Let's hope Dubsdread lives up to its name
You can cheer for Tiger Woods - or any other player - and I'll cheer for Dubsdread.
Golf doesn't have home teams so the next best thing is to cheer for the hometown course in this week's BMW Championship.
PGA Tour players will be competing for the first time on the rebuilt Cog Hill No. 4 known as Dubsdread.
The world's best golfers had their way with the Lemont layout two years ago, when Woods won the BMW at 22 under par.
That would be like the Cardinals coming to Wrigley Field and sweeping the Cubs by an average score of 22-0.
Chicago's most prominent public golf course - a PGA Tour stop for nearly two decades - shouldn't be treated like that.
Dubs being battered like that is a false representation of our local public courses, just as a low winning score is a false representation of Medinah and Olympia Fields in majors held there.
Cog Hill would like to host a major, which is why owner Frank Jemsek spent more than $5 million to give Dubsdread a makeover. Something had to be done so the place could keep up with modern players and 21st Century equipment.
This week Dubs will be tested essentially for the first time, not under major conditions but by nearly as formidable a global field.
An ongoing debate among golf fans is whether it's better to see great players frolic toward birdies on an easier course or scramble for pars on a tough one.
"I think they want to see both," Hunter Mahan said just after being named Tuesday to the President's Cup team for the United States and just before practicing on the new Dubs.
Personally I prefer the winning score in any tournament to be at or around par.
When I get nostalgic about the Western Open - the BMW's local predecessor - it's about the 1970s when the winner occasionally staggered to victory at Butler National in Oak Brook.
The pros whined so much that the course was softened up. Players were allowed to use their own caddies instead of the traditional young local caddies. Scores improved almost to the point the Western might have been the John Deere Classic.
How much fun is that? Heck, I'd move to the Quad Cities if I didn't want to see professional golfers perspire.
Listen, I appreciate birdies as much as the next person does. My goodness, eagles are otherworldly to a hacker like me.
But they have to come with some degree of difficulty. Golfers can't play defense against each other so the course has to provide the resistance.
If the layout isn't up to it, what you wind up with is Kevin Gregg pitching against Albert Pujols for four hours or Ben Gordon trying to guard Kobe Bryant.
"I think fans like to see us struggle sometimes," Mahan said. "They like to see us kind of scratch our heads and look confused out there."
Hopefully the BMW is closer to a major than a routine Tour event and the new Dubsdread forces considerable head scratching.
The tourney's total purse is $7.5 million with $1.35 going to the winner, so let the world's greatest golfers scramble, struggle and suffer to earn it.
mimrem@dailyherald.com