It is fine and dandy in today’s disposable culture for the folks with money to bastardize longtime traditions for their financial gain. He with the gold rules. I get it. But that oughtn’t allow you to instantly rewite history to stamp with your trademark events that preceded your financial interest.
There used to be a very old golf tournament called the Western Open. It had been held in and around the Chicago area since the early 20th century. All of the biggest names had competed in and won it. For the past couple of decades it was held at Cog Hill, a daily fee course open to the public SW of Chicago. It was held over the 4th of July weekend. Tiger won it 2 or 3 times, Steve Stricker won it once in '96.
Well, this year the PGA decided they wanted to go to a new “playoff” series of tournaments at the end of the season. As part of this effort, the Western got renamed the BMW Championship, and moved to September. Most significantly, it will only be held in Chicago every other year. In “off” years, it will alternate between St. Louis and Minneapolis.
So here’s what bugs me. During the television coverage of the inaugural BMW Championship this weekend, the announcers kept talking about “this event’s” history. They showed Steve Stricker winning in '96 above the caption “1996 BMW Championship.” And they talked about Tiger’s record of being a million or 2 under par in “this event.”
Get this straight, pinheads. There WAS NO fucking BMW Championship in 1996. And before this weekend, Tiger HAD NO record in the BMW Championship.
It’s enough to make you wanna shove a rusty niblick up Johnny Miller’s nether regions until he squeals, “This is the place!”
Using their reckoning, the BMW Championship goes back to 1899, the year the first Western Open was played, which is 14 years before the founding of BMW.
Saw in the paper this a.m., they gave Tiger the same cup that bore the names of the old Western winners. And I googled, and see the Western Golf Assoc is associated with the BMW.
But the traditional tourney was a far cry from this weekend’s 70-player no-cut event. Will be even more difficult to maintain the facade of continuity next year from St. Louis.
Actually it wasn’t regularly held in the Chicago area until 1962. Befofe that it had been held in California, New York, Utah, Arizona, Wisconisn, Minesota, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Oregon, Iowa and Pennsylvania in addition to Illinois.
I think it’d also be rewriting history to say that Tiger has no history in the event. Tiger has dominated Cog Hill in July, and that’s supposed to be irrelevant because the name of the tourney changed and we’re now in September?
I always thought it was odd that a golf tournament in Chicago was called the Western Open. (And of course it is even more silly that the event has taken place in Pennsylvania and New York.) What are we, in the 18th century all of a sudden?
Have you been able to locate info concerning where it was held in what years?
The WGA site doesn’t provides much info. I found a list of winners, but it doesn’t say where the tourney was held.
Yes, the location of the Western changed over its century plus history. And the rules of golf - as well as the tourney itself, changed over that time. But for the past 40+ years it was based in and around Chicago. It was a 72 hole tourney on the regular schedule, with a cut. Eligibility was essentially the same as most tourneys - tho at least in recent decades there was also the possibility of open qualifying a la the US Open.
The BMW is a season ending no cut “playoff”, open to only 70 players. So they’ve changed the eligibility, the time it is held, eligibility, and starting next year, the geographic location. So what remains the same to be considered the history of the current event?
Yes, Tiger has a record playing at Cog. But when the US Open is held at Pebble, no one talks in terms of a player’s experience in the Bing Crosby clambake. IMO different tournaments held at the same course.
I believe Cog has hosted US Amateurs as well. (Did Kuchar win there?) So if Kuchar did win the Amateur at Cog and was playing the BMW this weekend at Cog, would it be okay to say he had won the BMW tournament before?
Sports record-keepers face this dilemma all the time, and you’re rewriting history either way.
[ul]Do records established when the Rams played in Los Angeles count as franchise records for the St. Louis Rams?[/ul]
[ul]Do records established when the bowl game in Orlando was called the Tangerine Bowl or the Florida Citrus Bowl count as records for the Capital One Bowl?[/ul]
[ul]Do records established when the White Sox called their stadium Comiskey Park count as records for U.S. Cellular Field?[/ul]
[ul]Do college football records established in Division I-AA still count now that it has been renamed the Championship Division?[/ul]
Say “yes” to any of the above, and you’re rewriting history by saying something happened where it didn’t. Say “no”, and you’re rewriting history with an Orwellian removal of the past just because of a name change or (even more ephemeral) a corporate sponsorship change.
Each year in July, I hear endless amount about how well Tiger fares in British Opens. And with the exception of what – St Andrews and Carnoustie, Tiger hasn’t played the same course more than once during the Open?
And I can assure you that if Tiger ever played the Pro-Am, his 15 shot victory at Pebble during the US Open would be all that we hear, even if it was a different tournament. (Not to mention that Pebble during an Open would play a hell of a lot tougher than during the Pro Am!)
I don’t think answering “no” rewrites history. One entity ceased to exist and another came into being. Simple as that. Claiming the history is a marketing ploy – as is, in fact, most if not all of the revision. If the name, ie sponsorship, of a tournament or game or Bowl or whatever, is the only thing to change, then there is a reasonable claim to continuity. But wholesale changes make for a different event which can no longer be compared to the prior ones.
This idea will never carry, of course, as it would reduce the market value of these tournaments as products.
