Fantasy Golf: The BMW Championship Primer

September 1, 2008 8:29am CDT

The BMW Championship Bellerive Country Club @ St. Louis, Missouri
- Dates: Thursday, September 4th – Sunday, September 7th
- FedEx Cup Points: 11,000
- 2008 Purse: $7,000,000 (Winning Share: $1,260,000)

Tournament Schedule First Round – Thursday, September 1 – 7am EST Start
Second Round - Friday, September 2 – 7am EST Start
Third Round – Satday, September 3 – 8:30am EST Start
Final Round – Sunday, September 4 – 8:00am EST Start

(NOTE: The broadcast schedule has not been solidified as of print time for our article, and thus we are unable to bring it to here.)

The Course
Bellerive Country Club
Course Par Value: 71
Course Yardage: 7,456

One course known by few on the PGA Tour, the Bellerive was chartered as a country club in 1897, located in the northern suburbs of St. Louis. Originally known as the St. Louis Field Club, the members incorporated the name in 1910 in honor of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, the last French commander in North America.

The course was built much later, in 1955 when the club relocated west and asked famed golf architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. to the proper farm location for this course. His plans earned quick acclaim and as the course was dubbed the “Green Monster of Ladue Road”, opening on Memorial Day in 1960.

The major note of worth has to be the massive renovations this course underwent during the years of 2005 and 2006, supervised and implemented by Rees Jones, the son of the original architect and renowned architect of the same ilk.

The PGA has not been to this course since the course reopened in October of 2006. The last major event to take place on this course was in 2004 when the U.S. Senior Open was held on these links. Before that, it was one of several courses planned for play in the World Golf Championships in 2001, but those plans were canceled due to the events of September 11th of that year.

Holes to Watch
Hole 2 (Par 4, 408 yds): Not only is it long, but the redesigned layout of this particular hole may represent the most intriguing layout on the course. The former layout put the green in the same dogleg-left formation but the flag could not be seen from the tee. An over-sized creek was given depth and size, thus turning into a lake that will come into play on errant drives that miss the fairway right. The green is undulated but manageable, meaning you’ll see more than a few players making a serious bid at birdie if they play the first stroke correctly.

Hole 8 (Par 5, 610 yds): This whole was a rather simple par 5 before reconstruction that has improved the angle off the tee box, giving players a strong look at birdie if they can keep it straight with distance out of the box. Sand traps were added to spice the landing area a bit but the approach could be of benefit for those looking to lower scores going into the back nine.

Hole 11 (Par 4, 376 yds): Another hole that will tempt those that can go long off the tee, asking golfers to shape their tee shots with a slight turn moving right-to-left and navigating a generous fairway between water and sand. Come up short and you face obstructed views into a tight green guarded on both sides by the beach, but the putting should be gracious once they get on the floor.

Hole 18 (Par 4, 460 yds): While the layout is not particularly exciting, the opportunity to go for birdie on the final hole will be. This is a manageable par 4, offering a landing area for those that hit long and prefer to add a bit of draw (preferred by most of the professional duffers). If the tournament is close, there will be action at this closing link.


2007 Review
PLACE PLAYER FINAL
1 Tiger Woods -22 (262)
2 Aaron Baddeley -20 (264)
3 Steve Stricker -18 (266)
4 Adam Scott -14 (270)
T5 Tim Clark -13 (271)
T5 Justin Rose -13 (271)
T7 Stewart Cink -12 (272)
T7 Camilo Villegas -12 (272)
9 Sergio Garcia -10 (274)
T10 Ian Poulter -9 (275)
T10 Rory Sabbatini -9 (275)
T10 Carl Pettersson -9 (275)
T10 Jonathan Byrd -9 (275)


The Field
The field of 120 from last week’s 2nd-stage playoff starter at the Deutsche Bank Championship has been trimmed to 70 with this week’s tourney cutting it down to 30 for the FedEx Cup finale at the Tour Championship, leaving a group bloated with the top Tour professionals in the world.

Reading the field is akin to reading a list of the top players in the world with only a few names missing, including Adam Scott, Carl Pettersson, Jim Furyk, Ryuji Imada, Sean O’Hair, Kenny Perry, Steve Stricker, Stewart Cink, Stephen Ames, Hunter Mahan, Ernie Els, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson, Boo Weekley, Vijay Singh, K.J. Choi, Paul Casey, Camilo Villegas, and Padraig Harrington.

To view the entire field, visit this link:
http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r028/field.html

Enjoy.