BMW Championship Tickets

Details of BMW Championship and the Ticket Luck value

The BMW Championship, a professional golf tournament which will be played for the first time in 2007, is the third of four FedEx Cup playoff events on the PGA Tour schedule. The BMW Championship replaces the Western Open, a PGA Tour event which was played from 1899 to 2006. The Western Golf Association, which founded and ran the Western Open, will be involved with the running of the BMW Championship.

The BMW Championship, to be played September 6-9 2007, is open to the 70 FedEx Cup points leaders following the Deutsche Bank Championship, to be played August 31-September 3 2007. The Top 30 FedEx Cup points leaders following the BMW Championship advance to The Tour Championship, to be played September 13-16 2007, where the FedEx Cup Champion will be determined.

The BMW Championship itself will go on a rotation of courses in the Upper Midwest, including Cog Hill, Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, and Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota was offered the opportunity to be the third site alternating with Cog Hill, but the club's membership declined. The Western Open was first played in 1899. At the time of its last playing in 2006, the Western Open was the 3rd-oldest active tournament on the PGA Tour schedule after the British Open and U.S. Open. For many years, the Western was played in and out of the state of Illinois, before eventually settling down in the greater Chicago area itself. The Western has been contested since 1991 on the Dubsdread course, Cog Hill in Chicago, Illinois.

The Western Golf Association ran the Western Open throughout its entire history (1899-2006), and will have a hand in the running of the BMW Championship. This is probably the only real link between the Western Open and BMW Championship. These are, however, two entirely different events in terms of playing format and invitational criteria. The Western Open was like any other regular PGA Tour stop -- although it was once considered to be one of golf's majors. Its invitational criteria mirrored the PGA Tour Exemption Categories with one exception - the winner of the Western Amateur, another W.G.A. sponsored event, was invited to play in the Western Open. The BMW Championship will be part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and only the Top 70 FedEx Cup points leaders will be eligible to play.

This is the third time in the last six months that Howell has gone into the last round holding the lead, and the differing outcomes dramatically illustrate golf's unpredictability. In the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, Howell outscored playing partner Tiger Woods to win, yet in the TCL Classic, he posted a final-round 75 and finished seventh. But Jimenez, too, bore the brunt of the wet conditions, and in the circumstances his 65 was a titanic effort, especially as Howell's nearest overnight challenger, Nick Dougherty, fell away with a 74. Jimenez started the day seven shots behind Howell, but after posting his best-of-the-day round the deficit narrowed to just one before Howell's late birdies.

The next best-round-of-the-day, a 66, almost didn't happen. As the second round had to be completed by the remnants of the field early yesterday morning, Jean van de Velde awarded himself a lie- in. The Frenchman made a leisurely call to the course from his bed just after 9am, and was startled to learn he had less than an hour to make it to the first tee for the third round. But despite having to miss breakfast, the Frenchman shot a flawless 66 which, had it not been for the later exploits of the two leaders, would have put him well in contention. Van de Velde will reach his landmark 40th birthday and mercifully he has had something to celebrate in recent months. Victory in the Madeira Island Open three months ago blew new life into a career which was cut short by an endless succession of injuries to his right knee and he admitted he'd come close to retiring from competitive golf. It's very noisy and very painful, he said, but, listen, I am like a boxer and I carry on until I fall down on the ground.

Leaving the third green on Friday, Van de Velde was five over par for the tournament and almost certain to miss the cut. But he picked up five shots in the remaining 15 holes and continued the good work with six more birdies. None of the five Scots who survived the cut were challenged for the main prize, however. Best of the bunch was Andrew Coltart, who, bolstered by the fourth hole-in-one of his European Tour career at the 184-yard 10th, shot a 69 to be four-under-par for the championship.