Cog Hill (Course #4, Dubsdread)

Cog Hill Ready For BMW Championship

Cog Hill Golf and Country Club's Course No. 4, Dubsdread

Courtesy of GCSAA

The PGA Tour returns to Cog Hill Golf and Country Club's Course No. 4, Dubsdread, where GCSAA Golf Course Superintendent Ken Lapp welcomes fall weather and prime conditions for the third round of the 2010 FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship, Sept. 9-12, in Lemont, Ill.

"Due to the elevated heat and humidity this summer, preparing the famed Dubsdread course at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club for the FedExCup Playoffs has been especially demanding," said GCSAA member Paul Vermeulen, PGA Tour competitions agronomy director. "Nonetheless, Ken Lapp has all areas of the course well conditioned for the season-ending playoffs by drawing on his 50-plus years of experience maintaining high level facilities in the Chicago district."

Lapp, 74, is a 47-year member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). He has been a superintendent for 55 years, including the last 37 at Cog Hill, following an 18-year stint as superintendent at Fresh Meadows Golf Course in Hillside, Ill.

"We were fortunate to close two weeks prior to the tournament to heal from some of the stress caused by the weather this summer," said Lapp, who has hosted 19 PGA Tour events and four USGA championships at Cog Hill. "This was probably the worst summer we've had since '95. It was just unending heat and humidity. We'd get 3 inches of rain and then immediately it would be 95 degrees through the night again. Some of the greens are barely a year old and take longer to recover, as they are still maturing. But we're in great shape now and the forecast looks good for the week."

Lapp has the large, undulating bentgrass greens at the par-71, 7,386-yard Dubsdread rolling 10 1/2-11 feet on the Stimpmeter and the Kentucky bluegrass rough 3 inches tall. Cog Hill, which also hosted the BMW Championship in 2007 and 2009, hosted the event's predecessor, the Western Open, from 1991-2006. It also hosted the 1997 U.S. Amateur, the 1970 and 1989 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, the 1987 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship, and numerous USGA championship qualifiers.

Dubsdread is the fourth of four 18-hole courses at Cog Hill, which also added five holes adjacent to parts of courses No. 2 and 4 to play during construction and renovation projects. Dubsdread reopened the spring of 2009 after a $5.2-million renovation was completed, a project led by Rees Jones that began after Cog Hill hosted the 2007 BMW Championship. Changes included the reconstructing of all greens and tee complexes, reshaping of the fairways, a new risk-reward pond on No. 7, significant tree management, the repositioning and sculpting of all 98 bunkers, a new irrigation system, additional drainage, and SubAir aeration and moisture removal systems were installed on all 19 greens (including the practice green).