PGA Tour To Be Held in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (AP) â€” The PGA Tour is following the LPGA and the Senior PGA to St. Louis. <br><br>The American Express Championship will be held Sept. 10-16, 2001, at the Bellerive Country Club in west St.

Monday, September 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ST. LOUIS (AP) â€” The PGA Tour is following the LPGA and the Senior PGA to St. Louis.

The American Express Championship will be held Sept. 10-16, 2001, at the Bellerive Country Club in west St. Louis County.

The tournament is part of the World Golf Championships, a series of events that features the best golfers from the PGA and five other major golf tours.

The locations change each year, so the event is not a permanent stop in St. Louis. However, PGA Tour commissioner Timothy Finchem, who announced details of the event Monday at Bellerive, said St. Louis is one of six areas around the country targeted for a future tour stop.

St. Louis already plays host to the LPGA's Michelob Light Classic and the Senior PGA's Boone Valley Classic, which next year becomes the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Senior Match Play Championship. The city has not been home to a regular PGA Tour event for several years, though Bellerive hosted the PGA Championship in 1992.

Tiger Woods is expected to be apart of the field at the American Express tournament.

``This will be an event that attracts the same kind of talent we attracted for the PGA in 1992, maybe even better,'' said Jerry Ritter, chairman of the event for Bellerive.

Event director Michael Garten said there is ``no guarantee'' that Woods, winner of golf's three of four major golf championships this year, will be in St. Louis. However, he has participated in all previous World Golf Championships. And as Ritter noted, Woods is a spokesman for American Express.

``I say with 99.9 percent confidence, Tiger will be here at Bellerive,'' Garten said.