The golf world turns its attention to St. Louis this week as the PGA TOUR’s best return to historic Bellerive Country Club for the 2026 BMW Championship.
The tournament runs August 20-23 in Town and Country, Missouri, bringing PGA TOUR golf back to Bellerive for the first time since the memorable 2018 PGA Championship. It also marks Bellerive’s first BMW Championship since 2008.
More than another major sporting event for St. Louis, the BMW Championship arrives at one of the most important points of the PGA TOUR season. As the second of three FedExCup Playoffs events, only the top 50 players in the standings remain in contention. There is no 36-hole cut, meaning every player in the field has four rounds to make a move toward Atlanta.
The objective is simple: finish the week inside the top 30.
Those 30 players will advance to the TOUR Championship, where the FedExCup and a $40 million purse await.
Scottie Scheffler enters St. Louis with plenty of momentum after an eight-shot victory and leads the 50 players still alive in the PGA TOUR postseason. With the field cut nearly in half after this weekend, every shot at Bellerive carries additional weight.
Bellerive Presents a Championship Test
Designed by legendary architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1960, Bellerive has built its reputation by challenging some of the greatest golfers in history.
For the BMW Championship, the course is set to play approximately 7,448 yards with a championship par-70 configuration featuring 12 par 4s, four par 3s and two par 5s.
The course is no stranger to producing drama when the stakes are at their highest.
Bellerive’s championship history dates to the 1965 U.S. Open, when the club was only five years old.
That tournament became one of the defining moments of Gary Player’s career. After surrendering a three-shot lead over the final three holes, Player faced Australia’s Kel Nagle in an 18-hole Monday playoff. Player won the playoff and completed the career Grand Slam, joining Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan as the only men at the time to accomplish the feat.
The club is one of only five courses to have served as the site where a golfer completed the career Grand Slam, joining Augusta National, St. Andrews, Muirfield and Carnoustie.
Tiger, Koepka and an Unforgettable 2018 PGA Championship
For many modern golf fans, however, Bellerive will forever be connected to the 2018 PGA Championship.
Brooks Koepka ultimately lifted the Wanamaker Trophy, but Tiger Woods nearly stole the show.
Woods fired a final-round 64, the best final round of his major championship career, and finished at 14-under 266. Koepka answered with a Sunday 66, setting a PGA Championship scoring record at 16-under 264 and defeating Woods by two shots.
The victory gave Koepka his third major championship before turning 29, putting him in elite company alongside Jack Nicklaus, Jordan Spieth, Tom Watson and Woods among Americans to accomplish the feat.
For Woods, Bellerive became an important part of one of golf’s greatest comeback stories. His runner-up finish provided momentum that carried into a victory at the TOUR Championship just weeks later. In his next major appearance, Woods completed the comeback by winning the 2019 Masters for his 15th major championship.
Eight years later, championship golf has returned to the same grounds.
