The biggest names in golf will be coming to St. Louis next week to participate in the 100th PGA Championship. This is a really big deal:

"...even if you’re not a golf fan this is arguably the largest global event we’ve hosted in our town since 1904."


https://www.stltoday.com/sports/golf/be ... 7ab46.html

** our city. St Louis is a metro of 3+ Million, lol.

But yes, this is a huge deal. Not to mention, this is the 100th PGA Championship. This is a HUGE win for the region to get this here.

$2 million in hat sales alone.

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/golf/mi ... 30bd1.html

Saw this in an article and wanted to post it.


Only three players in the field for the PGA Championship were at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis when it last hosted the PGA in 1992. And only 13 players were at Bellerive when it had the BMW Championship in 2008.

So it will be a new experience for most — starting with the location.

Francesco Molinari, for one, has never been to St. Louis. Does he know where it is?

"Roughly," the Italian said with a smile. "Not exactly, but roughly."

Rory McIlroy has been to St. Louis once, though not for golf.

"My uncle's wedding," he said. "I'm not kidding. He's from Northern Ireland. He married someone from that way, somewhere in there."

U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka has been to St. Louis as a kid, but little recollection, but he does know a little about the city.

"That's where Anheuser-Busch is," he said with a smile.

From the PGA website https://www.pga.com/events/pgachampions ... d-closures:

"After consulting with 24 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, tournament and local officials decided that shuttles were the safest way to get fans through the narrow streets near the country club.

There also won't be any pedestrian or bicycle access to the tournament, in part because many of the streets around the course have no sidewalks."

Numerous decades ago when I worked at Bellerive CC and the club was closed on Mondays employees could play the course

By all accounts the PGA Championship was a huge success. The crowds were large and enthusiastic, play on the course was exceptional, and St. Louis got lots of great PR. The dramatic return of Tiger Woods was icing on the cake, which will make this Championship memorable for years to come.

framer wrote: ↑

Aug 14, 2018

By all accounts the PGA Championship was a huge success. The crowds were large and enthusiastic, play on the course was exceptional, and St. Louis got lots of great PR. The dramatic return of Tiger Woods was icing on the cake, which will make this Championship memorable for years to come.

Does anyone know where to find official attendance numbers from this year and years past? I'd love to see how STL compares

^ I don't think they release attendance #'s for majors but just about every golfer said this was the biggest crowd they had seen at a major.

Great showing by STL, a few remarks:

https://deadspin.com/tiger-woods-is-back-1828297102

“I’ve covered games in the Coliseum, with 85,000 people there, hollering,” a TV cameraman told Golf.com. “This was more than that ... The crowd noise for Tiger was like a storm brewing. You’d be standing on the side of the fairway and he’d be walking up it and it was like a sound wave, building up, getting louder and louder.”

“You could hear the roars from different parts of the golf course,” said Justin Thomas, the defending champion who had a share of the lead on the back nine but faltered to a T-6 finish. “It’s pretty apparent what a Tiger roar is versus anybody else. So I knew he was making noise.”

https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2018/8/12 ... d-reaction

“These fans were so positive all week, I can’t thank them enough for what they were saying out there, what it meant to me as a player,” Woods told Amanda Balionis on CBS after his final round.

https://www.pga.com/events/pgachampions ... -sunday-64

“It felt like a football atmosphere, in a good way,” said Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie. “My (19-year-old) son is out here, and he saw me on one hole and said, ‘Dad, this is so loud. This has to pump you up.’ And it does. The last time it’s been like this? It’s been a while."

It seemed to me, a person who has never set foot on BCC grounds and watched a good portion of the tournament on TV, that there wasn't a ton of open space. So even thought it seemed crowded, was it more a case of high density in certain places and very low density in other places? Felt like there were long stretches where there weren't patrons - because they weren't allowed, not because the weren't there - or hospitality tents, ala 11-13 at Augusta (I think).

ricke002 wrote: ↑

Aug 14, 2018

It seemed to me, a person who has never set foot on BCC grounds and watched a good portion of the tournament on TV, that there wasn't a ton of open space. So even thought it seemed crowded, was it more a case of high density in certain places and very low density in other places? Felt like there were long stretches where there weren't patrons - because they weren't allowed, not because the weren't there - or hospitality tents, ala 11-13 at Augusta (I think).

I was there Sunday. There was room to move around in most places. I got there around 10 am and there were plenty of places to set up still. I think even the grandstand at 18 still had room at that point. I would agree with the high density/low density in different places comment.

As things started to finish up and holes weren't in use anymore then it got pretty crowded as people had to compact on the holes left. The 18th was a little bit of a madhouse (as to be expected) towards the end. There was a bottleneck getting out. People were standing on the stairs to watch so it was hard to get out for people. They could have used more exit spots, but besides that I thought it went well.

Seems like they could have waited a year or 5 before announcing this

The 2026 BMW Championship will be held in St. Louis at Bellerive Country Club!

According to Baltimore (2025 host) the event is going to drive over $60 million of economic activity. It’s going to bring over 100,000 new visitors to Baltimore.

This is great for StL.

The BMW Championship used to be known as the Western Open and was referred to colloquially as the “Fifth Major”. This tournament has existed since the 19th century.

St. Louis has played host many times:

1908: Normandie
1938, 1952: Westwood
1946: Sunset
1953; 2008: Bellerive

In the second half of the 20th century it morphed into the Chicago Open and the tournament bailed on many great courses and cities (StL, Cleveland, Cincy, Minneapolis).

Hopefully this means StL will be regular stop for this tournament again