Rory McIlroy noted the distances matter-of-factly. In 27 holes of practice and pro-am play at Cherry Hills Country Club, he’s smacked a 3-wood 370 yards, hit 3-wood more than driver off the tee in taking aim at the 346- and 333-yard first and third holes, and gone 3-wood then 8-iron into a 526-yard hole.

Such is the way it is for the No. 1 golfer in the world — and player No. 3 in the PGA Tour driving distance statistic, averaging 310.4 yards.

“It’s funny: This course doesn’t really allow you to hit it that far,” McIlroy said Wednesday after participating in the pro-am for the BMW Championship, which begins Thursday. “There’s not many opportunities where you can just hit driver and see how far it goes. You really need to place your ball in the fairway here.

“But the fall is going forever (because of the mile-high altitude). Because of my high ball flight, it’s going a good 15 percent further than it usually does.”

Which is a remarkable feat considering how long the Irishman normally hits it.

The winner of the last two major championships, McIlroy is not only the player to beat each time he tees it up these days, but he’s a crowd favorite. At 25 years old, he’s the third-youngest player — behind Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus — to have won at least four majors as the Grand Slam events are currently configured.

But McIlroy is far from the only 20-something to be excelling these days. In fact, there are a half-dozen players under 30 currently residing in the top 20 in the World Rankings: 1. McIlroy (25 years old); 6. Jason Day (26); 11. Rickie Fowler (25); 12. Martin Kaymer (29); 14. Jordan Spieth (21); and 18. Hideki Matsuyama (22).

“I think (young players consistently being in contention and/or winning), that sort of makes (other young players) believe that they can do the same thing,” McIlroy said. “I think it’s great to see that there’s younger guys winning on Tour, and it only bodes well for the future of this game. I’m glad I’m the leader of that pack, and hopefully I’m the leader of the pack for the next 20 years as well.”

Added Keegan Bradley, another 20-something (28) who’s won a major championship: “We are part of the generation that (grew up) watching Tiger Woods play, and we watched him only talk about winning and coming out on Tour and wanting to win right away. I think you’re seeing now the influence of Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour and my generation of golfers. We didn’t come out on Tour scared of anybody. We were very respectful of the players, but Tiger kind of taught us to come with a mindset of winning.”

And, so far anyway, McIlroy is the most special of the 20-somethings.

Despite his skill and length — and that of other top players — McIlroy doesn’t see Cherry Hills getting ripped-up, score-wise, this week.

“All you need to do for a difficult golf course is get the greens firm and get the rough up — which they have done here,” he said. “You won’t see guys going crazy under par. You’ll still see some pretty low scores out there … but they can make it as tough as they want. There’s still a bit of bite there. … I think you’re going to see maybe 63, 64s, (but) I don’t think you’re going to see much lower than that this week.”

Contest Winners Paired With Holmes in Pro-Am: Andy Harwood and Pete Knutson of Denver, and Mike Stolze of Greenwood Village — winners of a CGA-run contest for BMW Championship pro-am spots (CLICK HERE) — were paired together for Wednesday’s Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am at Cherry Hills with PGA Tour player J.B. Holmes. The pro-am spots the players (left) won were worth $12,000 apiece.

Holmes, winner of three PGA Tour events including the 2014 Wells Fargo Championship, is No. 5 on the Tour in average driving distance at 307.4 yards.

Also among the amateurs playing in the pro-am Wednesday were Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway (paired with fellow former Bronco John Lynch and professional Russell Knox), former Denver Nuggets standout Chauncey Billups (with Ernie Els), and CGA executive director Ed Mate (with three-time 2013-14 PGA Tour winner Jimmy Walker).

With many Evans Scholar alumni caddying in the pro-am and donating their earnings to the scholarship, among the loopers Wednesday was BMW Championship general chairman George Solich. Solich, a 1983 Evans Scholar alum from CU, caddied for Elway. (At left, Elway and Solich chat with contestant Jordan Spieth on Wednesday.)

According to the Western Golf Association, one contestant tipped his caddie $10,000, an amount that was subsequently given to the Evans Scholars Foundation.

Mahan Enthused about Evans Scholars: Hunter Mahan, whose hole-in-one last year in the BMW Championship resulted in a BMW Hole-in-One Scholarship being awarded to Melyzjah Smith, spoke Wednesday about playing a part in a caddie receiving an Evans Scholarship. Smith, from Aurora, is a sophomore at the CU Evans Scholar house (READ MORE HERE). 

“I got to meet the Evans Scholarship winner (Smith) and the fact that she’s going to (CU) and getting four years of college and housing paid for, it’s just amazing,” Mahan said. “It’s just an incredible offering by BMW to do that. The Evans Scholar Foundation, they had a board (on the 18th hole) of all the kids that are in the program and then the alumni, and there are some really outstanding people who are a part of that. So it’s a really neat thing.”

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BMW Championship: The Essentials

What — BMW Championship PGA Tour FedExCup Playoff Event.

Where — Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village.

Schedule
Sept. 4-7: Championship rounds, with Thursday and Friday tee times from 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m. off the first and 10th tees, and Saturday and Sunday tee times from 9-11 a.m. off the first and 10th tees.

Gates Open — 10 a.m. Sept. 4-5; and 8 a.m. Sept. 6-7.

TV Coverage — Sept. 4-5: 2-6 p.m., Golf Channel; Sept. 6: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Golf Channel and 1-4 p.m., KUSA (9); Sept. 7: 10 a.m.-noon, Golf Channel and noon-4 p.m., KUSA (9).

Tickets — Tickets will not be sold on site, only online. CLICK HERE. 

Thursday/Friday Tee Times: For Thursday and Friday tee times, CLICK HERE.

Free Admission for Juniors — Kids 16 and under will be admitted free to the BMW Championship when accompanied by an adult ticket or credential holder.

Military Admission Policy — All active-duty, retired, reserve and veterans will receive free admission for one day of the tournament. Each military member must verify his or her military status on the website (CLICK HERE) and print off a free ticket voucher in advance of the tournament.

Field — The top 70 players in the FedExCup Playoff standings after the Deutsche Bank Championship concludes on Sept. 1. There will be no cut during the BMW Championship.

Purse — $8 million, with $1.44 million going to the winner.

Course Set-up — 7,352 yards. Par-70 (34-36). 3-inch-deep bluegrass rough. Greens 11-11.5 on Stimpmeter.

Tournament Beneficiary — All the net proceeds from the BMW Championship go to the Evans Scholars Foundation, which awards full tuition and housing college scholarships to worthy and qualified caddies with limited financial means. The average value of an Evans Scholarship nationwide is estimated to be $80,000. One of the 14 Evans Scholarship houses is located at the University of Colorado in Boulder. About 870 caddies are currently on scholarship nationwide, and the program has produced almost 10,000 alums since 1930, with about 430 from CU. Among the CU Evans Scholar alums is George Solich, the general chairman of the 2014 BMW Championship.

Parking — Free parking is available at 1 Highfield Parkway in Englewood, with free shuttle service provided to the main entrance at Cherry Hills CC. Free parking for BMW owners will be provided at 6145 Happy Canyon Road in Denver, with shuttle service to the course. (At Cherry Hills, the BMW owners’ pavilion is located between the seventh and 14th holes; owners need only show their BMW key for access).

Autographs and Cameras — Not permitted during championship rounds Thursday through Sunday.

Tournament History — The BMW Championship’s predecessor, the Western Open, began in 1899, making it the third-oldest PGA Tour event, behind the British Open and U.S. Open. The tournament was renamed the BMW Championship in 2007 when it became part of the FedExCup Playoffs.

Course History — Cherry Hills Country Club, a William Flynn-designed course, opened in 1922. It has hosted a myriad of significant tournaments over the years: U.S. Opens in 1938, ’60 and ’78; PGA Championships in 1941 and ’85; a U.S. Women’s Open in 2005; U.S. Amateurs in 1990 and 2012; a U.S. Senior Open in 1993; a U.S. Senior Amateur in 1976; and a U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1983. Winners of those events include Arnold Palmer (’60 U.S. Open), Jack Nicklaus (’93 U.S. Senior Open) and Phil Mickelson (’90 U.S. Amateur).

For More Information — Visit the BMW Championship website (CLICK HERE.) 

As one of three lucky winners of $12,000 pro-am spots in the BMW Championship, Pete Knutson was beside himself with joy at the prospect of playing alongside a PGA Tour professional Sept. 3 at Cherry Hills Country Club.

“I’m giddy, just absolutely giddy,” he said. “My mom said I’d never amount to anything by golfing all the time. Look at me now, mom.”

On Saturday evening at CommonGround Golf Course, the pro-am contest winners were announced, as was the CGA’s donation of $51,700 to the Evans Scholars Foundation to help provide scholarships to worthy caddies. CommonGround, which is owned and operated by the CGA and CWGA, is the site of the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy.

George Solich — for whom, with brother Geoff, the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy is named — personally purchased and donated the three spots in the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am which immediately precedes the BMW Championship. The hope was that the pro-am contest that culminated on Saturday would further incentivize the use of caddies through the Solich Academy, support the Evans Scholarship, and raise awareness about the BMW Championship, which is set for Sept. 1-7 at Cherry Hills. Solich is the general chairman of the tournament and a former Evans Scholar at the University of Colorado. The Evans Scholarship is the sole beneficiary of the BMW Championship.

“We also wanted to see if we can give three guys a chance to play in a (PGA Tour) pro-am that maybe otherwise would have never had the chance,” Solich said Saturday. “So this is really cool. These guys are going to love this pro-am. It’s really considered the best pro-am on the PGA Tour because you’re guaranteed to play with one of the top 70 players in the world and you play as a threesome (of amateurs) with a pro. It’s awesome. (The pro-am contest) is exactly what I hoped for.”

Landing the three BMW Championship pro-am spots through the contest were Mike Stolze, 37, of Greenwood Village; Pete Knutson, 38, of Denver; and Andy Harwood, 45, of Denver. Each will play Cherry Hills as part of 56 groups in the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am, with each group featuring a PGA Tour professional and three amateurs. And given that only the top 70 Tour players in the FedExCup standings qualify for the BMW Championship, it will be pretty heady company for the participating amateurs. Among the professionals expected to be at Cherry Hills are reigning British Open and PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy, U.S. Open champ Martin Kaymer, Masters winner Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott.

Harwood is a CU Evans Scholar alum who caddied at Cherry Hills in the 1980s, while Stolze and Knutson have never before played the prestigious course. (The three are pictured above, with George Solich. From left: Stolze, Harwood, Knutson and Solich.) All three of the contest winners are solid players, with handicaps between 3.8 (Harwood) and about a 6 (Knutson).

“The fact that I get to play in the pro-am is wildly fun, partly because I did all my caddying at Cherry Hills,” said Harwood, who served as caddiemaster for the Solich Academy in its first year, 2012. “I have a unique knowledge of that golf course, having been around it 300-400 times.”

Knutson earned his pro-am spot by utilizing Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy caddies more than anyone else in 2013 and ’14 combined (48 times as of when the contest ended). Harwood won a lottery drawing limited to the players other than Knutson who used Solich Academy caddies for at least five 18-hole rounds in 2013 and ’14. Stolze won a raffle in which each ticket ran $100, with all the proceeds going to the Evans Scholars.

Stolze bought “a handful” of raffle tickets, notably from Geoff (Duffy) Solich, with whom he works.

“He was soliciting contributions from those of us who play golf in the office,” Stolze said. “It’s a big deal for him (as an Evans Scholar alum), so I obviously wanted to support the cause. I didn’t have any inclination I’d actually win something. But hey, what do you know?

“Geoff called me on Wednesday or Thursday and I thought he was just kidding me. He said, ‘I think you won the prize.’ Finally, one of the ladies from the Colorado Golf Association called (and notified him). I thought, ‘Maybe he’s not kidding.’ It’s fantastic. I’m super excited about it.”

With 517 raffle tickets sold, $51,700 was raised for the Evans Scholars program, which has about 840 students currently on full-tuition and housing scholarships nationwide, including close to 50 at CU. A check for that amount was presented to Western Golf Association directors Solich, Kevin Laura and Rick Polmear on Saturday. (Pictured at left are CGA executive director Ed Mate, Solich, Laura and Polmear.) The WGA administers the Evans Scholarship and runs the BMW Championship.

“Tonight was the culmination of a two-year-long effort,” noted Mate, himself also a CU Evans Scholar alum. “Like everything George does, he seems to have a Midas Touch. We raised $50,000-plus for the Evans Scholars and we generated a tremendous amount of interest in the caddie program here. It’s just been a home run. Fantastic.

“The best thing we did is put the charge on the WGA directors from Colorado. Every WGA director was given 20 tickets and it was just, ‘Go sell them.’ You’re not going to sell those through the internet; it takes a personal tough to get somebody to plunk down $100, even though a $12,000 prize is a big deal.”

The Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, now in its third year at CommonGround, provides incentives to take caddies by paying all of their base fees. Some of the best Solich Academy caddies go on to work at other caddie programs in Colorado, and some have been and will be candidates for the Evans Scholarship.

“Taking a caddie is the way to golf,” Knutson said. “It’s so pleasant. These kids are great. I’ve really enjoyed it.

“I love these kids (from the Solich Academy). At first I thought it was just somebody to carry my bag. But you come out here and they give you a high-five every time. They’re excited about your golf. You hear about their life and what they want to do and their dreams. My caddie today wants to be a world-class pianist. My best friend’s mom teaches at CU. I’m trying to hook them up together. If I can influence one or two kids, that’s a bonus on top of getting to play a lot of golf.”

Besides getting to playing alongside a PGA Tour player, each Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am participant receives four weekly badges for the BMW Championship, a commemorative picture plaque of his pro-am group, and two invitations to the Sept. 2 pro-am draw party and two to the Sept. 3 awards reception.
 As for which Tour players the pro-am contest winners will be paired with come Sept. 3, that will be decided at the private pairings party held Sept. 2. Some of the Tour players even show up for that event.

“It’s essentially a raffle,” explained Solich, who personally is going to be caddying for John Elway on Sept. 3. “You put all the numbers in the pot, No. 1 through 56, and when your number come up, you get to pick the pro (although the sponsor reserves some rights). It’s like a draft. It’s really fun.”

Stolze, for one, is going to savor this whole BMW Championship pro-am experience.

“We’re playing a nice course the day before the tournament opens and I’ll enjoy watching somebody that’s fantastic at their craft playing alongside me,” he said.

Many of the pro-am competitors are likely to have some butterflies playing with PGA Tour professionals and in front of galleries. And Knutson may encounter an additional obstacle.

“I have a bunch of friends who are going to be out there and they said they’re going to harass me,” he said with a smile. “But I’m just beyond belief excited. As a kid it’s a dream to play on the PGA Tour. I know I don’t have the game, but this is as close as I’ll ever get.”

“Game of a Lifetime Statue” Unveiled: Besides lending his name and providing significant financial support for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy, George Solich recently donated a statue (left) that was unveiled Saturday near the practice putting green at CommonGround.

The statue is titled “The Game of a Lifetime”. A young boy, with his feet in adult golf shoes, is toting a golf bag, with an accompanying plaque reading: “Inspiring future generations to discover the passion, honor the tradition, and fully embrace this amazing game and all it has to offer.”