Major Champion Eviscerates Last Week's BMW Championship Course After Restoration

Change isn’t always for the better.

Last week’s BMW Championship was held at Caves Valley Golf Club, just outside of Baltimore, making it the second time (2021) that the PGA Tour held a tournament there. However, the course underwent a major restoration led by Tom Fazio in 2023.

And Lucas Glover, a former U.S. Open winner who finished T40 last week, revealed on his SiriusXM radio show that players had a lot of disdain towards the refurbished layout.

“Not to have come off as sour grapes here, but I have never in my 21 years heard the consensus from the field being unhappy with the golf course," Glover said of the course, per GolfWeek. "I think it was pretty much everybody didn’t really like Caves Valley. And it is a shame because it is a heck of a place.”

In 2021, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay shot 27 under par in regulation before heading to a playoff. That was the lowest winning score on Tour that season, and its overall scoring average of 69.20 made it the second-easiest course the pros played that year.

Afterward, the course underwent drastic changes. Holes were reworked and every green complex was newly built, some entirely. Different grass types were implemented to firm up the course and 10 miles of a new drainage system was installed underneath. Plus, the course has been altered from a par-72 to a par-70, and about 60 yards were added, stretching it to 7,600 yards. It was the fourth-longest course on Tour in 2025.

This year, the course played over par, yielding a scoring average of 70.42, the 12th highest on Tour in relation to par.

“They decided to make it to redo it just to make it more difficult for the PGA Tour,” Glover said. “And harder doesn't always mean better, is the best way I can say it.”

And if the world’s best struggled on those greens, imagine how a recreational player might fare.

“It’s a shame, because that’s such a great place, such a great experience,” Glover said, “and I left there baffled and feeling very sorry for their membership, because it’s sad that that’s what people think is good golf and good golf course design now.”

Glover added that it might have been Caves Valley’s last PGA Tour event.

“It would shock me if we go back,” Glover said, “which is a shame.”