Media Resources

BMW Championship to return to Conway Farms in 2015

May 148, 2014
Golf, Ill. – (Wednesday, May 28, 2014) – Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois will once again host the 2015 BMW Championship following a successful tournament at the club in 2013. The 2013 BMW Championship raised more than $2.3 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation and earned the PGA TOUR’s “Tournament of the Year” Award for the second consecutive year.

“The overwhelming support we received from Chicagoland golf fans, the professionalism of the staff at Conway Farms and the hospitality of its members made the decision to return to Conway Farms an easy one,” said Vince Pellegrino, the Western Golf Association’s senior vice president of tournaments. “We received some great feedback from the 2013 BMW Championship, which will help us make the 2015 BMW Championship even better when we return to Chicago’s North Shore.”

The 2013 BMW Championship, won by Zach Johnson, was one of the top attended PGA TOUR tournaments of the year, attracting more than 130,000 spectators. Close behind Johnson, finishing in a tie for fourth, was Conway Farms member Luke Donald, who is already anticipating a return to his home course.

“As a member, I’m proud to know that Conway Farms will again be hosting the BMW Championship,” said Donald. “And as a PGA TOUR player, I’m excited to have another opportunity to compete on my home course against the world’s best players. Having the hometown crowds cheering me on in 2013 provided a real boost for me and made for an exciting, memorable week. I’m looking forward to welcoming my fellow pros back in 2015.”

Benchmarks achieved by the BMW Championship in 2013 – in the areas of charitable growth and integration, attendance, hospitality sponsor satisfaction, host club and community support, title sponsor integration, player satisfaction and fan enjoyment – were all significant factors in the event being named “Tournament of the Year” for the second consecutive year, TOUR officials said. The 2012 BMW Championship, held at Crooked Stick Country Club in Carmel, Indiana, garnered similar honors.

“We are delighted to bring the BMW Championship back to Conway Farms and work alongside the club and its membership to make 2015 an even more successful event,” said Trudy Hardy, Vice President, Marketing, BMW of North America. “The local Chicago community was extremely supportive of the BMW Championship and the Evans Scholars Foundation and we hope to build on that support for the Evans Scholars in 2015.”

The 2013 BMW Championship was the WGA’s first professional tournament staged at a Chicago North Shore club since 1972 when Northfield’s Sunset Ridge Country Club hosted what was then known as the Western Open.
“We’re very excited to have an opportunity to once again host the BMW Championship in 2015,” said Bruce Keith, Conway Farms president. “We’re looking forward to another week of hosting the best golfers in the world at Conway Farms Golf Club and continuing our partnership with the Western Golf Association in support of the Evans Scholars Foundation.”

Conway Farms has been an avid partner with the WGA and was the first in a series of Chicago-area clubs selected to host the Western Amateur when the WGA moved the event in 2009 from its long-time home, Point O’Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich. Conway Farms also sponsored four Evans Scholars in the 2013-14 academic year and has 15 Evans Scholars Alumni.

In addition to earning industry accolades, the $2.3 million raised for the Evans Scholars Foundation in 2013 at Conway Farms brought the total raised through the BMW Championship to more than $16 million since the tournament’s inception in 2007. The Evans Scholars Foundation is the WGA’s 84-year-old sister organization which has been sending caddies-to-college since 1930.

Today’s news was warmly received by officials in Lake Forest and surrounding Lake County, where the 2013 tournament had an estimated economic impact of $30 million.

“We are thrilled to again host this spectacular and exciting event and are honored to have the BMW Championship return,” said Lake Forest Mayor Donald P. Schoenheider. “We look forward to working closely with our partners at the PGA TOUR, the Western Golf Association, BMW, and the Evans Scholars Foundation as well as the staff and members of Conway Farms Golf Club to stage another successful BMW Championship.”

The 2014 BMW Championship is set for Sept. 1-7 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. The 2015 BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club will be held Sept. 14-20.

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 339 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 119 MINI passenger car dealers, and 35 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists online at www.bmwusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com.

About Western Golf Association

Founded in 1899, the Western Golf Association conducts championships for professional and amateur golfers, promotes the use of caddies, and oversees the Evans Scholars Foundation, which awards college scholarships to caddies with limited financial means.

The WGA conducts two amateur championships, the Western Junior and the Western Amateur, and the BMW Championship, the third of four PGA TOUR Playoff events in the TOUR's FedExCup competition. The WGA also conducts the Hotel Fitness Championship on the Web.com Tour. For more information visit www.wgaesf.org.
Evans Scholars Foundation

The WGA champions education through golf by sponsoring the Evans Scholars Program, the sole charitable beneficiary of the BMW Championship. Established by famed amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans, Jr., the program provides full housing and tuition scholarships to deserving caddies across the country. Currently, 840 caddies are attending college on Evans Scholarships and there are over 9,800 Evans Alumni. The WGA’s Board of Governors has set a goal of having 1,000 Evans Scholars enrolled in college annually by 2020. The Evans Program is funded by contributions from more than 26,000 donors across the country, including many Evans Alumni, and by proceeds from the BMW Championship.

Conway Farms Golf Club

Conway Farms Golf Club opened for play on August 3, 1991. The Tom Fazio award-winning course sits on 209 acres in Lake Forest, Illinois, and is designed around the traditions of Scottish links golf. The origins of Conway Farms Golf Club trace back to three Lake Forest families whose love for golf was exceeded only by their foresight. Their vision for a first rate golf club began with the purchase in 1956 of a farm straddling a stretch of old Conway Road, thus giving rise to the name Conway Farms. The club is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the game, encouraging walking, fast play and the strong support of Championship golf.

< Back to Previous Page