Special Places - Cog Hill GC

The FedEx Cup playoffs heat up as week three sees the top 70 move on to Cog Hill for the BMW Championship where Tiger Woods is the defending champion after winning his 71st PGA Tour event here last year. Several big names are missing from this week’s field after the luck of the draw became pivotal as severe weather conditions swept in from the fringes of hurricane Earl at last week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.

Cog Hill Golf and Country Club is a complex of four golf courses located in Lemont, Illinois, about 50kms southwest of Chicago. The club was established by the three Coghill brothers, and its first golf course opened for play in 1927. Three more courses were added over time, culminating with the Dubsdread in 1964. Since 1991 the Dudsdread has hosted the BMW Championship – known as the Western Open from its inception in 1899 until 2006 – the oldest tournament on the PGA Tour after the Open Championship (1860) and the US Open (1895).

Dubsdread was designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee, and noted golf architect Rees Jones completed a yearlong renovation project in September 2008, restoring and updating many of the original challenges. The course is a par 71, playing 6700 metres, and is rated in the top 50 US public courses. This parkland layout features tight landing areas on tree-lined bentgrass fairways and large well-bunkered undulating bentgrass greens, with water in the form of ponds and creeks coming into play on six holes.

Cog Hill has been the scene of many thrills such as last year when Tiger Woods posted a course record 62 on the way to an eight shot victory. Players will usually make their score in the eight-hole stretch from the 8th to the 15th, where there are two short par 4’s and the three par 5’s. However, with water in play on the last three holes there can be no let-up in concentration, especially for the 18th, which is a great finishing hole. This 440m par 4 is the most difficult hole on the course, and both its fairway and green slope towards the pond that will claim many victims as the top 30 survivors march on to the Tour Championship next week.