The BMW Championship earned the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year honor in both 2012 and ’13, and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if Cherry Hills Country Club made it a trifecta this year.
Total attendance figures for the week weren’t finalized as of Sunday afternoon, but tournament general chairman George Solich expects numbers to be in the 125,000 neighborhood for the six days the site was open to fans.
“I know (Saturday) we had 30,000 people here and today was more,” he said. “My sense is we’ll be close to 125,000 for the week. It was a great, great attendance. All around the golf course, there was a sea of people wherever you went — which is why this is an incredibly great golf course to host this. There are so many great places to watch golf on the course.”
If the attendance exceeds 125,000, the BMW Championship will be at least the fourth big golf tournament Colorado has hosted in the last decade to draw more than that figure for a week. The 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills lured more than 131,000 people, the 2011 Women’s Open at the Broadmoor more than 130,000, and the 2008 U.S. Senior Open at the Broadmoor had attendance of almost 129,000. And though the total at the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club was announced at 110,000, club officials say that because ticket scanners were down for an extended period, the actual number of people on hand was far greater.
In the first PGA Tour event held in Colorado since 2006 — and at Cherry Hills since 1985 — the players were impressed by the turnout all week.
“It’s been a pleasure to play in front of so many people,” said Rory McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked golfer.
“There were thousands and thousands of people out here this weekend,” added champion Billy Horschel (left, with Solich). “I hope the PGA Tour realizes what kind of fan base and what support they have in Colorado.”
Among those in attendance on Sunday was Gov. John Hickenlooper.
“I know he was absolutely thrilled,” Solich said.
Ever since Cherry Hills was awarded the 2014 BMW Championship, Solich has had a goal of making the most of the opportunity. Besides organizing a tournament that the fans and players appreciate, he wanted to raise as much money as possible for the Evans Scholars Foundation, the sole beneficiary of the BMW Championship. Since 1930, full tuition and housing Evans Scholarships have been awarded to qualified caddies who demonstrate significant financial need.
As Solich himself was an Evans Scholar at the University of Colorado (class of 1983), he appreciates what a difference the money raised at the BMW Championship can make. From 2007 through ’13, the tournament has raised more than $16 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation.
The figure for this year’s tournament isn’t yet finalized, but Solich hopes it will be the best ever for the BMW Championship.
“We haven’t added up all the marbles, but we broke every record in hospitality sales, and we broke every record for revenue from ticket sales,” he said. “We have every chance to be — knock on wood — the No. 1 BMW Championship in history in terms of revenue generated to the Evans Scholars Foundation — which was one of our goals.”
After taking part in the trophy ceremony on the 18th green Sunday, Solich reflected on the tournament to which he’s devoted so much of his time over the last three years.
“Throughout the entire week, all we heard was how good the golf course was, how great the service was, how well organized we were, and how great it was to be back in Colorado,” Solich said. “Whether it was fans or players or caddies or media, we really heard all the same echoes. Clearly, all the hard work paid off and there were lots and lots of people who came together to pull this great team effort together.
“It’s terrific to see it come to fruition after three years of work. It’s a little surreal. It goes by very fast once you’re in it. Obviously I think we proved this is a great venue for golf. That’s why we’ve been out here for so many years with so many great championships.”
Golf Channel analyst Steve Sands noted Sunday the behind-the-scenes efforts of Solich and the organizational team in making the championship come off relatively seamlessly.
“You have no idea the tireless work done by George and his staff,” Sands told fans and officials assembled for the post-championship ceremony.
The weather for the week was largely cooperative, with just a brief lightning-related delay Thursday evening that kept nine players from completing round 1 that day.
The rain did lead to some major on-the-fly changes of parking lots, but the backup plans seemed to work well, given the circumstances.
Some players nitpicked about specific holes on the course — the 526-yard par-4 fifth, which through three rounds was playing as the toughest hole on the PGA Tour this season, was mentioned more than once — but that happens at every venue.
A new competitive course record was established — an 8-under-par 62 by Morgan Hoffmann on Saturday — but Cherry Hills held up well to the best players in the world.
Meanwhile, NBC essayist Jimmy Roberts did a nice feature that ran nationally on the weekend. The story gave viewers a local angle on the Evans Scholarship. Included were segments on Solich, on current CU Evans Scholar Melyzjah Smith, and on the caddie program in which Smith worked, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at CommonGround Golf Course. CommonGround is owned and operated the CGA and CWGA. The Academy is named for Solich and his older brother, Geoff, who’s also a CU Evans Scholar alum.
Looking to the future, Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway, a member at Cherry Hills, noted earlier this summer that the club would be interested in hosting the BMW Championship again down the road.
“It’s in (Cherry Hills’) charter; we’re always trying to bring tremendous tournaments here,” Elway said in July. “We’d love to get into the rotation — I’ll throw that out here — for the BMW at some point. That’s part of the heritage and tradition of this club — to be able to bring top-notch (events) — whether they be majors or the BMW/FedExCup-type tournaments.”
Solich reiterated that thought late Sunday afternoon.
“We really want to be in the conversation (to host such tournaments), and I think it’s absolutely clear we’re now in the conversation,” he said. “That’s all you can hope for. We don’t have a contract. There’s no guarantee to come back, but certainly we’re in the conversation.”
Ogden Right on the Mark: From the department of “give credit where credit is due”, it’s worth noting that Cherry Hills head professional John Ogden predicted in the weeks leading up to the BMW Championship that the winning score would be 264 to 268.
Billy Horschel won with a 266 total.
Stadler’s Season Comes to End: Kevin Stadler wore a big Denver Broncos logo on his shirt Sunday, but that mojo wasn’t enough to extend his best PGA Tour season. The part-time Denver resident failed to conclude the BMW Championship in the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, meaning he won’t advance to next week’s Tour Championship.
Stadler finished 50th at Cherry Hills Country Club, shooting 74-69-70-71 for a 4-over-par 284 total. That left him 38th in FedExCup points.
“It was obviously a goal (to advance),” said Stadler, winner of the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February. “It was a frustrating week overall. I felt like I played really well and my scoring was just horrendous. I feel like I struck the ball well enough to contend and to win and I finished almost dead last. It was frustrating around the greens and my scoring was really non-existent this week.”
For the record, Gary Woodland earned the last spot in the Tour Championship (29th since No. 30 Dustin Johnson is taking a leave of absence from the Tour.)
Dreaded 12th Strikes Again for McIlroy: Suffice it to say the green at the par-3 12th hole won’t go down as one of Rory McIlroy’s favorites.
He’s four-putted a total of seven times in his PGA Tour career, and two of them have come at No. 12 at Cherry Hills. After four-putting from 4 feet for a triple bogey there Saturday, he inexplicably four-jiggled again Sunday, this time from 19 feet for double bogey.
On the weekend, he played the 204-yard hole in 5 over par, needing eight putts in two days.
“Two four-putts on the same green? It’s not my worst,” McIlroy noted. “I have five-putted before. But it’s one of those things that at least I can laugh about it and move on.”
McIlroy admits he thought about what happened at 12 on Saturday while over his second putt Sunday.
“I said to myself, ‘Let’s not give any more shots away to this hole,'” he said. “So I maybe put a little bit too much pressure on myself to hole that second putt. On the third putt, I’m thinking, ‘OK, you don’t want to four-putt again’, and I actually held a decent length putt for a four-putt.
“It sort of shows everyone out there that we do the same things as they do every weekend.”
Lucky No. 7 for Sergio: Sergio Garcia took quite a liking to the dogleg-left 395-yard seventh hole at Cherry Hills this week. On Sunday, for the second time this week, the Spaniard holed out for eagle, this time from 35 yards. On Friday, his eagle on that hole came from 126 yards. In case you’re wondering, Garcia played the hole in birdie and bogey on the other two days, making him 4 under on No. 7 for the week.
Rory McIlroy also made a deuce on the par-4 seventh Sunday, holing out from 56 yards.
Garcia shot a 5-under-par 29 and McIlroy a 30 on the front nine.
Notable: Henrik Stenson won’t be around to defend his FedExCup Playoffs title next week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Stenson finished 23rd at the BMW Championship and ended up 52nd in the FedExCup standings (CLICK HERE). … Billy Horschel, 27, became the 16th different player under 30 to win on the PGA Tour in the 2013-14 wraparound season. Those 16 players have accounted for 21 victories. … Horschel’s wife, Brittany, is scheduled to give birth to their first child on Sept. 27. … In case you were wondering: Horschel sprinted up the 18th fairway after hitting his second shot Sunday because nature called.
