Channelling the spirit of St Louis

By Adam Schupak

The forecast for the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club is for birdies in bunches.

That’s not the typical fare at a major championship, but Mother Nature has had her say, dumping more than an inch-and-a-half of rain on Tuesday across this corner of the Midwest built on the right bank of the Mississippi.

The Spirit of St Louis this week will be a dispiriting dose of 90-90 days: 90 degrees (32C) and 90% humidity. Morning thunderstorms on Tuesday halted practice rounds and a steady rain softened the course, making greens slow and spongy. The thirsty turf sprang to life, making the rough, unruly, and changing the complexion of the championship.

“If you played a practice round or any holes [on Tuesday], you learned nothing and, even from our vantage point, we learned nothing about it either,” Golf Channel and CBS commentator Frank Nobilo said.

“You hope that this isn’t what we’re going to see for four days. The golf course is better than that. This field, this championship deserves better than that.”

Instead, expect to see a birdie barrage, despite imperfect greens that required the collars to be re-sodded within the last month.

“You look at any place in this part of the country in August, with this much humidity and this much rain, I mean, they’re going to be soft, they’re going to be slower. It’s just the way it is,” said Justin Thomas.

PGA officials notified players earlier in the week that “due to the expected high temperatures and high humidity over the next couple of days, green speeds will remain slower than they are planned for championship rounds.”

Kerry Haigh, chief championship officer of the PGA, pointed out that “growing grass in August in St Louis is tough”, and updated the status of the greens yesterday, saying, “we’re extremely happy with where they are”.

However, expect muggy conditions and the par-70 layout to play long and the greens to be like dart practice for a field of 156 that includes 98 of the top 100 in the world.

“I think you’ll see guys shoot some low scores, given when they get into trouble you’re not going to see that many bogeys or doubles, or, if you keep the ball in front of you and into the right location around the greens, you really can make sure that you have at least an uphill at worst 10-footer for par on just about any hole,” said Jordan Spieth.

“There are some meaty holes out there where you really have to drive the ball well and hit a good long iron into the green, but there also are a lot of wedge opportunities that you can feed into these sections of the greens.”

The favourable scoring conditions could lead to record-low figures. It was just a year ago at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale that Branden Grace shot the first 62 at a major championship, and some players are predicting it could be matched or even broken. The 72-hole major championship scoring record of 265 set at the 2001 PGA at the Atlanta Athletic Club could also be endanger, but that doesn’t seem to concern the PGA.

“They want a really, obviously, a stern, tough test, but if conditions like we’re getting are going to dictate a championship, then they’re not going to go out there and try and prove anything or do anything, or mess up a course, in other words, or try and do too much to bring a score somewhere,” said Spieth.

The challenge of Bellerive is best demonstrated in the stretch of holes beginning at No 14 and concluding at No 17, known as “The Ridge”.

All of the holes on The Ridge play into a prevailing southerly wind, with holes 14 and 15 being difficult par-4s, the 16th being a 235-yard par three and the 17th being a difficult, but reachable par five. Many of the holes have a strong right-to-left bias and the conditions will favour a player who can bomb it off the tee and hoist short irons into soft greens. In other words, Bellerive is tailor-made for someone like Rory McIlroy.

“The conditions and the golf course are perfect for Rory,” said CBS commentator Peter Kostis.

“I walked with him Sunday at Bridgestone and he got a little sideways with the driver. It wasn’t up to his standard. That’s going to need to improve this week, because driving is going to be critically important. If he can do that, everything else is playing right into his hands.”