Since the Chicago area last hosted a PGA Tour event, NASCAR has been here more than the pro-golf circuit.
Think about that.
Nothing against stock-car racing, but it doesn’t have the connection here that golf does. Golf courses and driving ranges in the metropolitan area total in the hundreds. Good luck getting a last-minute tee time or bay on a beautiful day. It feels like everyone is playing golf around here.
Except the PGA.
Yes, it’s here this week at Medinah Country Club for the Presidents Cup — a team event pitting American players against internationals in a knock-off of the Ryder Cup — but it’s the first PGA event in the area since the 2023 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields.
We had the Western Open for much of its 100-plus-year history, which predated the PGA. In 2007, that became the BMW Championship and joined the FedEx Cup playoffs. It rotated among several courses, mostly in our area.
But in the last six years, that 2023 event has been the only one here.
“It seems like a no-brainer that we should be here more often than we are,” U.S. Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker said Tuesday at Medinah. “That’s something the new Tour staff is looking heavily at. I know Brian and his team have done a great job of trying to rethink how we do things and trying to have great places like this on the map for us.”
Brian is Brian Rolapp, the new PGA Tour CEO. He came from the NFL, where he spent 22 years, most recently as the league’s chief media and business officer. Before The Players Championship in March, Rolapp said he’s looking to host events in the country’s largest media markets that aren’t on the PGA’s schedule, and he included Chicago.
“Very golf-savvy town,” International captain Geoff Ogilvy said. “There’s a big section of the Tour that would love to come back to Chicago every year. Chicago deserves a golf tournament. It’s got great golf courses and great fans.”
Indeed, but these days, hosting a tournament is an enormous undertaking for those courses. A walk around Medinah Course No. 3 showed the results of construction practically everywhere. The first tee has stadium seating for 5,000, and suites are scattered across the course.
“We started building in April; we finished building three days ago,” said Joie Chitwood, Presidents Cup executive director. “That’s six months of building out on this course. We’ll be open for six days, and it’s three months to tear it down. So nine months of us working on the course and doing these things as members are enjoying their club.”
Granted, this is a Ryder Cup-level event. But even an event such as the BMW Championship can be enough of an inconvenience without enough of a benefit that club members pass on hosting. Conway Farms, which hosted the BMW in 2013, ’15 and ’17, didn’t get the bang for its buck, and membership has discussed whether it wants the event back.
That’s why the PGA Tour owns 30 properties across the country. TPC (Tournament Players Club) courses are run by the PGA, and though most are private, the circuit can do with them as they please. Illinois doesn’t have a TPC course.
“It is very challenging for a membership in a club to say, ‘We want to do this every year,’ because with winter, you’re basically under construction every day the course is open,” Chitwood said. “There’s a balancing act of how we can be in this market, but also at the right venues. I think that’s the real key element.
“I would tell you, I’m so pleased with our results. And we are sharing those with our executive leadership, as we all identify that Chicago’s a fantastic market. It’s just hosting a PGA tournament is not easy for any community.”
Sponsorships play an integral role, too. BWM, for example, wants its event to be in an area that fits its brand. Title sponsorships for a standard annual event can cost roughly $15 million, and a top-tier event can be double that. Would a Chicago company want to help bring an event here?
We know this much: The players would love it.
“It would be really nice to get another tournament here,” said Scottie Scheffler, U.S. team member and the Tour money leader this year at more than $30 million. “With the size of the city and the amount of really good golf courses, that would be something that I think the Tour would be able to accomplish. I’m hoping for that in the future.”
“There’s so many great golf courses,” said teammate Corey Connors. “When Chicago is on the schedule, I’m looking forward to coming here and playing. Certainly this week is no different, but it’s a great sports city, and it’s a city I think that the PGA Tour should be at every year.”
The Tour is working it.
“It’s not like we don’t want to be here,” Chitwood said. “It’s just the fact that it’s a challenge and a market with a limited window to build and operate where you’re not so disruptive.”
