The Western Open was a professional golf tournament in the United States, for most of its history an event on the PGA Tour. The tournament's founding in 1899 actually pre-dated the start of the Tour, which is generally dated from 1916, the year the PGA of America was founded. The Western Open, organized by the Western Golf Association, was first played in September 1899 at the Glen View Club in Golf, Illinois the week preceding the U.S. Open. At the time of its final edition in 2006, it was the third-oldest active PGA Tour tournament, after The Open (1860) and U.S. Open (1895). The tournament was held a total of 103 times over the course of 108 years. The event was not held in 1900, nor in 1918 because of World War I, and not from 1943-1945 because of World War II. Golfers from the United States won the tournament 77 times, and players from Scotland won it 15 times. Walter Hagen had the most victories with five wins, and 17 other players won the event at least twice. Two amateurs also won the tournament: Chick Evans in 1910 and Scott Verplank in 1985. Beginning in 2007, the Western Open was renamed the BMW Championship, part of the FedEx Cup playoff series, and played with the PGA Tour's point system as the sole qualification standard. It is no longer open to amateurs. Title sponsorship was introduced in 1987, and included Beatrice, Centel, Sprint, Motorola, Advil, and Cialis. History The Western Open, founded and run by the Western Golf Association, was first played in 1899 in Illinois at the Glen View Club in Golf, a northern suburb of Chicago Like the U.S. Open, in its early days it was almost exclusively won by immigrant golf professionals from the British Isles, most of whom gained full citizenship to the United States. In its early decades it was widely regarded as one of the premier golf tournaments in the USA, along with other notables of the day like the North and South Open, the PGA Championship and the Shawnee Open. The Western Golf Association was, in some ways, and for some years, something of a rival to the United States Golf Association, especially in the midwestern and western sections of the country. From the event's inception through 1961, it was played at a variety of midwestern locations, as well as places such as