Here goes a lot of info.
This is RTJ, Sr.'s Bellerive CC outside of St. Louis, MO ("Show Me" state), host of the '65 U.S. Open and '92 PGA, won by "Nick" "Price" of ("sub-Saharan") "South Africa", during his reign of terror those two years on the tour.
The course is no pushover at 7177 yards and 75.0, 144 from the tips.
The gem 5 miles from there is Raynor's St. Louis CC.
The second reference to shocked pros has to do with a military plane crashing into the original location of the club in the runway path of Lambert airport (I'd be shocked if that happened to my club). The full story of the club's history is here:
"Bellerive Country Club has a long and honorable history of supporting golf and providing outstanding facilities for it. Founded in 1897 as the Field Club of St. Louis, it soon had a nine-hole course, a mere 10 years after the first golf course was built in the United States at St. Andrews in Yonkers, N.Y.
In 1909, the club moved to a larger site in northwest St. Louis County and changed its name to Bellerive Country Club, after Captain Louis Ange de Bellerive, the last French commander in North America and first governor of St. Louis. Its new 18-hole golf course was designed by the club's new golf professional, Robert Foulis, a native of St. Andrews, Scotland. Foulis remained as the club's professional for 35 years, but moonlighted occasionally to help design golf courses elsewhere in the Midwest.
By the mid-1950s several developments made it almost inevitable Bellerive would have to move. More and more of its members were moving into west St. Louis County, many miles from the club, and the jet age had arrived. Bellerive was located directly under the flight path to an increasingly noisy Lambert International Airport. The event which ended the argument about whether to move came in 1957 when a military jet tragically crashed on the 13th green, killing the pilot.
After much searching and consideration, a 353-acre site at Ladue and Mason roads in west St. Louis County was selected for the new club. Robert Trent Jones, Sr., not only aided in selecting the location but was retained to design the golf course. One of Bellerive's members, architect Kenneth Wischmeyer, designed the large and spacious (61,500 sq. ft.) clubhouse. Opening day at the new club was Memorial Day 1960, with Trent Jones himself in the initial foursome."
Excerpts taken from Bellerive's Proud History, by Arthur E. Wright, Jr. (I found this on the GCSAA web site).
The original reference to stunned pros and 9/11 has to do with where the golf world was when the 9/11 attacks occurred. The AMEX World Golf Championships were being held at Bellerive during that week and obviously all of the world's best players were stunned (plenty of TV footage showing them receiving the news). Quick decision to cancel the event, but how do they get home? Tiger rented a car and drove 1000 miles home to Orlando, only stopping for gas/bathroom breaks, drinking little to not have to go, and surviving on energy bars.