Thursday
Aug202009
Commentary: Major plans for Bellerive
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 11:09PM
Friday, September 5, 2008
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
As thrilled as Bellerive Country Club officials have been to host this week's Western Open – or do you call it the BMW Championship? – the word is, they have other ideas about what grand showcase of golf they'll try to lure to their pristine acreage when the gates next open.
Think majors.
Think United States Open.
Think PGA Championship.
Think not? Both majors have been played here in the past – the U.S. Open in 1965, when Hord Hardin was a big wheel at Bellerive, prior to his Augusta National stewardship – and the PGA in 1992. (The U.S. Senior Open also played through in 2004.)
David Fay, executive director of the United States Golf Association, was on hand earlier in the week. Kerry Haigh, the tournament director of the PGA of America, dropped by as well.
They weren't on the premises just to have a burger and a beer.
They were interested in how the Western Golf Association, the PGA Tour, BMW and Bellerive managed to shoehorn a seat of corporate tents and sundry other hospitality into a rather tight footprint, especially by Cog Hill standards. As Thursday's rain continued to fall, they were also interested in the shuttle system WGA tournament director John Kaczkowski and his crew created overnight to replace the oversoaked parking lot adjacent to the course. It ran flawlessly, and plans called for double the number of buses for the weekend.
The USGA and the PGA don't take their cash-cow majors just anywhere. They go where they can put on a good show on a testing golf course.
Bellerive certainly fits the latter profile. Even with dartboard-soft greens and "lift, clean and place" in effect in the fairways, the day's low score was only the 5-under-par 65 fashioned by Camilo Villegas, matching the record established by Jeff Maggert in the 1992 PGA Championship.
The question is, is there enough room for Bellerive to host a full-scale major these days? Even compared to 1992, there's more corporate hospitality sold and more room needed for television – NBC's TV compound is across Ladue Rd., in the parking lot of a church – and most everything else associated with big-time tournament golf.
If the answer by one or the other is, "Yes, Bellerive is for us," that likely eliminates St. Louis as a stop in the Western's rotation, assuming that the entire FedEx Cup concept and BMW's sponsorship continues past the six years of the current contract, which ends in 2012. That's when the Western is played at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., after being played the next three years at Cog Hill.
The U.S. Open calendar is filled through 2015, when the new Chambers Bay Golf Club, near Seattle, will get the big show. The PGA is also locked in through 2015, except for 2014. So any potential Open or PGA at Bellerive would be a long way off, but the payoff in prestige would be huge, much bigger than a tournament with an automaker's name attached to it.
Bellerive took this year's Western because the club has a long association with the WGA, especially on the Evans Scholars Foundation side. E.J. "Dutch" Harrison won the 1953 Western at Bellerive's previous site – something likely unknown to the corporate folks who bought into the Dutch Harrison Suites for $150,000 each – and the club has been a solid contributor to the WGA's Par Club for decades. But once apparently will be enough.
And had it been some group other than the WGA running a tournament with BMW's name on it, the club might well have said, "No thanks," as Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn., did when it was approached by the WGA and PGA Tour to be part of the rotation. Hazeltine, another course which has hosted the U.S. Open and PGA, only wants majors on its property. Next up at Hazeltine: the 2016 Ryder Cup.
The potential elimination of Bellerive as a rotation host bodes well for Chicago, of course, and even better for Cog Hill, where the Western has been very much at home since 1991. This is a strange week at Cog, with the Western being played about 300 miles away, and a strange year in Chicago, which last was bypassed by the big circuit in 1960.
Meanwhile, they love the Western Open at Bellerive, no matter what the name. This year, at least.
– Tim Cronin
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
As thrilled as Bellerive Country Club officials have been to host this week's Western Open – or do you call it the BMW Championship? – the word is, they have other ideas about what grand showcase of golf they'll try to lure to their pristine acreage when the gates next open.
Think majors.
Think United States Open.
Think PGA Championship.
Think not? Both majors have been played here in the past – the U.S. Open in 1965, when Hord Hardin was a big wheel at Bellerive, prior to his Augusta National stewardship – and the PGA in 1992. (The U.S. Senior Open also played through in 2004.)
David Fay, executive director of the United States Golf Association, was on hand earlier in the week. Kerry Haigh, the tournament director of the PGA of America, dropped by as well.
They weren't on the premises just to have a burger and a beer.
They were interested in how the Western Golf Association, the PGA Tour, BMW and Bellerive managed to shoehorn a seat of corporate tents and sundry other hospitality into a rather tight footprint, especially by Cog Hill standards. As Thursday's rain continued to fall, they were also interested in the shuttle system WGA tournament director John Kaczkowski and his crew created overnight to replace the oversoaked parking lot adjacent to the course. It ran flawlessly, and plans called for double the number of buses for the weekend.
The USGA and the PGA don't take their cash-cow majors just anywhere. They go where they can put on a good show on a testing golf course.
Bellerive certainly fits the latter profile. Even with dartboard-soft greens and "lift, clean and place" in effect in the fairways, the day's low score was only the 5-under-par 65 fashioned by Camilo Villegas, matching the record established by Jeff Maggert in the 1992 PGA Championship.
The question is, is there enough room for Bellerive to host a full-scale major these days? Even compared to 1992, there's more corporate hospitality sold and more room needed for television – NBC's TV compound is across Ladue Rd., in the parking lot of a church – and most everything else associated with big-time tournament golf.
If the answer by one or the other is, "Yes, Bellerive is for us," that likely eliminates St. Louis as a stop in the Western's rotation, assuming that the entire FedEx Cup concept and BMW's sponsorship continues past the six years of the current contract, which ends in 2012. That's when the Western is played at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., after being played the next three years at Cog Hill.
The U.S. Open calendar is filled through 2015, when the new Chambers Bay Golf Club, near Seattle, will get the big show. The PGA is also locked in through 2015, except for 2014. So any potential Open or PGA at Bellerive would be a long way off, but the payoff in prestige would be huge, much bigger than a tournament with an automaker's name attached to it.
Bellerive took this year's Western because the club has a long association with the WGA, especially on the Evans Scholars Foundation side. E.J. "Dutch" Harrison won the 1953 Western at Bellerive's previous site – something likely unknown to the corporate folks who bought into the Dutch Harrison Suites for $150,000 each – and the club has been a solid contributor to the WGA's Par Club for decades. But once apparently will be enough.
And had it been some group other than the WGA running a tournament with BMW's name on it, the club might well have said, "No thanks," as Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn., did when it was approached by the WGA and PGA Tour to be part of the rotation. Hazeltine, another course which has hosted the U.S. Open and PGA, only wants majors on its property. Next up at Hazeltine: the 2016 Ryder Cup.
The potential elimination of Bellerive as a rotation host bodes well for Chicago, of course, and even better for Cog Hill, where the Western has been very much at home since 1991. This is a strange week at Cog, with the Western being played about 300 miles away, and a strange year in Chicago, which last was bypassed by the big circuit in 1960.
Meanwhile, they love the Western Open at Bellerive, no matter what the name. This year, at least.
– Tim Cronin
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