Bolingbrook mayor: Hosting LIV pro golf tournament will ‘showcase’ the village

LIV Golf will bring some of the top professional golfers in the world and international attention to Bolingbrook in September.

The village-owned Bolingbrook Golf Club will host the Chicago-area leg of the LIV tour from Sept. 13 to 15.

The tournament is expected to attract about 50,000 spectators over three days while giving Bolingbrook exposure like it’s never had before, Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta said.

The tournament will “showcase Bolingbrook on an international level,” Alexander-Basta said at an event held at the golf course clubhouse to celebrate the LIV announcement made Tuesday.

The LIV event is being moved from the Rich Harvest Farms golf course in Sugar Grove where it was held the past two years.

LIV Golf, which is funded by the Saudi Arabian government, was formed in 2021 to compete with the PGA Tour.

Top golfers including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and John Rahm, are among those expected to play at the Bolingbrook Golf Club in what will be “the only professional golf tournament in the Chicago area this year,” Alexander-Basta said.

The event also promises millions of dollars in economic impact with 7,700 hotel nights being taken by visitors who come with the tournament, she said.

“We are working closely with our police and fire departments to ensure the least possible impact on our local residents,” Alexander-Basta said.

She noted that an annual Fourth of July event at the Bolingbrook Golf Club attracts between 10,000 and 12,000 people and said the village is prepared to accommodate visitors to the LIV tournament, utilizing shuttles to bring spectators from remote parking areas.

Alexander-Basta was joined at the ceremony by former Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, who envisioned the Bolingbrook golf course.

“They told me we’d never get a golf tournament,” Claar said at the start of his remarks. “Guess what?”

The course opened in 2002 and was designed by the late Arthur Hills, who designed courses across the country and around the world.

It was built on a corn field with “thousands of trees” planted on the site to turn it into a golf course, Claar said. He noted that the Bolingbrook Golf Club has been the site of the Tom Dreesen Celebrity Golf Tournament and Bo Jackson Give Me a Chance fundraiser outing.

The LIV tournament will be the club’s biggest event yet.

“We are thrilled to be televised around the world,” Claar said. “Our residents and KemperSports welcome the opportunity.”

KemberSports manages the golf course. Alexander-Basta noted that the Bolingbrook Golf Club has received many recognitions and awards, including most recently being on on the NBC Golfpass list of Top 50 U.S. Public Golf Courses.

Bolingbrook was ranked second on the 2024 list. That kind of recognition apparently was noticed by LIV Golf, which contacted Bolingbrook four or five months ago to inquire whether the village would be interested in hosting a tournament, Alexander-Basta said.

“We acted quickly to try to get this to Bolingbrook,” she said.