Thursday
Aug202009
Bellerive remains afloat; first round is Friday
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 11:06PM
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Lovely though Bellerive Country Club is, perfectly positioned in greater St. Louis' version of Lake Forest, it lacks one luxury bauble.
A dome.
Had that been in place over the golf course today, the first round of the 105th Western Open would have taken place as scheduled. But Bellerive, being a real golf course and not one of the miniature variety, is subject to the vagaries of the weather, and the weather arrived in force late Wednesday night.
The remnants of Hurricane Gustav began as a light rain and barely a bit of wind. By early Thursday morning, the rain was steady, the wind gusty at times, and PGA Tour officials pushed the start of play back two hours. By late in the morning, there were consistent downpours, and at 11:30 a.m., Tour officials bowed to the inevitable, and called play for the day.
That moves the opening round of what these days is known as the BMW Championship to Friday, where the 69 players will commence firing at 10:40 a.m.
The good news is, even after 2.91 inches of rain, as measured by course superintendent Chuck Gast, the course will be playable and the gallery will be able to walk it. His tournament crew of 70, a group which includes 40 volunteers schooled in turfgrass management, were at work by early afternoon, even as the water ran off into 16 miles of drainage and then to the surrounding creek system.
"We're going to bounce back pretty quickly," Gast said. "We have a great drainage system. We just have to have some time to dry it out."
PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White mentioned Butler National Golf Club when assessing the extent of the deluge. He recalled the 1987 Western Open, when helicopters hovered over fairways to dry them out, and eventually, nine holes of the Oak Brook Golf Club municipal course was put into play to all a 54-hole tournament to be conducted.
"This may be as bad as I've seen it in a long, long time," White said. "We've got a mess out there. But Chuck Gast and his crew are doing a wonderful job. At Butler National, we had fish swimming on the greens there. And this downpour rivals some we've had at Castle Pines."
There was fear that much of Bellerive's front nine, which is in a flood plain, would be under water, but that proved not to be the case. The $9.5 million in renovations, made in 2006, paid off in the best possible way.
With a favorable weather forecast – the sun is advertised to appear on Friday – the plan is to play the first round on Friday, repair the field and play 36 holes on Saturday, and play the final round as scheduled on Sunday.
Saturday's television schedule has also been altered. NBC will be on the air as planned from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Central, after which it has the San Diego State-Notre Dame football game. At 2:30 p.m., the Golf Channel will pick up live coverage, and stay with it until the conclusion.
The big public parking lot on the Hunter Farms on Bellerive's western boundary was the biggest concern of Western Golf Association tournament director John Kaczkowski on Thursday.
"It's hilly," Kaczkowski said. "The hilly spots are drying out. The lower spots … "
Kaczkowski said that was the reason people holding Thursday tickets could use them Saturday or Sunday, but not Friday. He was working to find additional parking lots at high schools and business parks for the weekend, knowing those wouldn't be available on Friday.
"This isn't like Cog Hill," Kaczkowski said. "We can't just call Mount Assisi."
Only a handful of players were at the course, mostly those who had early tee times. One, Hunter Mahan, came out just in case the course was judged playable. He saw no problems with the rest of the week.
"Bellerive drains exceptionally well," Mahan said. "In a lot of places, we'd have (canceled) in two hours. This (zoysia) is a strong grass. It can take it."
Mahan can also take playing 36 in a day.
"And if you get the right momentum, you can ride it for a long time," Mahan said.
Especially on a course that has been soaked. No matter how quickly things dry out, the conditions will be anything but firm and fast. That means little roll in the fairways – don't be surprised if the PGA Tour plays "lift, clean and place" – but allows for shooting darts at pin placements.
"You can be aggressive and fire at the pins, because you know the ball's going to stop," Mahan said.
The course record is 5-under par 65, scored by Jeff Maggert in the third round of the 1992 PGA Championship. By Friday night, that sentence may have to be revised.
– Tim Cronin
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
Lovely though Bellerive Country Club is, perfectly positioned in greater St. Louis' version of Lake Forest, it lacks one luxury bauble.
A dome.
Had that been in place over the golf course today, the first round of the 105th Western Open would have taken place as scheduled. But Bellerive, being a real golf course and not one of the miniature variety, is subject to the vagaries of the weather, and the weather arrived in force late Wednesday night.
The remnants of Hurricane Gustav began as a light rain and barely a bit of wind. By early Thursday morning, the rain was steady, the wind gusty at times, and PGA Tour officials pushed the start of play back two hours. By late in the morning, there were consistent downpours, and at 11:30 a.m., Tour officials bowed to the inevitable, and called play for the day.
That moves the opening round of what these days is known as the BMW Championship to Friday, where the 69 players will commence firing at 10:40 a.m.
The good news is, even after 2.91 inches of rain, as measured by course superintendent Chuck Gast, the course will be playable and the gallery will be able to walk it. His tournament crew of 70, a group which includes 40 volunteers schooled in turfgrass management, were at work by early afternoon, even as the water ran off into 16 miles of drainage and then to the surrounding creek system.
"We're going to bounce back pretty quickly," Gast said. "We have a great drainage system. We just have to have some time to dry it out."
PGA Tour tournament director Slugger White mentioned Butler National Golf Club when assessing the extent of the deluge. He recalled the 1987 Western Open, when helicopters hovered over fairways to dry them out, and eventually, nine holes of the Oak Brook Golf Club municipal course was put into play to all a 54-hole tournament to be conducted.
"This may be as bad as I've seen it in a long, long time," White said. "We've got a mess out there. But Chuck Gast and his crew are doing a wonderful job. At Butler National, we had fish swimming on the greens there. And this downpour rivals some we've had at Castle Pines."
There was fear that much of Bellerive's front nine, which is in a flood plain, would be under water, but that proved not to be the case. The $9.5 million in renovations, made in 2006, paid off in the best possible way.
With a favorable weather forecast – the sun is advertised to appear on Friday – the plan is to play the first round on Friday, repair the field and play 36 holes on Saturday, and play the final round as scheduled on Sunday.
Saturday's television schedule has also been altered. NBC will be on the air as planned from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Central, after which it has the San Diego State-Notre Dame football game. At 2:30 p.m., the Golf Channel will pick up live coverage, and stay with it until the conclusion.
The big public parking lot on the Hunter Farms on Bellerive's western boundary was the biggest concern of Western Golf Association tournament director John Kaczkowski on Thursday.
"It's hilly," Kaczkowski said. "The hilly spots are drying out. The lower spots … "
Kaczkowski said that was the reason people holding Thursday tickets could use them Saturday or Sunday, but not Friday. He was working to find additional parking lots at high schools and business parks for the weekend, knowing those wouldn't be available on Friday.
"This isn't like Cog Hill," Kaczkowski said. "We can't just call Mount Assisi."
Only a handful of players were at the course, mostly those who had early tee times. One, Hunter Mahan, came out just in case the course was judged playable. He saw no problems with the rest of the week.
"Bellerive drains exceptionally well," Mahan said. "In a lot of places, we'd have (canceled) in two hours. This (zoysia) is a strong grass. It can take it."
Mahan can also take playing 36 in a day.
"And if you get the right momentum, you can ride it for a long time," Mahan said.
Especially on a course that has been soaked. No matter how quickly things dry out, the conditions will be anything but firm and fast. That means little roll in the fairways – don't be surprised if the PGA Tour plays "lift, clean and place" – but allows for shooting darts at pin placements.
"You can be aggressive and fire at the pins, because you know the ball's going to stop," Mahan said.
The course record is 5-under par 65, scored by Jeff Maggert in the third round of the 1992 PGA Championship. By Friday night, that sentence may have to be revised.
– Tim Cronin
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