BMW Championship Could Be Making Last Stop At Cog Hill
LEMONT, Ill. (CBS) -- The PGA Tour is making a stop at Cog Hill for the third leg of the four event FedEx Cup.
For the first time, five-time champ Tiger Woods won't be in the field of the BMW Championship. And, as CBS 2's Megan Mawicke reports, that isn't good news for a tournament that might be making its final appearance in Chicago.
Chicago has been a major golf city for decades, but they will be folding up the tents at Cog Hill come Sunday with no regular tour stop planned in the area in the the immediate future.
And, that doesn't sit well with some golfers from the Midwest, like Wisconsin native Jerry Kelly.
"If we lose a spot in Chicago, I will work my butt off to make sure there is a traveling tournament between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin," Kelly said. "That's a huge thing for me, golf in the Midwest. Absolutely no way that Chicago can be without a golf tournament any year. Chicago deserves and needs it. I want it."
"It would be sad to see if this goes away. Since I've been on tour, there has been a stop here, sad to see it go," says PGA Golfer and University of Illinois alum Steve Stricker.
The BMW championship is now rotating sites giving smaller markets a chance to host events, but a location has not been chosen for 2013 or 2015 so Chicago still has a chance to land a tournament again.
"2013 and beyond, we honestly don't know yet. We would like to remain a part of the Chicago fabric and continue to bring the event to Chicago so were going to kind of take a wait and see approach after this year and analyze the tournament and see where we want to go," says Western Golf Association President John Kaczkowski.
"I don't know what the future holds, but I am sure we will be back in Chicago. The WGA wants to jump around a bit because they have members everywhere and they should to spread out some charitable dollars and that's the way it should be," says PGA golfer Zach Johnson.
At least next year Chicago golf fans will get a temporary reprieve with the Ryder Cup here at Medinah. But after that, it might be a bit shocking because you often don't miss things until they are gone.
Let's hope the outspoken Jerry Kelly succeeds with his personal mission to make sure a regular PGA stop comes back to Chicago.
