Beginning in 2007, the Western Open was renamed the BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup playoff series.

[3] From the event's inception through 1961, it was played at a variety of midwestern locations, as well as places such as Arizona (Phoenix), Utah (Salt Lake City) and California (San Francisco, Los Angeles).

It was played here through 1990, when the PGA Tour adopted a policy of holding events only at clubs which allowed minorities and women to be members.

During the second round of the 1975 tournament on Friday, June 27, Lee Trevino and Jerry Heard were struck by lightning on the 13th green of Butler National while waiting out a rain delay.

[10][11][12] In 2007, the Western Open was renamed—and changed in terms of invitational criteria—to the BMW Championship, part of the four-event FedEx Cup Playoff Series.