Championship earned him a spot on the
International team for The Presidents Cup.
PRESIDENTS CUP
The 10-man rosters were
finalized Sunday:
LEMONT, ILLINOIS | The BMW
Championship required a calcu-
lator to determine all the pos-
sibilities that went beyond who
finished first Sunday. At stake
were spots in The Presidents
Cup and The Tour Championship.
Besides Justin Rose, the big
winner was Geoff Ogilvy. The
Australian’s clutch third-place
finish earned him a spot on the
International side for The Presi-
dents Cup. Ogilvy was elated
since the event will literally be
played in his backyard; he lives
in a house that backs up to
Royal Melbourne.
“The fact that we go to Royal
Melbourne in Australia, we’ll
have the crowd on our side,”
Ogilvy said. “It’s going to be
pretty special.”
As for the FedEx Cup play-
offs, Rose’s victory lifted him
from 34th to third in the stand-
ings. He now is in the all-im-
portant top five, joining Webb
Simpson, ( 1), Dustin Johnson
( 2), Luke Donald ( 4) and Matt
Kuchar ( 5). Any of those players
automatically wins the FedEx
Cup with a victory in The Tour
Championship. Brandt Snede-
ker dropped from fifth to sixth.
probably could do the job. Maybe
if they just start over, it could turn
into something really special.”
Mickelson wasn’t alone. Don-
ald, who lives nearby in Chicago’s
northern suburbs, said: “From an
architectural standpoint, I’m not
a huge fan of Rees Jones, either.
There are a few holes where there
isn’t a great deal of strategy.”
Of all the harsh critiques,
the most surprising came from
Steve Stricker. A 1996 winner of
the Western Open and regarded
as one of the nicest guys on
Tour, Stricker was blunt in his
assessment of the new Cog Hill.
“They need to get their
money back,” Stricker said. “It’s
too bad what happened here.”
It’s too late for owner Frank
Jemsek to get a refund on the
$5 million he spent in renovating
his No. 4 course. He made the
investment in the hopes of land-
ing a U.S. Open for one of the top
public facilities in the country.
Now, thanks in part to the
player reaction, it seems likely
this year’s BMW Championship
will be the last PGA Tour tourna-
ment at Cog Hill for a long time.
The next Chicago-based BMW
(in 2013) appears to be headed
to Conway Farms in Lake Forest,
Ill., where Donald is a member.
Players complaining about
a golf course is nothing new.
But the extent of the criticism
leveled at Cog Hill last week
seemed to reach a new level.
Phil Mickelson led the
charge. A noted critic of Rees
Jones, Mickelson all but took
the blow torch to the architect’s
redesign of Cog Hill, which was
completed in 2009.
“I know we all wish it had
turned out differently,” Mickel-
son said. “But there were a lot of
other guys to choose from that
The nation’s third-largest
market likely will be without
an annual PGA Tour event after
this year.
direction. Future BMW venues
could be in St. Louis, San Fran-
cisco and Minneapolis.
Jim Furyk was among the
players who voiced displeasure
over Chicago becoming a part-
time Tour stop.
“It’s disappointing,” he said.
“I can remember the Western
Opens that we played here over
the 4th of July and the holiday
weekends and the support and
the army of people following
(Tiger Woods) up the 18th hole.
It’s been a good city for the
Western Open, for the BMW, for
a lot of years.”
UNITED STATES TEAM
w Matt Kuchar
w Steve Stricker
w Dustin Johnson
w Webb Simpson
w Nick Watney
w Phil Mickelson
w Bubba Watson
w David Toms
w Hunter Mahan
w Jim Furyk
INTERNATIONAL TEAM
w Jason Day, AUS
w Adam Scott, AUS
w Charl Schwartzel, RSA
w K.J. Choi, KOR
w K. T. Kim, KOR
w Retief Goosen, RSA
w Geoff Ogilvy, AUS
w Ernie Els, RSA
w Y.E. Yang, KOR
w Ryo Ishikawa, JPN
The players weren’t thrilled
with tee times beginning at 7: 30
a.m. on Saturday. It had nothing
to do with the weather. Conditions
were ideal. Rather, the early start
was necessitated by TV.
Third-round play had to end
at 2: 30 p.m. so NBC could air
the Notre Dame-Michigan State
game.
