Bellerive Country Club Facts: 5 Things To Know About The 2026 BMW Championship Venue
The BMW Championship is being held at a new venue this week, here are five things to know about Bellerive Country Club
The second leg of the FedExCup Playoffs are underway in St. Louis, Missouri, at Bellerive Country Club.
The top 50 players in the standings will be cut to 30 leading into the Tour Championship next week.
What stands between the players and extending their season for one more event is a monstrous 7,448-yard golf course steeped in history and unforgettable moments.
Here are five things to know about Bellerive Country Club...
History
The long and brutish layout that can be seen this week at the BMW Championship has not always been the same at Bellerive Country Club.
When it was founded in 1897, the original course was just nine-holes in a completely different location, before members moved in 1910 to land in Normandy, Missouri, capable of holding a full 18.
When in Normandy, the club hosted the 1953 Western Open, which is still running today under the guise of the BMW Championship.
In 1960, the club moved once again and was shaped into the course that we see today by Robert Trent Jones
The golf club is named after the last French commander in North America, Louis St. Ange Bellerive, as parts of Missouri were colonised and governed by the French in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Architect
The current course we see at Bellerive Country Club was designed in 1959 by renowned architect, Robert Trent Jones, before opening in 1960.
One of Jones' guiding philosophies was that a golf course should pose a "hard par, easy bogey" - a principle that can be seen throughout Bellerive's challenging layout .
Golf fans will get another glimpse of Jones' work next year when the 2027 Ryder Cup heads to Adare Manor in Ireland.
Grand Slam
Bellerive Country Club is part of an exclusive club, being one of only five courses to crown a Grand Slam champion.
Winning the US Open here in 1965, Gary Player became the third player, at the time along with Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan, to achieve the feat.
He completed the slam in an 18 hole playoff after seeing a three-stroke lead slip in the last three holes on Sunday.
The only other venues to crown a Grand Slam champion are Augusta National (Gene Sarazen and Rory McIlroy), Carnoustie (Ben Hogan), St Andrews (Tiger Woods) and Muirfield (Jack Nicklaus).
2018 Drama
This week's BMW Championship is the first PGA Tour event the venue has hosted since Brooks Koepka won his first of three PGA Championship titles in 2018.
Koepka birdied two of the last four holes during his final round, memorably holding off Tiger Woods, who finished two back in second and shot a six-under-par 64, from completing the miracle comeback story that he would go on to complete a year later at the Masters.
During the tournament, Koepka broke the record for the lowest ever 72-hole aggregate score in the PGA Championship with 264. The record has since been broken by Xander Schauffele as he shot 263 at Valhalla in 2024.
2030 Presidents Cup
It was announced in November 2025 that Bellerive Country Club will host the 2030 Presidents Cup for the first time.
It adds to the storied history of events held here that include three Major championships, the US Mid-Amateur, the US Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship.
The Presidents Cup heads to Medinah Country Club in September, a course that will be remembered for very different reasons by European and American fans after the 2012 Ryder Cup.
