Threat of Gustav brings back ugly memories to Gateway City
ST. LOUIS -- As the PGA Tour players ambled around with their pro-am partners on Wednesday, the black clouds gathered yet again over Bellerive Country Club.
This time, they are not merely figurative.
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| Padraig Harrington says he will always associate 9/11 with Bellerive. (Getty Images) |
If any town can handle unexpected delays, it's the Gateway City. This particular town is surely used to waiting.
Seven years ago to the month, in a teary tableau that was largely overlooked in the far greater scheme of the world-changing events of Sept. 11, dozens of tour players stood around and watched television in the Bellerive clubhouse as terrorists flew airliners into the World Trade Center buildings on Manhattan.
"You know, as much as Bellerive is a lovely golf course in St. Louis, I will always remember September 11th and always associate it with here," Padraig Harrington said. "It does bring a lot of emotions to all the players that you can never really separate in our eyes."
The dual result of the attacks was the cancellation of the first tournament in St. Louis in nearly a decade and the creation of a permanent, Dealey Plaza-style scar for a new generation.
"There's probably a few moments in your life where you always remember where you were or how you found out the news, and that will be one that everyone remembers," American star Jim Furyk said last weekend. "Just an eerie day, one of those you couldn't believe it was happening. It'll definitely stir up some of those memories being at the same golf course."
Bellerive, considered one of the country's great designs, hadn't hosted a tour-sanctioned event since the 1992 PGA Championship, which was won by Nick Price. The stars had likewise come out for the prestigious World Golf Championship event in 2001, including marquee players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
They never hit a shot in live play. A day after the attacks, the WGC stop was canceled outright, marking the first time a PGA Tour event had been shuttered for reasons relating to anything but weather since World War II, according to tour records.
American veteran Dean Wilson, who had traveled thousands of miles from his spot on the Japan Tour to play that week, leaned back on a locker room bench and tried to remember the Bellerive layout. He played nine holes before receiving the news that the Twin Towers had been attacked, he recalled.
"Not sure I remember a single hole," he said.
Similarly, for most Americans, everything from that week is a blur. For a handful of stars who returned to Bellerive this week for the first time since the attacks, it rekindled the kind of remember-when moments that few cared to revisit.
