2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive

[Club Rat]

[ChrisP]

Watching the practice round some, the greens are the softest I think I've ever seen on a golf course. You hit it in there and the ball just stops. So I think the guys who play good "dart golf" will have a big week this week. That's DJ, Rory, Koepka, Finau and some of the more power guys who like to go at flags. 

[Frank-0-Sport]

OWGR Events Page -- Toggle "SoF" (Field Strength) -- so that the highest such ranked event is at the top, followed by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. such ranked events in descending order.

The 100th edition of the PGA Championship currently has an OWGR SoF (Field Strength) rating of 920, which puts the event at the top spot in 2018, followed by (Top Five such ranked events) the 147th Open Championship (902), the U.S. Open (855), Players Championship (854), the Masters Tournament (794), and WGC-Bridgestone (751).

The PGA Championship's 920 SoF rating may change before the first round of play depending on withdrawals, so the tournament's claim to "Number One" is not yet a sure thing.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 7/24/2018 at 2:26 PM, ChrisP said:

On 7/25/2018 at 12:26 PM, DeadMan said:

Robert Trent Jones Sr. design and Rees Jones redesign? Holy shit, count me out of this one. Half the holes will have fairway bunkers on both sides of the landing area for tee shots. They'll have 20 yards of fairway to land it in. Except the long hitters will just be able to smash their drives over the bunkers and have wedges in. Ugh.

 

Makes me wonder when the redesign was done? Could RTJ or RJ envision just how long Tour pros hit it these days? Could they even imagine 500+ yard par 4's?

[nevets88]

More shorts

Did I read that right, 5 wraps for driver grip?

Single length Irons Guy, shorts

 

Tony Finau on his way to the All England Club.

 

[Club Rat]

1 hour ago, ChrisP said:

the greens are the softest I think I've ever seen on a golf course

Bent greens with plush zoysia fairways leads for high spinners which are common in the St Lou golf courses.
Also, with the warm temps, the greens will be watered down until cooler temps later this week.

Many shots can embed on the greens this time of year. I've had shots at our course create a crater on impact.
Ball mark repairs will take a little extra TLC.

[Zeph]

 

Weather.com predicts showers on Saturday with chances of thunderstorms.

[Club Rat]

@Zeph the greens are typical RTJ designed, massive and tiered "Rees (Jones) did a wonderful job of maintaining the integrity of the golf course while bringing it up to modern standards,” claims Tucker.  “The greens were 8,800 square feet on average before the renovation, and now they are 8,200 square feet.  Rees stayed true to his green-within-a-green concept that requires a properly placed approach shot to the green if you don’t want to face a 40-, 50-, or 60foot putt.  You must be on the correct side of the ridges on the greens, making your approach shot to the green very important.  Even though the greens are large, putting will be extremely challenging if you fail to hit the proper target on the green.  To put the ball in the proper place on the large greens, you need to be playing out of the fairway." http://www.reesjonesinc.com/pdf/pga-magazine-july-2018.pdf

Word around town has been they will rip up the greens after the PGA and lay new turf.
Yes - certain areas of these large greens will be scalped to increase the stimpmeter, most likely the false fronts and flatter areas. 
And pending pin positions, they can control speed across these large surfaces on uphill or downhill putts to pins in certain areas.

I was watching the local news coverage last night and they had a clip of Matsuyama putting on a green.
The pin area was up a severe slope and he was making a really large stroke trying to reach the plateau area.

Even with rain showers today, the greens will roll incredible during Thurs - Sunday.
If anything, ball marks and spike marks will reek havoc for late tee time players around the holes.
 

 

[nevets88]

Pat Perez?

 

[Club Rat]

It's been mostly light rain since last night with a few heavier spot showers.
Tiger and several other players were up early hitting balls on the range at 7am, but it's not likely they will spend much time on course today.

Looks like a two hour window this afternoon before the next system rolls into the area.

[nevets88]

More shorts

 

[mcanadiens]

5 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

More shorts

 

Jesus. Is it a golf tournament or a Nair commercial?

[Shindig]

21 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Jesus. Is it a golf tournament or a Nair commercial?

The guy in the blue shirt and white shorts looks like he's about to start dancing.

[nevets88]

6 minutes ago, Shindig said:

The guy in the blue shirt and white shorts looks like he's about to start dancing.

Quick, somebody hit a golf ball at him! 😛

[Club Rat]

PGA Championship 2018: Michael Block is coming back home—thanks to his quick-thinking son.

Michael Block is the head professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif., a public course paradoxically close to the freeway in South Orange County yet free of the imposing housing tracts that proliferate in those parts.

Block, as you might know though probably don’t, is a past winner of the PGA Professional Championship, the club pros’ major. But those who routinely follow golf likely saw video of his son and caddie, Dylan, 13, spotting Dad’s golf ball in a burrowing animal hole, then sticking his arm into it to retrieve it in the second round of the PGA Professional Championship at the Bayonet Golf Course in Seaside, Calif., in June.

Dylan’s save in the second round and a timely admonishment in the final round enabled Block to finish in the top 20 at the PGA Professional Championship, earning him a start in the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club outside St. Louis.

Block, who played college golf at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, grew up two miles from Bellerive. He attended the PGA Championship there in 1992 and had Payne Stewart and winner Nick Price sign his program.

Twenty years later, the PGA of America announced that Bellerive would host the PGA Championship in 2018. “For six years, it’s been my goal to play in it,” he said. “Dylan is the reason I’m going to the PGA Championship.”

Good Luck Michael and welcome home. 

[nevets88]

Didn't NBC do something like this? IIRC, the resolution was terrible though.

Quote

At the PGA Championship, CBS will introduce 4D Replay on the 15th tee. The video can pan 270 degrees, zoom in and slow down, creating what should be an interesting tool to study players’ swings.

https://golfweek.com/2018/08/07/golf-on-tv-cbs-ramps-up-the-technology-for-pga-championship/

[308 Ragin Cajun]

On 7/24/2018 at 1:26 PM, ChrisP said:

Zach hasn't really had that great a year, though. Only one top-10. He played well at the British, but he plays well there all the time. 

Heard some early analysis that they're expecting a lot of low scores at this PGA. They changed it to a par-72 with 4 par-5s, two which are pretty short, all which are reachable. Also 4 par-4s which are relatively short. So it should favor the big hitters who like to go out and make a lot of birdies. Guys like Rory, Koepka, DJ. Hurts the grinders out there who like the difficult conditions and courses.

I believe those 2 short par 5s were changed to long par 4s for this tournament. The scorecard on the PGA website shows only 2 par 5s on the course, with a 508 yd par 4, and 1 at 495

On 7/25/2018 at 6:07 PM, Club Rat said:

I think they will play Hole #10 as a par 4 and move the tee box forward a tad.
That is what they have done in the past events.
Unless they built a new tee box back towards the driving range and pool area in the past few years?

4 will pay as  pr 4 at 521 yards, and 10 will be a par 4 at 508 yards - Par = 70.

[Frank-0-Sport]

PGA Championship -- Bellerive Course Overview (Link)

Very nice looking course -- hope the tournament gets a good break with the weather

Edited August 8, 2018 by Frank-0-Sport