Originally Published: September 5, 2007
Should the Western Open still be on the schedule?
According to the record books, the first BMW Championship was played in 1899, despite the fact that the company wasn't founded until 1916.
That's because the BMW Championship now assumes all previous history of the Western Open, even though it's been given a major facelift. Rather than being played in Chicago every year, it will rotate between other Midwestern destinations every other year. And the tourney had moved from July Fourth weekend to the third event in the FedEx Cup schedule. Should the event still be dubbed the Western? For that matter, should long-ago winners of the prestigious event still be considered major champions? Our experts answer all in this week's edition of Fact or Fiction.The PGA Tour should have continued the Western Open rather than replacing it with the BMW Championship.
Bob Harig, contributor, ESPN.com: FACT. Corporate sponsorship is the way of the world in sports, but the Tour should have figured out a way to somehow hold onto the tradition of an event that dates to 1899.
Jason Sobel, golf editor, ESPN.com: FICTION. As Eddie Vedder once screeched, "It's evolution, baby!" Just as Sam Snead didn't win the "Wyndham Championship" eight times, just as Ben Hogan wasn't five-time champ at the "Crowne Plaza Invitational," times change and -- surprise, surprise -- big sponsors force name changes at certain events. This may be unfortunate, but it's nothing new in the big business world of professional golf.
John Antonini, senior editor, Golf World: FACT. Why couldn't it have been called the BMW Western Open? Tradition and golf go hand-in-hand and when you lose the Western Open the history of one of the game's most venerable tournaments gets lost with it.
Players who won the Western many years ago should still be credited with a major championship victory.
Harig: FICTION. The four majors we have now carry too much weight and are embedded in the minds of players and fans. It would require a complete rewriting of the record book. Where would you draw the line as to when the tournament was considered a major and when it wasn't?
Sobel: FICTION. Lines have to be drawn and, quite simply, the old Western Open titles don't carry the cache of any of the four modern majors. Besides, are we supposed to rewrite the history books now? That would be like retroactively declaring the winner of the 1965 National Football League championship game (the Green Bay Packers, for the record) a Super Bowl champion.
Antonini: FICTION. Calling early Western Open winners major champions would open up other tournaments for the same subjective rationale. When would you start counting the Masters? Or the PGA? What about the North and South Amateur or Open?
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