May 16, 2024
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Golf: Bolingbrook Golf Club to host LIV Golf event in September

By Tim Cronin for Shaw Local
Fans make their way through out the course during round 1 of the LIV GOLF tournament Friday September 22, 2023 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Fans make their way throughout the course during the opening round of the LIV GOLF tournament last September at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. (Brian Hill bhill@dailyherald.com)

BOLINGBROOK – The Chicago area’s stop on the LIV Golf circuit will be held at Bolingbrook Golf Club in September, village officials will confirm at a news conference at the course Tuesday.

The three-day tournament, featuring seven of the last 16 major championship winners and a host of other notables, will be held Sept. 13-15 on the municipally-owned course.

Bolingbrook takes over from private Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove as the host of the local stop on the international circuit, which began in 2022 with eight weekends of play.

Financed almost entirely by the Saudi Arabia government’s Public Investment Fund, the operation has split the previously-chummy world of men’s professional golf in two. LIV signed a series of PGA Tour headliners to massive contracts beginning with Phil Mickelson, including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and through to 2023 Masters winner Jon Rahm, who jumped to LIV Golf over the winter for a reported $300 million-plus prize money.

They have since played against their former PGA Tour brethren only in the major championships, which are controlled by neither tour.

The Bolingbrook tournament, like the others a 54-hole affair with a shotgun start each afternoon, will be the 13th and final individual tournament of the season, though also containing a team component. The $20 million individual purse, plus $5 million more for the team side, is on par with the rest of the circuit’s lavish spending.

News of the move from Rich Harvest to Bolingbrook has been circulating since April 4, but village and officials of KemperSports, which operates the course for the village, have not confirmed the specifics, including whether the course will receive a site fee or will be paying to host the weekend. Rich Harvest received a reported $3 million in both 2022 and 2023.

Regardless of the economics, the course will receive a publicity boon. LIV’s television broadcasts are sent worldwide and include 10 hours of national coverage on CW each weekend.

Designed by Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest and opened in 2002, this is the most significant tournament to be held on the layout. It has previously hosted celebrity tournaments and a large number of charity outings. The competitive course record of 7-under 65 was sent by Mike McNerney in Western Open qualifying in 2003.