St. Louisan and longtime NBC Sports broadcaster Jay Randolph says the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis County will be long remembered by those in attendance.
Randolph says crowds were 20-deep when Tiger Woods teed off Thursday morning. Woods has won 14 major golf championships.
Randolph predicts the 2018 PGA Championship will be the most successful PGA Championship in history.
“We have over 4,000 volunteers, we have nearly 1,000 media members who are here and we have the greatest players anywhere all together here,” Randolph says.
Bellerive also hosted the 1992 PGA Championship, which Randolph describes as the most successful in the history of the PGA.
Randolph says this year’s tournament is even bigger.
Explore St. Louis is projecting a $100 million economic impact, with about 80,000 out-of-town visitors for the tournament.
More than 30 area hotels are under contract for the event.
Randolph compares the impact of this tournament to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
He says volunteers have come from as far away as Europe.
Thousands of golf fans are expected to head to Bellerive again on Friday morning for round two of the PGA Championship.
Randolph notes the tournament is sold-out.
“We’ll have over 30,000 people here on the golf course on Saturday and Sunday, but it’s a culmination of so many people doing so much work,” says Randolph.
Randolph also notes more than 100 golf course superintendents from across the country have traveled to St. Louis to assist the Bellerive groundskeeping crew.
He says they have done a remarkable job.
Randolph spent 22 years at NBC, and broadcast the Bob Hope Desert Classic for 16 straight years.
He also worked at St. Louis’ NBC affiliate, KSDK, for about 24 years, and spent years broadcasting Cardinal baseball on Channel 5.
Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Jay Randolph, which was recorded on August 9, 2018:
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