Why Bellerive Was A Perfect Course for the 100th PGA Championship

Bellerive Country Club took a lot of unwarranted criticism last week, but it turned out to be the perfect venue for the 100th PGA Championship.

There have been a number of critics taking shots at this year’s PGA Championship venue, Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. Some people just don’t think the course, which has held several majors in the past, is up to championship quality. Others objected to the softness of the course, which was due to the weather. And there are many critics who are, plain and simple, snobs.

Snobs would prefer a more “historic” course. However, golf is played across the entire U.S. at nearly 15,000 locations. It does not serve the PGA of America, or the country as a whole, to suggest that excellent quality golf doesn’t exist outside a handful of courses like Shinnecock or Pebble Beach, because it does. There are wonderful courses from Massachusetts to Hawaii, from Washington to Florida.

Golf Digest’s most recent list of the top courses in America includes many tracks in the interior of the U.S., like Muirfield Village in Ohio, Sand Hills (Nebraska), Crystal Downs (Michigan), Chicago GC, The Golf Club (New Albany, Ohio), Camargo Club, Laurel Valley (Pennsylvania) and more.

Outside of Muirfield Village, many of these locations, for one reason or another, are not suited to hosting a major championship, which, these days, is different than it was 25 years ago.

ST LOUIS, MO – AUGUST 12: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his shot from the tenth tee during the final round of the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club on August 12, 2018 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images) /

Today’s major sites have to have more than a quality golf course.

A tournament site has to be in a location that people can get to relatively easily by air, and, as such, it has to have a good airport.

A major course has to have to have space for hospitality tents, because that’s what pays the purse. It has to have roads accessible for delivery of food and beverages for everyone on site.

There have to be sufficient hotel rooms for travelers, for television and media personnel as well as staff and players within 45 minutes of the site. There have to be large hotels with ballrooms where parties and functions can be held. There have to be restaurants where people can find dinner after golf.

A major venue today has to have places off site for thousands of people to park and roadways so fans can be shuttled to the course. The days when spectators could park on site are long gone.

There has to be a way to get galleries out of the course in the event of lightning. There has to be a way to get emergency vehicles onto the course.

Sometimes, as in the case of Whistling Straits, Shinnecock Hills or Pebble Beach, the criteria are stretched nearly to the breaking point.

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In addition, the golf course has to be long enough to challenge today’s players, and with today’s long hitters, that’s a difficult task.

The course has to have enough space between holes for gallery to flow and for people to watch the golfers.

While tightly packed in its location, Bellerive met those necessities. But it has done something that many sites do not do. It has proven itself as quality major championship site because of the quality of the leaderboard it produced.

One of my friends who has been writing about golf for more than 30 years has a theory on tournament golf. His thinking is that, if you set up the course to make it so hard that it’s impossible to play, luck becomes the difference-maker in the tournament. Skill is negated.

When luck dictates the outcome, there are “surprise” winners. Surprise winners are often the survivors. They got the luck of the draw or the luck of the bounce. Meanwhile, the most skilled players may have gotten just enough bad bounces to take them out of the tournament by throwing their golf balls into bunkers or water hazards or out-of-bounds.

Next. 2018 Wyndham Championship Power Rankings. dark

By the standard of delivering a quality leaderboard, Bellerive excelled in the most important test of all. Most, if not all, of the cream rose to the top of the leaderboard by Sunday morning, providing excitement for golf fans and a feeling of satisfaction for all but the most critical of golf analysts.

If the quality of the leaderboard on Sunday defines a great event, Bellerive CC was a more than fitting site for the 100^th PGA Championship. It was the best it could have possibly picked.

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