Bellerive returns to the PGA TOUR schedule for the second FedExCup Playoff event, hosting the top 50 players in a no-cut, 72-hole event that will cut the field to the 30 who advance to the TOUR Championship at East Lake.
Scottie Scheffler arrives at No. 1 after winning at TPC Southwind, ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim and Wyndham Clark, with Sam Burns, Chris Gotterup, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Åberg completing the top 10.
Sungjae Im was the only player to force his way inside the bubble last week, jumping from 53rd to 40th with a fifth-place finish; Matt McCarty holds the last spot at No. 50 and Keith Mitchell dropped to 51st.
Course History
The club dates to 1897, when it was a nine-hole course in north St. Louis, but the current Robert Trent Jones Sr. parkland layout opened on Memorial Day 1960 and hosted the U.S. Open only five years later.
It's the youngest course ever to do so, where Gary Player beat Kel Nagle in a playoff to complete the career Grand Slam.
Nick Price won his first major there in the 1992 PGA Championship; the club has since added the 2004 U.S. Senior Open, Camilo Villegas's breakthrough win at the 2008 BMW Championship, the 2013 Senior PGA, and Brooks Koepka's victory in the 2018 PGA Championship, where he finished 16 under with Tiger Woods two back after a closing 64.
Rees Jones renovated the course in 2006, and further work followed the 2018 PGA.
Every green was rebuilt from the subsurface up in 2019, six holes were lengthened for roughly 130 additional yards, and extensive tree removal has improved airflow and sightlines.
It plays as a 7,448-yard par 70 — among the longest on TOUR, with only two par 5s, both over 600 yards, six par 4s of at least 460 and four par 3s ranging from about 170 to 237 yards.
The 15th through 18th is a brutal close, and the 14th–17th "Ridge" stretch remains the signature sequence.
The Scoring Question
Bellerive asks a simple question repeatedly rather than a clever one; there are no blind shots and few alternative routes.
Fairways average about 34 yards wide, but the bunkers were pushed to the 280–320-yard range, so length is worth more than raw accuracy, provided players avoid the 3.5-inch fescue, which cut greens-in-regulation from 79% to 42% in 2018.
The 7,500-square-foot greens are among the biggest on TOUR and are carved by ridges that leave 40- to 60-foot putts on "good" shots, which is why approach play dominated in 2018 (14 of the top 15 gained at least half a stroke per round). Greenside bunkers accounted for about 34% of short-game shots, compared with a 23% TOUR average.
The 2018 championship played +0.11 over par, but on a soaked golf course. If the agronomy staff gets the firm, fast conditions they're targeting, no small thing in a humid St. Louis August, even par should again be a strong number.
BMW Championship Picks
Ludvig Åberg (+1800)
If you built a golf course in a lab to fit Åberg, it would look a lot like Bellerive.
This is a 7,448-yard par 70 with fairways over 30 yards wide, and bunkering pushed out to the 280-to-320 range — a setup that rewards players who can carry the trouble and still find short grass.
That is the entire Åberg profile.
He hits it long and he hits it straight, with the kind of machine-like repeatability that suits a course with no blind shots, no hidden angles and no clever routes around the challenge.
Bellerive asks the same question 18 times; Åberg has the same answer.
The comp courses back it up. He won at Torrey Pines South, he finished T3 at Bay Hill this year and T8 at Quail Hollow, which are three driver-heavy tracks where you have to move it out there and then hit quality long irons.
That is the exact skill set Bellerive demands, particularly with six par 4s at 460 or longer and three that can stretch past 500.
He also arrives in form, coming off a T9 and a T7. At +1800 in a 50-man no-cut field, on a golf course that fits him about as cleanly as any on the schedule, this is the bet on the card that holds the most value.
Hideki Matsuyama (+2700)
Hideki Matsuyama is striking the ball too well to get off him now.
Last week he gained just under 10 strokes ball striking and still lost more than two on the greens — go neutral with the putter and he is in the mix with Scottie on Sunday.
That is not a fluke week, either. Look at the run: T14, T14, T3, T5, T7, T7.
He has been one of the best players in the world tee-to-green for two months and has nothing to show for it.
Bellerive is a ball-striker's golf course. In 2018, 14 of the top 15 finishers gained at least half a stroke per round on approach and 10 of them gained a full stroke.
Add in 7,500-square-foot greens carved up by ridges and tiers, where being on the correct shelf matters more than simply hitting the surface, and you are describing exactly what Matsuyama does better than almost anyone.
He hasn't won this year. Given how he is playing, one is coming. At +2700 in a small field on a course that pays for elite iron play, I have no choice but to run it back.
Rickie Fowler (+6000)
Fowler is the first of two sprinkles, and he models out far better than the number suggests. At +6000, you are getting real win equity from a player whose profile lines up with what Bellerive is asking.
In a 50-man no-cut field, a triple-digit-adjacent price on a player the model likes is exactly where you want your smaller units.
Justin Rose (+7000)
This is the same story as Fowler at +7000. Rose has never been a stranger to big, long, demanding golf courses, and the model has him well ahead of his price this week.
He is a live outright at a number that gives you plenty of cushion, and a sprinkle here is the kind of bet that makes the week if it lands and costs you almost nothing if it doesn't.
