CASTLE ROCK — Scottie Scheffler let his inner Bob Knight loose on No. 10. Rory McIlroy gave his 3-wood a bath on 17. Adam Scott shot a 63, for pity’s sake.
A guy could get used to this PGA Tour thing, Duffy Solich. So we’re bringing the party back next year, right?
“I can tell you it’s probably not something either George (Solich, chairman and president at Castle Pines) or I would recommend, (doing it) annually,” the tournament chairman of the 2024 BMW Championship, told me Friday afternoon as we watched play from Castle Pines’ glorious clocktower.
“The amount of work that goes into putting this on — I don’t think our membership … I’m not sure it would be as special for the state if we had something here annually. On an every four- to five-year (basis) … this event is, I think, such a successful event …
“But I would think, speaking for George and myself, we would love to have this back sometime in the future. And I think we’ve been hesitant to say much about that until we see how this goes.”
Day 2 of the PGA’s return to Castle Rock wasn’t without some hiccups. The traffic flow from I-25 to Sante Fe Drive on Friday morning crawled like a Broncos pregame, one lane going nowhere fast.
But for those milkshakes? Totally worth it.
“You know, it’s been 18 years — we’ve never had medal play (since 2006). We don’t know how the course holds up. We don’t know how fans are going to enjoy it, how hospitality sales are going to go. I think a lot of those questions have been answered in a very positive way. So my hope would be that this is something we can host again.
“Just the level of service and the level of how you treat people in a crowd is exceptional. You don’t have anybody pushing each other; there’s nobody trying to elbow to get their way. Everybody’s incredibly well-behaved and enjoying their time. And I think that’s a factor of people being in a special place, being on their best behavior. So the enjoyment factor has been high, the beauty of where we are and what we get to look at every day.”
On Friday, at least, the galleries proved calmer than some of the stars in the field. Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, fired his approach on the sanity-bending 10th hole into the drink. On his drop, he launched an approach like one of Richard Branson’s rockets and howled at the moon.
“How?” an incredulous Scheffler was heard shouting en route to a double bogey. “How is that possible?”
On 17, McIlroy’s tee shot drove him to toss his 3-wood into the pond in front of him. He eventually went into the water to salvage his club, then salvaged the hole, finishing 1-under for the day and moving to 3-under for the tourney.
“It’s really fun to play in front of these fans,” offered Keegan Bradley, whose 68 in Round 2 left him three strokes back of Scott going into Saturday morning. “They’re excited. They’re passionate. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Sure as heck hasn’t been boring.
“We’re only on Friday, so I’m not going to call it a success (yet),” Duffy Solich said. “But we’re trending to a pretty good golf tournament right now. Yeah. Yeah, it is satisfying.”
The Solich brothers did a lot of the heavy lifting to get the PGA back to Castle Pines, a Jack Nicklaus masterpiece that never should’ve left the tour in the first place.
But it takes a village to keep everything purring. The country club’s membership and the neighbors will have a say in the next chapter, of course. Although George Solich on Friday made it sound as if a pretty compelling rough draft’s already in the works.
“We don’t think this is a one-and-done (here),” George said proudly. “You know, we hope it isn’t.
“I will say that the course (a decade ago) probably wasn’t where it is today. … It just wasn’t ready then. And you know what (Castle Pines founder) Jack Vickers was always about was being the best. Until we were the best, we weren’t ready to come back. And it took a long time to get back. And, you know, we’re back. I think we’re really back.”
