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Luke Donald is in his 16th week as World Number One and had plenty to say before the second-to-last FedExCup playoff event, the BMW Championship, starts on Thursday at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club outside Chicago. Donald found himself trying to explain away his perceived insulting dismissal of Tiger Woods, while also joining other top golfers in criticizing Cog Hill’s 2008 redesign.

Donald was quoted as saying “a new era is upon us,” referring to the continuing struggles of Tiger Woods post-scandal. On Wednesday, Donald tried to make nice. “I’ve certainly said I think it’s tough to come back from physical injuries,” he admitted. “But certainly I would never be naive enough to write Tiger off. He has a tremendous amount of talent. And when he starts playing more, that will start showing again.”

Donald, the favorite to win this week, felt more comfortable joining Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker in dumping on the 2008 redesign of Cog Hill by Rees Jones, which was intended to get the course a US Open, but has lost it the BMW Championship instead. “From an architectural standpoint, I’m not a huge fan of Rees Jones,” said Donald. “I’m not a big fan of the deep bunkers and the ridges in the greens.”

Steve Stricker, who got his second PGA Tour win at Cog Hill back in 1996, had simple advice for the family that owns the course. “They need to get their money back,” said Stricker. “It’s an unfortunate situation, it really is. … “The players on a whole don’t really care for the re-do. It’s too bad what happened here.”

Phil Mickelson first began criticizing the redesign in 2009, and is still at this time around. “I know we all wish that it had turned out differently,” Mickelson said. “But there was a lot of other guys to choose from that probably could do the job, and maybe if they just start over, it could turn into something really special.”