Newly renovated Cog Hill ready for BMW Championship to tee off

It has more bunkers than an "All in the Family" marathon, more traps than a "Dateline" special with Chris Hansen. Its rough hovers at around 3½ inches along fairways that have been reshaped and lightning fast greens that have either been redone or recontoured.

From the championship tees it's more than 7,600 yards long.

In other words, it's a beast.

We're talking, of course, about Cog Hill's No. 4 course, Dubsdread, and after a $5 million renovation under the guidance of Rees Jones, it's ready for its unveiling this week when 70 of the top PGA Tour players return to Lemont after a two-year hiatus to compete in the BMW Championship, the third stop in the FedExCup playoffs.

Few have played the renovated Dubs more than White Sox radio play-by-play man Ed Farmer, who has been clubbing it at Cog since he was 14. And the former Sox reliever has words of wisdom when friends ask him about the course.

"I tell them when you go there to play, play from the blue tees - you'll have a great time," said Farmer, who has played the new layout some 30 times. "Any further back and -"

"It's tough. If you're playing all the way back where the pros play, it's a few shots harder," admitted tournament director Vince Pellegrino. "Good golfers have a tough time breaking 100 from the back tee."

Said Farmer: "From all the way back, it's harder than Chinese arithmetic, and I don't know Chinese."

How will the best golfers in the world handle the new design, though?

"Having some of the bunkers more into play, there's probably some more decisions to be made off the tees," Pellegrino said. "Green-side, there will be a lot more thought going into 'where can I miss?' because of the bunkering and the length of the rough around the greens."

Oh, those greens.

Expect them to read about 11 feet on the stimpmeter thanks in part to the Sub-Air moisture removal system installed in each one.

"The recontouring that Rees Jones has done to the greens, there are a lot more subtle changes, a lot more undulations than there was previously," Pellegrino said. "I think all the local knowledge or past experience knowledge will kind of be out the window because everybody's starting fresh."

Farmer, who has played 65 of Golf Digest's top 100 U.S. courses, said Cog Hill has made a "big jump" into his top 50 and is "on par with Bethpage Black," which just hosted the 2009 U.S. Open.

And it was with the hope of one day hosting a U.S. Open that course owner Frank Jemsek and family brought in none other than Jones, the so-called "Open Doctor" because of his knack of preparing courses to become U.S. Open worthy, to head up the renovation.

"I think the USGA will probably be watching to see how the players play and how the golf course performs," Pellegrino said. "Is it an audition? I don't know. I think it's more 'let's get some feedback from the players.'

"If this was a U.S. Open setup, they'd probably bring in a few of the fairways, make them a little tighter. I certainly think the golf course is good enough to host a U.S. Open. "Certainly, the infrastructure, the facilities of Cog Hill, could host a major golf tournament."

The picture should become much clearer come Sunday evening.