The BMW Championship recently earned the “Best in Class” award for the presentation and overall success of the 2008 event at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. The honor was given by the PGA Tour at the Tour’s annual Tournament Advisory Council meetings last week.

The award recognizes the BMW Championship for excellence in all phases of tournament operations, including corporate hospitality venues, the pro-am presentation, player services and media relations. The Ol’ Bogeyman did not have a vote, mind you, but he can verify that the media was treated well, and the cold bottles of Edinger at the media party was a nice touch.

Rick George, a Collinsville, Ill. Product and PGA Tour executive vice-president and chief of operations, handed out the kudos. “On behalf of the PGA Tour, I am pleased to acknowledge and congratulate the outstanding job and special recognition the BMW Championship has received for its efforts,” George said. “The tournament committee should be extremely proud for being recognized as the best among their peers on the Tour.”

Western Golf Association vice president John Kaczkowski chimed in: “We’re humbled that the PGA Tour has honored our event with this award. We were fortunate to have three great partners in BMW, the PGA Tour and Bellerive Country Club. This award recognizes the efforts of all who contributed to the success of this year’s BMW Championship.”

Now for the bad news my golf peeps, at least where St. Louis is concerned, we’re no longer on the schedule. The 2009 BMW, Sept. 7-13, will be back at Cog Hill in suburban Chicago. And there is no agreement in place for Bellerive to bring the tournament back as part of the rotation.

On the other hand, we still have the Publinx. So we got that going for us … which is nice.

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Jay Delsing isn’t ready for the Champions Tour just yet. The former standout in golf and basketball at St. Louis U. High, who is in his 24th year as a pro, recently shot rounds of 69-71 on the final two days at Mountain View Golf Course in Callaway Gardens, Ga. to advance to the final stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Delsing birdied two of his final four holes in the final round last weekend to slip into a tie for 17th and move on. He made the cut by one stroke. Delsing, 48, has split time between the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour the past four seasons, unable to secure fully-exempt status on the PGA Tour. His last fully-exempt season was 2004.

Delsing will be joined in the final stage of Q-school by fellow St. Louisan Jay Williamson, who finished 137th on the PGA Tour money list this season. Williamson will retain some PGA Tour status, but he hopes to improve his lot with a good performance at the marathon Q-school final. The concluding stage will be six 18-hole rounds, Dec. 3-8, at the two courses at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

Unfortunately, three other St. Louis products were unable to advance, including former pGA Tour winner Trevor Dodds, Bob Gaus and Adam Betz.

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Congratulations to the Baron of Belleville, Bob Goalby. The 1968 Masters winner recently was presented with the prestigious “Bruno Award” at the Champions Tour Tournament Association’s annual meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

The honor is bestowed on an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the Champions Tour. Goalby certainly fits the bill, and then some. He was directly involved in the creation of the tour, which originally was founded as the Senior PGA Tour.

Goalby competed on the senior circuit until the mid-90’s and later served on the policy board. He did much of his best work outside the ropes as he worked to establish the new tour. Early on, Goalby became the unofficial spokesman of the new entity, helping establish relationships with ESPN and title sponsors.

Goalby continues to be one of the great characters and storytellers in golf and often serves as a speaker or emcee at Champions Tour functions. As most golf fans in St. Louis know, he also is the uncle and mentor of Jay Haas, who recently captured the Charles Schwab Cup points championship on the Champions Tour for the second time in three years.

By the way, the Bruno Award is named after Brian “Bruno” Henning, formerly vice president of competitions for the Champions Tour.

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On his way to victory in the recent Children’s Miracle Network Classic presented by Wal-Mart at Walt Disney World Resort, Davis Love III acknowledged the quality of the talent competing on the Nationwide Tour.

“I played with a bunch of really, really strong players these last six weeks,” Love said. “I said when I was on the (PGA TOUR Policy) Board that you can take the Nationwide guys and put them on the PGA Tour one week and make the PGA Tour players go play the Nationwide, and the scores won’t change.

“It’s just going to change the faces. There are so many good players, it’s amazing.”

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Work continues on the remake of the St. Louis Amateur Athletic Association Golf and Tennis Club - better known as the Triple A Club – in Forest Park. The golf course at the venerable club will fall under the management umbrella of Jeff Raffelson, who has done such a terrific job with the 27 previously reconstructed holes at the Norman K. Probstein facility in the Park.

The improvements at Triple A are supposed to be completed by early next year.

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Bogeyman field correspondent Jim Healey reports St. Louis Country Club – also undergoing some golf course renovations - recently conducted a banquet at which members of the Dwight Davis family, the George Walker family and the Hazel Wightman family presented the club with replicas of each of those prestigious trophies. Each family has current members at the club, and the trophies are on display at the club.

Healey relates: “Led by 91 year old Tom Collins, the project took over a year to complete. Each replica was made special for the club and they rest behind glass with a brief description of the founder and the event. I was fortunate enough to be invited to be the guest speaker that evening to discuss each of the founders of those events, as well as the role of sports at the club through the years. It was a very nice evening.”

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Only four players have finished in the top-10 in the final FedExCup standings during its first two seasons. They includes Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson and K.J. Choi.