, and many in the local golf community – including The Village at Castle Pines resident Duffy Solich and his brother George, both CPGC members – were instrumental in the campaign to secure the tournament at CPGC.

The top 30 players in the tournament will advance to The TOUR Championship in Atlanta where the FedEx Cup champion will be decided.

The BMW Championship was originally called the Western Open (WO). Beginning in 1899, which predates the founding of the PGA in 1916, the Western Golf Association organized the WO. At the time of its final tournament in 2006, the WO was the third-oldest PGA TOUR tournament, after The Open (1860) and U.S. Open (1895). The WO tournament was held a total of 103 times over the course of 108 years.

Players from the U.S. have won the tournament 77 times, followed by Scotland with 15 victories. Walter Hagen, known as the “father of professional golf,” had the most victories with five. The champions list includes two amateurs: Chick Evans in 1910 and Scott Verplank in 1985. Chick later went on to launch the Evans Scholars Foundation.

All proceeds from the BMW Championship benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation (ESF) and its mission to award college scholarships to caddies who are academically proficient, exhibit high character and demonstrate financial need (see related story here).

In 2007, the WO was renamed the BMW Championship event of the FedEx Cup playoff series. Played with the PGA TOUR’s point system as the qualification standard, the tournament is no longer open to amateurs.

Next year, the BMW Championship will return to Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.

To learn more, visit bmwchampionship.com.

 

By Hollen Wheeler; courtesy photo