George Solich figures there are two ways to approach his job as general chairman for the 2014 BMW Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club.
“You can be a figurehead and let everyone else do all the work, or you can dive in — and I’ve dived in and it’s been really fun,” Solich said recently.
Putting on a PGA Tour event is no small matter. Conducting the first one to be held in Colorado in eight years adds to the magnitude. And the fact that it’s a FedEx Cup playoff event — with only the top 70 players in the world competing — ratchets it up another notch.
With the 2013 BMW Championship taking place this week at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, Ill., it will be a year from this month that Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and the like will put Cherry Hills to the test. In fact, it’s less than a year as tournament week is Sept. 1-7.
Tournament organizers have been gearing up for a long time, but this week is another big step as Solich and roughly 10 executive committee members and six Cherry Hills staffers are spending a couple of days at the 2013 BMW Championship. It’ll be a valuable live-action lesson for many in the group.
“You can always learn something,” Solich said. “We’ve paired (the 2014 organizers with their 2013 counterparts) and we’re actually spending the day with them. You just get to see it visually. And for any executive committee member who hasn’t seen it, it’s an impressive look. We hope to learn as much as we can in two days.”
This week marks the third BMW Championship Solich personally has attended. As a Western Golf Association director, he’s very familiar with the association that conducts the tournament. Solich is also an alumnus of the Evans Caddie Scholarship program, the BMW Championship’s beneficiary. (Solich, in red, is pictured above on the Golf Channel set at Conway Farms with fellow Coloradan and Evans Scholar alum Bob Webster, a WGA governor.)
As one of the biggest golf events the state has hosted since its last men’s major — the 1985 PGA Championship at Cherry Hills — the BMW Championship has already created quite a buzz in Colorado.
Solich reports that in just the two days of the priority ticket sale that took place last month, the tournament sold $600,000 in tickets. “We set every record ever for a BMW Championship,” he noted. “We’re starting to see a really high demand, which we’re really excited about.”
And with 2,650 volunteers needed for the tournament, more than 2,400 people have already registered. “We’re a year out, so I think that says a tremendous amount considering it costs $145 to become a registered volunteer. We think that’s a terrific number,” Solich said.
In addition, the 2014 BMW Championship’s hospitality offerings are about 60 percent sold.
In short, making next year’s tournament at Cherry Hills a big success is a major priority for Solich and the event’s other organizers.
Three members of the WGA-hired Bruno event team who are working on the 2014 BMW Championship have been based out of Solich’s Energy IV business offices for the last year. And some of the Energy IV staff and interns have been devoting significant time to the tournament as well.
“There are a lot of balls in the air, but it’s been fun,” Solich said.
Note: For those wishing to financially support the Evans Scholarship program, the WGA has launched a “Text to Donate” campaign. Those wanting to contribute can text CADDIE to 50555 to donate $10 to the Evans Scholars Foundation.
(Pictured below is part of the Colorado contingent that traveled to this week’s BMW Championship. Back row, from left: Brittany Brownrigg, Dan Quinn, Dave Lee, Rob Link, Todd Gervasini and Bob Webster. Front row, from left: CGA executive director Ed Mate, Christie Austin, George Solich and Bill Bergner.)
