Photo: Frank Polich/ (c) Action Images

Despite the excitement of Trevor Immelman holding off Tiger Woods on July 9 and clinching his first PGA Tour victory with a 32-foot birdie putt on 18, many people will sadly remember the 103rd Western Open as the end of a century-long tradition.

The Western Open began in 1899 and has been held every year except for five. The tournament was canceled because of World War I (1918) and World War II (1943 to 1945) and was played almost exclusively in the Midwest with a few exceptions. In 1962 the Western Golf Association moved the Western to the Chicago area, finally giving the third-largest media market in the country an annual tour event.

From 1974 to 1990, the Western was played at Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook but was moved to Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont in 1991.

Next year the Western Open will be renamed the BMW Championship, and it will no longer be an “open” event. Instead, only the top 144 players in the tour’s new FedEx Cup competition will be eligible to compete.

The BMW will stay in the Midwest but take place in the Chicago area only every other year. However, the first BMW will be at Cog Hill in 2007. St. Louis hosts the tournament in 2008 and Indianapolis in 2010.

The new tournament will fall the weekend after Labor Day instead of around July 4 as had been customary for the Western.

When the tour announced its first-ever playoff competition, the season-long FedEx Cup, it was clear there would be changes to the schedule and events on the tour. The BMW will be the third of four PGA Tour Playoff tournaments. These events will comprise the homestretch of the FedEx Cup and determine the winner. In addition to the BMW, the playoffs will include the Barclays Classic in New York, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston and conclude with the Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

The BMW will be a better and more prestigious competition, according to its backers. The tournament will award $7 million in prize money (as opposed to $5 million in 2006) and will feature fields consisting of all of golf’s top players.

“We really don’t look at it as abandoning Chicago,” PGA Tour Chief Marketing Officer Tom Wade said. “We look at it as really upgrading and bringing a top-level, world-class event to Chicago.”The WGA expects the BMW to increase the tour’s popularity in the Midwest and to better support the WGA’s college scholarship program for caddies.

“We are excited about taking the championship to clubs and communities outside of the Chicago area that have long supported the Evans Scholars Program,” WGA President Richard E. Peterson said in a press release announcing the new tournament. “As we maintain a biennial presence in Chicago, we will have an opportunity to expand support of the championship, and of our scholarship program, in other regions of the Midwest.”

BMW will provide the new tournament with a $12 million to $14 million sponsorship.

Many golfers considered the Western a major championship before there was the Masters Tournament, although that distinction was never made official. The list of winners reads like a who’s who of professional golf: Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin and Tiger Woods. The tournament draws more than 40,000 fans consistently and fields big-name players.

South African Immelman won the final Western with a 13-under 271. Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh both had a chance heading into the final round, but Woods could not close the gap despite four birdies on the back nine, and Singh’s final round 73 took him out of contention. Japan’s Daisuke Maruyama finished tied for 19th with a 5-under 279. Korean K.J. Choi was near the leader board after the first round but finished the tournament tied for 30th.

A three-time Western champion, Woods spoke regretfully to the media at Cog Hill about the end of annual tournament golf in Chicago.

“It’s unfortunate because it’s been such a great event, a historical event on our tour,’’ Woods said. “Look at the list of champions. It’s pretty impressive, but it’s more unfortunate that we’re not going to come here to the Chicago area each and every year. This is one of the biggest markets in the United States.’’