If there was one thing missing from the BMW Championship last weekend, it was climate control.

Everything else, by my eyes, seemed well covered for the estimated 120,000 visitors who streamed through the woods of Baltimore County to the ultra-exclusive Caves Valley Golf Club.

I have a one-track mind, so maybe it’s not a surprise that it got me thinking about the bigger fish the city is trying to land in a few years.

Could Baltimore host the MLB All-Star Game or the NFL draft? Hell yes. Could we learn from the BMW Championship? I hope so.

The traffic flowed. Spectators moved relatively freely along the course, craning their necks at the PGA Tour elite as they whacked through the humidity. The multimillion-dollar renovations seemed well received. Everything was thoroughly staffed and felt secure. Concessions were available for the folks with cash to spend, and water stations were there for people trying to budget.

The only things it seemed you needed were sunscreen and an extra shirt to change into after sweating through the first one.

Everything else about the PGA’s penultimate tournament seemed like a smashing success last weekend, a remarkably smooth event for the masses of out-of-towners, the limited roadway infrastructure and the temporary metropolis of vendors and hospitality areas constructed largely with tentpoles and tarps.

“There’s a lot of shared sacrifice and collaboration that goes into pulling off something with this level of complication,” said Sameer Sidh, Baltimore County’s senior deputy administrative officer of economic development and infrastructure. “We started this prep well over a year ago. And this is the culmination of that work.”

For the state and Baltimore County, this culmination also reflects a bottom line. Early estimates say the BMW Championship should have about $60 million of economic impact — up from $53 million when Caves Valley hosted this tournament in 2021. That includes about $23 million in direct labor impact and about 450 short-term jobs.

The tournament was a collaboration of Caves Valley and the Western Golf Association, which poured in plenty of resources. But every permit needed to be approved by the county, which brought an employee out of retirement just to make sure everything was done on time.

Four years ago, when organizers also had to accommodate social distancing, traffic flow was one of the biggest hang-ups. The county and state also played key roles in improving the transit from 2021 by making parking available at the Metro Center and ferrying spectators in shuttles to the course and back.

In three days of driving from the city to Owings Mills, I never once got caught in a traffic snarl — which is something I can’t even say about going to Ravens practice.

The 2021 tournament was at the end of the social distancing era. This year’s version had activities like chipping and putting to go with sponsorship vehicles on display. Local business partnerships allowed fans dining locally to sip John Daly crushes while watching golf on TV in the comfort of air conditioning.

Deputy Director of Economic and Workforce Development Abby Vitaliano was most pleased to hear of repeat visitors: “They said they were very excited to be back in the Baltimore County area. We know that this event was super successful the first time and this time around because we are really well situated on the I-95 corridor.”

OK, so there are things about the rural setting of the golf tournament that couldn’t be replicated if Baltimore City winds up hosting the MLB All-Star Game (about 100,000 visitors to Seattle 2023) or the NFL draft (about 320,000 visitors to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 2025). And yet it’s impossible to ignore that the BMW Championship demonstrates the region’s ability to put on a good show with complicated logistics.

Terry Hasseltine, the executive director of the Maryland Sports Commission, is thinking about that too. He attended the NFL draft in Green Bay this spring and had only good things to say about the event. But he also believes momentum could build for Maryland, which has committed $1.2 billion in state bond money for the city stadiums. M&T Bank has one more year left in its three-year plan; Camden Yards’ renovations will begin in earnest this offseason.

There are logistical issues. Baltimore may need to be creative to fill the demand for its hotel rooms and lean on the region to host more visitors. Transit and parking could also be a logistical challenge, though the nearby CFG Bank Arena and convention center area could help host activations and business partnerships.

Hasseltine says getting these events at the right time — potentially each starting in 2028, though Washington is hosting the 2027 NFL draft, which might complicate a Baltimore bid — will be part of the challenge. The MSC is monitoring city development programs such as the Inner Harbor to get the national sports spotlight just as Baltimore is in the best place to shine.

“Cranes in the air means progress and forward motion, and I think sports leagues are looking at Maryland and seeing the progressive growth of our environment,” Hasseltine said. “We’re spurring conversations to make sure people are seeing the positive energy.”

It could also be great for the region to bring the PGA Tour back to Caves Valley in another four years. There have been discussions that Hasseltine is aware of, though there are many factors that influence that decision — including if Caves Valley members are willing to invite the disruption to their course that goes into building PGA-ready infrastructure on-site.

But hopefully the success of the tournament — and the 120,000 people who got to see great golf in Baltimore’s backyard — convinces Caves Valley, the PGA and the WGA to keep coming back. And hopefully other leagues with Baltimore on the short list to host their big events are paying attention.

“If we get those events, we’re absolutely eager to be a part of that,” Sidh said. “What benefits the city benefits the county, and I think the rising tide lifts all boats.”

The BMW Championship is ample evidence that we know how to put on a seamless headliner — and we are hungry for more.