THE RYDER CUP coming Sept. 30th, Oct. 1st and 2nd from the Hazeltine Golf Club in Chaska Minnesota, #GoteamUsa. The Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington PA. 18 Pete Dye holes open for play, 18 more on the way Summer 2017 Nemacolin.com.     _____________________________________________________________________

The Gog Blog by Rory Spears, Editor and Director of Content. Follow Rory on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter @GogBlogGuy. On the bridge at the 6th hole at Crooked Stick Golf Club.

The BMW Championship is in the books for the 2016 golf season, Dustin Johnson walked off with the trophy and a lead in the Fed Ex Cup point standings.

Johnson admitted to struggling with his irons a little, but heated up as the tournament went on. Once he got going even this strong field of 70 players could not keep up with him.

The Top 30 coming out of Crooked Stick move on to Atlanta and the East Lake Golf Club and the Tour Championship, lets see who wins it should be a good championship next week, be sure to tune in.

The Pete and Alice Dye statue behind the 18th green at Crooked Stick Golf Club.

PETE DYE and his wife Alice were the chairman and or chairwoman of the championship. But unlike past events at Crooked Stick the Hall of Fame architect was not seen at the championship.

He was at his home off the 18th fairway, but the 90 year Dye has had health issues of late, and doesn’t have quite the memory that he once had. All of us who enjoy golf and Pete Dye courses around the country, are pulling for Pete to enjoy his time ahead the best way he can. In fact a new Dye Course will open later this month in the Indianapolis area, The Gog Blog will details on that in the days ahead. Stay clicked in.

The new pond on 17 at Crooked Stick.

The new pond on 17 didn’t have quite the effect some thought it might on the players, but in spite of rain the wind never was strong enough to serious effect on the top players in the game.

But the rain did, some players play better and some don’t in the rain or after it.

On more than one day there was Lift, Clean and Place rules in effect. I know there are media folks that love to call it “lift-clean&cheat” but it would have lead to some plugged balls and “squirrely shots” as Johnson saw it.

RAIN and the BMW. Some years back former Western Open Championship Director Brian Fitzgerald used to say, “need rain schedule the Western Open”. Well the BMW has not fared much better in recent years.

After seeing the downpour at Crooked Stick this year, that was almost as bad as what Crooked Stick had in 2012, what the championship had at Conway Farms in 2013 and 2015, the cold weather at Cog Hill two different years, and the rain at Bellerive it would be nice next year if the championship could be a dry one.

2017 is a return to Conway Farms in Lake Forest and it might be the last time the BMW is there for a while. In 2018 the tournament heads to Philadelphia at Aronimink, in 2019 it’s at Medinah Country Club and after that as of now is a ? The BMW contract runs out in 2019 and after Medinah nobody is quite sure yet what the future might be.

Whether BMW returns or not, here’s hoping the WGA and the PGA Tour can find more years to play the championship in the Chicago area, kind of like the schedule used by the Barclays Championship that just moved the event around the New York or Northern New Jersey area.

Crooked Stick has signed on to be the host of the Western Amateur in 2020, so the championship is not expected to return there in 4 years. I give the WGA and the PGA Tour credit on how they set up the final holes at Crooked Stick, the sky boxes and open area’s made for a nice mix and the spectators seemed to enjoy it.

Every year Conway Farms add’s a few more tweaks to make things better for the BMW Championship, it will be interesting to see what’s new in 2017. But whatever Conway Farms does add, I’m just hoping all those improvements stay dry in 2017, it’s really time for four days of nice dry golf at the BMW Championship. RS