The BMW Championship is the traditional third leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs that’s almost always played in the Chicagoland area. It took the place of the old Western Open, once considered one of the biggest tournaments on Tour. But instead of making the annual trip to Cog Hill or another Chicago course, this year the BMW went west to Denver and historic Cherry Hils Country Club.
Rory McIlroy hits golf ball off driving range and onto road in Colorado altitude
A 370-yard 3-wood and driver off the range by Rory McIlroy on Wednesday are probably a sign that this week’s BMW Championship in Denver, where the Tour rarely stops anymore, might be one of the more fun tournaments of the season.
Doug Pensinger
It’s been awhile since the Tour made a stop in Colorado (the old event at Castle Pines has been extinct for several years), and many of these pros had expressed how excited they were to see how far the ball was going to fly at altitude. And probably no one was more excited than Rory McIlroy, the longest and best driver of the golf ball in the world, and by a considerable margin.
No club was more responsible for McIlroy’s back-to-back majors this summer than the driver. He led the field in distance at The Open, and was right there again near the top at Valhalla. At just 5’9”, he’s destroying the ball and putting it right down the middle. His average at The Open was just shy of 330 yards.
So you can imagine he’s going to be testing how far he can bomb it at Cherry Hills with all the modern equipment. During Wednesday’s practice round, we got a glimpse. McIlroy was working with his driver on the range and quickly learned that a 90-foot net at the end of practice area wasn’t enough to contain his high-arcing bombs (video via Dave Althouse of KDVR/KWGN TV in Denver).
The reaction was the EXACT move that us weekend hackers make when we send a driver wild off the course and towards a row of homes. There’s that shoulder clench, the turning your eyes away but opening your ear to the potential collision of your golf ball with a house or car.
Reports indicate that the ball landed on the road without causing any major damage.
The tee area was up about 30 yards on the 298-yard range, according to Golf Digest's Alex Myers. But still clearing that 90-foot net at that carry is pretty absurd and obviously wasn't contemplated by the Tour and tournament organizers. As for his drives out on the course, his playing partner on Wednesday, Erik Compton, relayed that Rory hit a couple 400-yard drives. Myers also noted that McIlroy hit a 3-wood 370 yards during the practice round.
McIlroy is playing a lot of golf this month, and he had considered passing on the BMW Championship to avoid turning around on a short week and flying from the Monday finish in Boston out to Denver. But he stated that the appeal of ripping drives in the altitude played a factor in his committing to the third leg of the postseason, as well as going to Sunday night’s Broncos game as a guest of Peyton Manning on the sideline.
Unfortunately, we may not see the driver from Rory a ton this week. Cherry Hills hasn’t held a Tour event in a long time because it’s a more classic layout with not a lot of room for expansion of the property or lengthening of the course. That means it will play shorter, and to a par-70 with tighter fairways and pretty high, thick rough. That probably means Rory won’t need or want to hit driver on a lot of holes. But if the 3-wood is going 370 yards, it’s still going to be incredible to watch.
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