Cog Hill (No.4)

To score well on No.4 you’ll need a tidy and accurate driving game as the landing areas are tight. Heavily bunkered greens, which are huge and undulating, put pressure on approach play.

The majority of top-end golf courses in the USA are private members clubs but thankfully Cog Hill is a public access venue thanks to the patriarch of Chicago golf, the late Joe Jemsek. Joe will be remembered for raising the standard of public golf in the USA and for that we applaud him.

Dubsdread was once more the venue for Chicago's only PGA Tour championship when the 2009 BMW Championship returned to Cog Hill after a one-year hiatus when the event was hosted at Bellerive Country Club. In the third round, Tiger Woods broke the course record despite opening his round with a bogey. Tiger’s nine-under-par 62 was more than enough for him notch up his 71st Tour victory, taking the 2009 title on a newly renovated and toughened course.

The “Open Doctor”, Rees Jones, was set the objective to reinstate the original 1964 Dick Wilson and Joe Lee design. The renovation included rebuilding all greens, tees and bunkers, as well as adding a new pond, new tees and new bunkers. Work completed in May 2009 resulting in a more strategic and challenging Dubsdread. Tiger agreed it's now a longer course and Luke Donald reckons the par threes are now "obnoxiously long" but is it a better course?

New-look Dubsdread gets big thumbs-up

Dustin Johnson won the 2010 BMW Championship, but several pros criticised Cog Hill’s greens, which prompted owner Frank Jemsek to implement further changes. Justin Rose claimed the 2011 BMW Championship title by two shots from Australia’s John Senden.