In 2018, the PGA of America will hold the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive C.C. in St. Louis – home of Trinity Bantam Jay Williamson as well as several prominent Senior Tour members such as Jay Haas and Hale Irwin. It will be the third time the club will host the event; Gary Player won the 1965 PGA Championship, and Nick Price won his first PGA Championship in 1992.
Reaction to the choice of Bellerive has been mixed. The choice of St. Louis continues a strange and seemingly unexplainable trend – in the 35 years between 1983 and 2018, the PGA Championship will have been contested west of the Rocky Mountains exactly two times, both at Riviera, (1983 and 1995). In addition, the 1985 PGA was at Cherry Hills, outside Denver. Other than that, the west side of the Mississippi has been pin-drop quiet in terms of the PGA Championship while boring snore-fests like Medinah get treated like royalty, with multiple PGAs and the Ryder Cup.
It’s strange, but the U.S. Open is stuck on the coasts, while the PGA Tour can’t leave middle America. One prominent U.S.G.A. official once lamented, “we’re really looking for a midwest venue, but we just can’t seem to do it. If you have an idea, shout it out.”
I’ve been yelling “Oakland Hills” for ages. People who are not well connected with either the PGA or USGA seem to think that venues are either “USGA venues” or “PGA Championship venues,” but officials from both Associations say that’s simply not true. “It’s more just coincidence and scheduling than any feeling of a course being suited to one or the other. We talk about trading venues all the time, but it happens rarely,” said Mike Davis last year at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
The PGA Championship long had an identity crisis due to poor choices of venue – most notably the ghastly disaster of the old PGA National venue designed by Tom Fazio, roundly panned to this day as the worst major venue in history.
To combat the conception the PGA began going to seminal U.S. Open venues such as Southern Hills, Oakland Hills, and Baltusrol, and excellent championships were contested to rave reviews. Medinah an Valhalla, however remain in high rotation despite being poor to average in terms of golf course architecture.
Some now put Bellerive in that category.
“Bellerive isn’t even one of the top three courses in St. Louis!” groused one golf course architecture expert from the mid-west, instead hailing St. Louis Country Club, Old Warson, and Westwood as better than Bellerive. St. Louis C.C. is one of Seth Raynor’s best designs, and is a much better course. Bellerive is big and bland, but got the nod anyway because they can provide the support infrastructure for a huge event.
Still, the mid-west’s infectious fervor and unconditional love for golf and record attendances repeatedly endears PGA of America to the mid-west for a good reason. Hazeltine National maybe a boring layout, bu it is an ergonomic marvel. It can easily hold 50,000 per day, it’s easy to get to, get home, and get around. Contrast Pebble Beach, a much stronger, and more historic layout, but a logistical nightmare, and one can see the attraction: fewer headaches for everyone.
Still, for the 100th playing of the tournament, many feel the PGA could have picked a more stately and historic venue: one that would properly match the grandeur and regalia the 100th playing will require in order to properly mark the occasion with the appropriate pomp and circumstance.
Meanwhile, Oakland Hills still waits for its next chance…
