The BMW Championship was played at Chicago courses seven times since it replaced the Western Open on the PGA Tour schedule in 2007. Olympia Fields was the last Chicago site, in 2023, and this year’s tourney tees off on Thursday at Bellerive, in St. Louis.
What happens at Bellerive, though, will have a big impact on who plays in the Presidents Cup, the Sept. 24-27 climax to local season at Medinah.
Brandt Snedeker, the captain of the U.S. team in the Presidents Cup, will learn the six automatic qualifiers for his 12-man after the last putt in the BMW drops on Sunday. The top six on the current point standings are Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Ben Griffin and Colin Morakawa.
Scheffler and Young appear safe regardless of what happens at Bellerive, but there’s potential for major movement for the other four automatic spots. U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark; Chris Gotterup, the champion of Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop – the John Deere Classic; and Xander Schauffele are ranked seventh, eighth and ninth and could claim an automatic berth with a good showing at the BMW.
Snedeker could make his six captain’s picks to fill out the roster after the Tour Championship in Atlanta concludes the FedEx Cup Playoffs on Aug. 30.
The International team, captained by Australian Geoff Ogilvy, will determine its six automatic picks off the Official World Golf Rankings at the conclusion of the Tour Championship. Then Ogilvy will make his six captain’s picks. Ogilvy’s architectural firm made a major redesign of Medinah’s No. 3 course in preparation for the Presidents Cup.
ILLINOIS PGA: Brian Carroll of The Hawk in St. Charles is defending champion in the 36-hole IPGA Section Championship beginning Monday (AUGUST 24) at Elgin Country Club. Carroll won last year at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club and has taken the title three of the last four years.
He’ll be hard-pressed to match Charle Nikitas’ dazzling performance in last week’s Illinois Open at Wynstone, in Barrington, however. The Illinois Open is the biggest event on the IPGA calendar.
Nikitas ignored inclement weather to set tourney records for 36 and 54 holes. He shot 63s in the first two rounds then polished off a four-stroke victory with a 20-under-par performance for his three rounds to become the 77-year old tourney’s 12th player to win the tourney twice. He also won in 2024.
U.S. AMATEUR: Max Herendeen, a University of Illinois alum, was the only Illinois-connected player to reach the match play portion of last week’s U.S. Amateur at Merion, in Philadelphia, and he was dazzling for a while.
Herendeen needed only 25 holes to win his matches in the Round of 64 and the Round of 32. Then he ran into Adam Bresnu, of Morocco. Bresnu, who is headed for his senior year at Texas Tech, deprived Herendeen a spot in the quarterfinals with a 5 and 4 victory in the Round of 16.
Bresnu was eliminated in the next round 5 and 4 by eventual champion Jack Whaley of England, and Whaley won the title by beating Western Amateur titlist Jay Leng Jr. of San Diego, Calif., 4 and 3.
HERE AND THERE: The Illinois Super Senior Open concludes its two-day run Wednesday at Pine Meadow, in Mundelein.
The Presidents Cup continues to make charitable impacts, this time to Chicago sports team charities. Bears Care, the Chicago Bulls Charities and the Chicago White Sox Charities all received $25,000 donations.
The Chicago District Golf Association’s Player of the Year will now receive the Joel Hirsch Award, a plaque named in honor of the winner of two British Senior Amateur titles, two Illinois State Amateurs, two CDGA Amateurs and three CDGA Senior Player of the Year awards. In previous years the recipient’s name would be engraved on the Charles N. Eckstein Trophy which is housed at the CDGA headquarters.
The Orchard Valley course, in Aurora, will reopen on Sept. 5 but its Orchard Valley Social — a reimagined restaurant, bar and patio – opened last Friday.
Glen Ellyn’s Grant Roscich is the most recent winner of the Sunnehanna Amateur, a prestigious Pennsylvania event on the amateur circuit.