Bellerive Country Club

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Bellerive Country Club is a golf country club located in Town and Country, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

1 History
2 The course
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The club originally opened in 1897, and it was first called The Field Club. It was founded by several St. Louis sportsmen who wanted a place for golf and other leisure activities. The club only had nine holes when it first opened as it was on land leased from the estate of American Revolutionary War war hero Daniel Bissell.

The club grew in membership coinciding with the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis. The club soon added nine more holes to have an eighteen hole course. In 1910, the country club and golf course were relocated to nearby Normandy. The country club was also renamed the Bellerive Country Club after the last French Governor in North America, Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. A new clubhouse was also built in the style of Georgian architecture.

The first notable golf tournament held at Bellerive was the 1949 Western Amateur Championship. Four years later, in 1953, the club would host the Western Open of the PGA Tour. E.J. "Dutch" Harrison won that tournament. Six years later, in 1959, the club was relocated to the current site in the suburb of Town and Country. Robert Trent Jones designed the new course, and it officially opened on Memorial Day 1960.

The club hosted its first USGA championship and major championship when the 1965 U.S Open was held at Bellerive. Gary Player won in a playoff with a score of two over par. The course would host the inaugural U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1981 won by Jim Holtgrieve. In 1992, Bellerive hosted the PGA Championship. Nick Price won his first major championship with a score of 278, or six under par.

Bellerive was one of the courses used in the qualifying stroke play round of the 1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur. In 2001, the course was supposed to host the WGC-American Express Championship, but the event was cancelled because of the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, the course hosted the United States Senior Open in 2004, won by Peter Jacobsen. ^[1] ^[2]

The course is scheduled to host the 2008 BMW Championship (PGA Tour) (formally know as the Western Open ^[3] ) September 1-7. This prestigious and exclusive championship will feature the top 70 players in the world competing for the final spots in the TOUR Championship and the ultimate prize of $10,000,000. St. Louis will be the host to a packed field of top professionals such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen.

[edit] The course

Bellerive is a long course, measuring 7,177 yards and playing to a par of 71 for men and 72 for women. The course is rather open on the front nine, and narrower on the back nine. Water hazards come into play on eleven holes, and the course is known for its undulating greens. bent grass is used for the greens, and zoysia grass is used for the fairways. Bellerive has a course and slope rating of 75.0/144 from the back tees.

The course has three par fives, two of which are very long (over 580 yards). The tenth hole is a par five for women but a par four for men. ^[4]

In 2006 the course underwent a 9.5 million dollar redesign from Rees Jones, the noted "Open Doctor" who has previously lengthened and toughened Winged Foot and Torrey Pines, both of which have been recently given U.S. Opens. The course staged the 2004 U.S. Senior Open and was praised for its management of it.