TOWN AND COUNTRY, MO – August 18, 2026 (STL.News) The return of championship golf to Bellerive Country Club this week is bringing some of the world’s best golfers to the St. Louis area — along with significant road closures, traffic restrictions and changes for motorists traveling through Town and Country.
The 2026 BMW Championship is underway with practice rounds Tuesday and Wednesday before tournament competition begins Thursday, August 20, and continues through Sunday, August 23. The tournament is the second event of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs and features the top 50 players remaining in the season-long standings.
For St. Louis golf fans, the event represents another chapter in Bellerive’s long history as one of America’s most prominent championship venues. For residents and commuters, however, tournament week also means planning around substantial restrictions on Ladue and Mason roads.
Ladue Road Closed to Through Traffic
One of the most significant traffic restrictions affects Ladue Road, the major east-west route running directly past Bellerive.
During tournament week, no public through traffic is permitted on Ladue Road between Interstate 270 and Highway 141. Local information indicates restrictions are generally in place during daytime tournament operations, beginning around 6 a.m. Motorists should plan to avoid the affected portion of Ladue Road throughout the day.
Mason Road is also affected.
No through traffic is permitted on Mason Road between Conway Road and Hibler Road. Chaselle Lane and Laduemont Drive are also closed to through traffic as tournament organizers and local authorities attempt to control traffic around Bellerive and neighboring residential areas.
Residents of Bellerive Country Club Grounds and Bon Chateau may access their neighborhoods from Ladue Road. Residents of other affected subdivisions are being directed to use Conway Road for neighborhood access.
Drivers who normally use Ladue or Mason roads as through routes should consider alternatives and allow additional travel time.
No General Spectator Parking at Bellerive
Spectators should also know that general public parking is not available at Bellerive Country Club.
General tournament parking is being provided at the Family Arena in St. Charles, with shuttle transportation carrying spectators to and from the championship. Fans using Uber, Lyft or other rideshare services are being directed to the designated pickup and drop-off location at Whitfield School, 175 S. Mason Road, across from Bellerive.
Practice rounds are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am taking place Wednesday. Tournament rounds begin Thursday.
The restrictions are likely to make traffic heavier not only immediately around Bellerive but also on surrounding arteries as drivers search for alternate routes.
Bellerive Has Been Part of St. Louis Golf Since 1897
The international attention surrounding this week’s BMW Championship is nothing new for Bellerive.
The club traces its history to 1897, when it began in north St. Louis as a nine-hole golf course with 166 members. The organization incorporated as Bellerive Country Club in 1910 and took its name from Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, the last French commander in North America.
That same year, Scottish golf professional Robert Foulis designed a new course for the club in Normandy, Missouri.
Bellerive remained there for approximately 50 years before its membership decided during the 1950s to move west as the St. Louis metropolitan area expanded into St. Louis County.
The club turned to legendary golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., who selected the site that would become Bellerive’s present home.
The new course opened on Memorial Day in 1960 and became known as the “Green Monster of Ladue.”
Only five years later, Bellerive was entrusted with one of the biggest events in golf.
Gary Player Makes History at 1965 U.S. Open
The 1965 U.S. Open established Bellerive nationally.
Gary Player of South Africa and Kel Nagle of Australia finished regulation play tied at 2-over par, requiring an 18-hole playoff.
Player won the playoff, capturing his only U.S. Open championship and completing the career Grand Slam at age 29. He became one of the select golfers to win the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship during his career.
The accomplishment remains one of the defining moments in Bellerive’s history.
The championship was particularly remarkable because Bellerive’s current course had opened only five years earlier.
Nick Price Wins the 1992 PGA Championship
Another major championship arrived in 1992, when Bellerive hosted the PGA Championship.
Nick Price of Zimbabwe captured the Wanamaker Trophy, earning his first major championship victory.
Price went on to become one of the leading golfers of his generation, eventually winning three major championships.
The successful 1992 tournament further strengthened Bellerive’s reputation as a venue capable of hosting golf’s largest championships.
A Championship That Never Happened
Bellerive was scheduled to host the 2001 World Golf Championships-American Express Championship, which would have brought another elite international field to St. Louis.
The tournament was scheduled shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks and was canceled following the attacks.
Although no competition took place, selecting Bellerive for a World Golf Championship demonstrated the course’s continuing importance in professional golf.
Senior Championships Come to Town and Country
Championship golf returned in 2004 with the U.S. Senior Open.
Peter Jacobsen won the championship, adding his name to the distinguished list of players who have won significant events at Bellerive.
The course later underwent a major renovation overseen by Rees Jones, the son of original architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., and reopened in October 2006.
Bellerive then hosted the Senior PGA Championship in 2013. That tournament helped place Bellerive in particularly rare company: according to the club, it became only the third course to have hosted all four of the men’s traveling major championships — the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship.
BMW Championship Has Been Here Before
This week’s tournament is not Bellerive’s first BMW Championship.
The club hosted the event in 2008, also as part of the FedExCup Playoffs.
Camilo Villegas won the tournament for his first PGA Tour victory.
Eighteen years later, the BMW Championship has returned to Town and Country, once again putting Bellerive at the center of the professional golf world.
The stakes are considerable. The field consists of 50 players who advanced through the FedExCup Playoffs, and only the top 30 following the BMW Championship will advance to the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
2018 PGA Championship Delivered a St. Louis Classic
For many St. Louis residents, Bellerive’s most memorable tournament remains the 2018 PGA Championship.
It was the 100th playing of the PGA Championship and produced one of the most memorable major championship Sundays of the era.
Brooks Koepka won at 16-under par, but much of the enormous crowd’s attention centered on Tiger Woods, who mounted a dramatic final-round challenge.
Woods finished second, two strokes behind Koepka, while Adam Scott finished third.
The championship became a showcase not only for Bellerive but for the broader St. Louis region, demonstrating again the area’s appetite for major professional golf.
Several players who competed at Bellerive in 2018 are back for the 2026 BMW Championship, including Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and Adam Scott. Scottie Scheffler enters this week’s competition as the defending BMW Championship winner and the leading player in the field.
Presidents Cup Coming to Bellerive in 2030
The 2026 BMW Championship will not be the last major international golf event staged in Town and Country.
Bellerive has already been selected to host the 2030 Presidents Cup, the biennial team competition between the United States and an International Team consisting of players from outside Europe.
The Presidents Cup will add another globally recognized competition to a Bellerive résumé that includes the 1965 U.S. Open, 1981 U.S. Mid-Amateur, 1992 and 2018 PGA Championships, 2004 U.S. Senior Open, 2008 and 2026 BMW Championships and 2013 Senior PGA Championship.
Few golf courses in the Midwest can match that history.
Golf Spotlight Returns to St. Louis
For this week, attention is focused on the BMW Championship and the race to qualify for the Tour Championship.
Bellerive’s championship pedigree makes the venue an important part of the story. The club, founded with nine holes and 166 members in north St. Louis more than a century ago, has evolved into a course regularly entrusted with some of golf’s most significant competitions.
But hosting an event of this scale comes with logistical challenges.
Residents, commuters and other motorists traveling through Town and Country should expect heavier traffic and significant restrictions around Ladue Road, Mason Road and the neighborhoods surrounding Bellerive through Sunday.
Spectators should use designated tournament transportation rather than driving directly to the country club.
Once the final putt drops Sunday, the barricades will eventually disappear, and normal traffic will return to Town and Country.
Bellerive’s place on the international golf calendar, however, is already assured — and another enormous sporting event is waiting just four years down the road when the Presidents Cup arrives in St. Louis in 2030.
