Keeping up with Jones: Highs and lows at the BMW

It was a fantastic week at the BMW Championship in St. Louis. My team arrived Monday afternoon and then I headed back to Kansas City midday on Thursday. Our intrepid Digital Media Specialist, Will Coughlin (Or Willy C, as I like to call him… OK, I’ve never called him that) stuck around for some weekend golf.

Now that the tournament is over, let me take a look back with some winners and losers at Bellerive…

Winner: The entire crew at Bellerive

The course got socked with a big storm Sunday night. Nick White stayed the night at the course in an RV, and his RV almost became a boathouse. More than two inches fell on the course. Monday morning, the 100-plus maintenance crew (full-time and volunteer) went after it. I’m told the creek along No. 17 dumped muck and debris all over.

By the time we got to the course Tuesday morning, you couldn’t even tell.

But beyond the great conditions of the course, know this: the management team at Bellerive is one of the kindest, most accommodating crews in all of golf.

Maybe it helps that I was there in 2018 to cover the PGA Championship, but this crew feels more like old friends than a crew I’m covering. Carlos Arraya, Nick White, Steven Story. Jared Brewster came back.

I know how busy these guys are, and they all took time for me. That means a lot to me and I really appreciate it.

Loser: The drive on I-70

Driving east on I-70 from Kansas City to St. Louis is agony. There’s so much construction, and the lanes are so narrow. Also, as an added element to strike fear in your heart, occasionally they put these concrete medians right between the two east bound lanes.

If you’re riding shotgun, like I was, once in a while you look over and you can about read the bar code on the door of the semitruck right next to you.

Shout out to Brother Jimmy Cummins — he’s the Bo Duke to my Luke Duke. Or maybe the Elwood Blues to my Jake Blues. Whatever TV driver you prefer, good driving, Jimmy!

Winner: Wyndham Clark and TV viewers

I thought that was going to be a boring round of golf on Sunday, but thanks to a few well-timed bogeys by Clark, and then Gary Woodland coming out red hot early… and then Rory making a charge… that was some fun TV viewing!

I’ll admit that Woodland’s tee shot on No. 9 made me fall into my chair in agony. My wife thought I was overreacting. I wasn’t. Oh, to get that one swing back… could have really made things exciting.   

I’ll admit I watched the tournament with the volume off. Were the St. Louis fans rooting against Clark? It’s OK, he finished birdie-birdie and now, we’ll see what he does next week in Atlanta.

Loser: Me at lunch

I thought I was the smartest guy on the golf course when I skipped the food in the media center, then breezed past the concessions stands (the bratwurst on day one was unremarkable.) And then I caught up with my crew over by the Evans Scholars Foundation picnic area… and discovered they had a taco truck!

So what do I do? I order a steak burrito. This is about to be my finest hour as a golf fan, I’m thinking to myself.

And then they served it to me… on a paper plate… sliced diagonally in half… and covered in queso.

How am I going to eat this on a golf course? The plastic fork and knife – literally – weren’t going to cut it.

Apologies to anyone in the Trophy Club who witnessed the mess I made of myself in the stands on Wednesday. Almost as messy as some of those playing in the Pro-Am…

So those are a few of my winners and losers at Bellerive. There are more for sure, but my time is running short. A shout-out to PBI-Gordon for sponsoring our coverage and being really fun to watch golf with.

I do believe this tournament wraps up my appearances at professional golf for the rest of the year. You know what? It was a great year. And I’m looking forward to watching the rest from the comfort of my couch.

A big shoutout to PBI-Gordon, all of our coverage from the BMW Championship has been brought to you by the fine folks at PBI-Gordon.