Reflections of the BMW Championship - One Year Later
Why the beginning of Tigers remarkable collapse can be traced back to the 2009 BMW Championship
Few things excite me more than when the PGA rolls through my hometown for the third leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs at Cog Hill Golf and County Club in Lemont, Ill. I was fortunate enough to be there in-person a year ago as a sports columnist for the Bugle News and watching it on T.V. now conjures up memories about the amazing sites and sounds of last year’s BMW Championship; particularly in regards to one embattled golfer, Tiger Woods.
Woods strode confidently into the 2009 BMW Championship on the heels of wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial, AT&T National, Buick Open and the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. However, Woods was not on the top of the FedEx Cup standings. His friend, Steve Stricker, stole the top spot just days earlier with his victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Woods had his eyes set on reclaiming the top spot and was the heavy favorite going into the opening round - he had already won at Cog Hill four times in his career. But 2009 was supposed to be different. Cog Hill Number Four – Dubsdread – had just undergone a massive overhaul that took famed golf course architect Rees Jones two years and $5.2 million to complete. Frank Jemsek, owner of Cog Hill Golf and Country Club, promised that the new Dubs would be bigger, badder and burlier than ever before.
Woods posted solid scores of -3 (68) during Thursday’s opening round and -4 (67) on Friday, September 11 giving him a share of the lead with local favorite Mark Wilson and earning him a spot in the final pairing for Saturday’s third round. What happened next was nothing short of magnificent.
Woods opened up his third round with a bogey on the opening hole. He then posted birdies on 10 out of the next 17 en route to a round of -9 (62) and a new course record. This unbelievable achievement was only mildly overshadowed by another major Chicago sports story; the induction of Michael Jeffrey Jordan into basketball’s Hall of Fame.
I remember sitting in the media tent on Saturday afternoon listening to Tiger Woods interact with the other reporters. One of them, whose name and affiliation escapes me, asked Tiger if he had spoken to Jordan in light of both of their incredible achievements.
Tiger responded that he hadn’t yet and then continued to comment about their friendship, concluding with; “the two of us are good friends. In fact, I’ve always looked up to him like an older brother.”
The sound of those words stung my eardrums and made me wince in pain.
I am a native of Chicago and have not only been a life-long Bulls fan, but also a die-hard fanatic of Michael Jordan. Well, more accurately, Michael Jordan the professional basketball player. As a childhood fan, there was no one I wanted to emulate more on the basketball floor. Yet, as high as I, my friends and the rest of the world regard Jordan for his achievements in the NBA, I was always skeptical about Michael Jordan…the man.
Even as a child I remember hearing rumors that labeled Jordan as arrogant, tedious, childish and cruel; or worse, a womanizer and a cheat.
After commenting publicly that Woods considered Michael Jordan to be like an older brother, I knew that an eventual downfall was almost a certainty. I did not expect Woods to prove me right just two months after his last professional win.