Some of the best golfers in the world will tee it up in Baltimore County in August 2021.
The BMW Championship, part of the PGA Tour’s end-of-year FedEx Cup playoff, is scheduled to come to Caves Valley Golf Club for the 2021 season from Aug. 17-22, according to multiple reports.
Since the first FedEx Cup playoff was held in 2007, the BMW Championship has served as the penultimate event to narrow the field from 70 golfers to 30.
Players accrue points during professional golf’s “regular season” to qualify for the 130 slots in the playoff, culminating in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The golfer with the most points at the end gets the cup and $15 million.
During its 13-year existence, the BMW Championship has primarily been played at courses around the Chicago area, traveling a handful of times to sites in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri. This year’s tournament is scheduled to be played at Olympia Fields, south of Chicago.
Prior to 2007, the tournament was known as the Western Open, a competition with roots going back to the early 20th century. Since the 1960s, the Western Open was also held primarily at Chicago-area courses, including a 15-year run at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois up until 2006.
The Chicago Tribune first reported the BMW Championship would be coming to the private club in Owings Mills. The tournament is run by the Western Golf Association, with proceeds going toward the organization’s Evans Scholars Foundation providing college scholarships to golf caddies.
While the Baltimore region has hosted a number of professional golf tournaments over the last two decades, it has not had a PGA Tour since the Eastern Open Invitational at Mount Pleasant Municipal Golf Club in 1962, per The Sun.
Caves Valley, designed by Tom Fazio, was the venue for the 2002 U.S. Senior Open and 2017 Constellation Senior Players Championship.
The East Course at Baltimore Country Club in Lutherville-Timonium also held major championship golf for the PGA Tour Champions, serving as the site for the Senior Players Championship from 2007 to 2009.
The Constellation Energy Classic was held at multiple courses in the area from 1998 to 2006.
In women’s golf, Caves Valley hosted the LPGA’s International Crown, a biennial match play tournament among eight national teams of four women golfers, in 2014.
The LPGA Championship came to Havre de Grace’s Bulle Rock Golf Course for five years, from 2005 to 2009.
More details about the BMW Championship are expected at a formal announcement on Thursday.
