The Guide Contents
Welcome to The Guide –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Welcome to the BMW Championship / Western Open Records & Statistics Guide for 2020. This is the 31st edition of a guide compiled, and originally limited in circulation, since 1990, when the WGA’s own Western Open Media Guide was confined to a few pages. There are three main sections: 1. A detailed record book, covering the 116 playings of the championship under all its names from 1899 onward. Contents for the following 56 pages are below left. A new category covers course records set in the championship since 1975 (page 49). 2. A year-by-year championship history, updated and corrected from the 2019 edition. Details of playing statistics (driving distance, fairways hit, greens in regulation, putts, sand saves) for all players are featured for the last four tournaments. The results for 2016 through 2019 are thus in two-page spreads. 3. An alphabetical register of contestants. Research continues on players from the early days with similar names, with many of the inconsistencies cleared up for this edition. Since 1990’s first edition, focusing on the championship’s modern-day Chicago era, interest in golf records and statistics, the Western Open included, has grown. Neglect in keeping any but the most rudimentary records for the Western until it returned to Chicago in 1962, and often for years after, meant the records in this Guide, inspired by Bill Inglish’s original Masters Tournament record book, had to be compiled independently. The records and statistics in this Guide are derived from an exclusive database of over 14,820 player reports, gleaned from an extensive file of contemporary newspaper and magazine reports compiled on trips to 20 cities, from Buffalo to Memphis to Los Angeles.
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