Facts and figures for 100th PGA C’ship
ST LOUIS: The 100th PGA Championship will be played from Aug 9-12 at Bellerive Country Club near St Louis, Missouri.
The PGA Championship is organised by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America and is the last of the four major championships, preceded by the US Masters, the US Open and the British Open.
This year’s event will be the last PGA Championship played in August with the tournament moving to May in 2019.
The defending champion is Justin Thomas, who won at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2017.
A maximum field of 156 will include past PGA champions plus the last five US Masters, US Open and British Open winners. • Bellerive Country Club Bellerive Country Club is located in Town and Country, Missouri, a suburb of St Louis, and is named after Louis Groston de SaintAnge de Bellerive, the last French commander in North America.
The club, originally founded in 1897 as The Field Club, moved to its current location in 1959 with its Robert Trent Jones designed course opening in 1960. Jones’s son Rees led a year-long renovation in 2005- 6 with the Bellerive reopening in October 2006.
The course has hosted two previous majors, the 1965 US Open won by South African Gary Player, and the 1992 PGA Championship won by Zimbabwean Nick Price.
The 2004 US Senior Open, 2008 BMW Championship and 2013 Senior PGA Championship were also held at Bellerive. • The Course Nicknamed the Green Monster of Ladue, Bellerive is a long course built around a creek that comes into play on nine of the holes. There are water hazards on 11 holes and players will find large and undulating greens.
Six of the 12 par- four holes measure over 450 yards, the longest being the 521-yard fourth.
There are four par threes and two par fives with the eighth hole playing to 610 yards. The numbers: Par 72 Yardage 7,547