These days, it’s a major undertaking to host the pga professional Championship. With 312 players, their caddies, family members, spectators and volunteers on hand for a week, PGA Golf Club transforms into a small city when its host the PGA of America’s marquee member tournament April 27-30 in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Fortunately, PGA Golf Club, situated about an hour north of West Palm Beach, was built and designed for these kind of major championships. This isn’t their first rodeo – it hosted the PGA Professional Championship in 2021, albeit during the coronavirus pandemic, and it has been hosting PGA Tournament Series and PGA Winter Championships for years, as well as the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship and the Senior PGA Professional Championship.
“We work so well with the PGA team that runs the event,” says Holly Taylor, PGA, the Director of Golf/Head Golf Professional at PGA Golf Club. “They are here all winter doing championships. The courses are constantly being marked, and that makes our job easier.”
PGA of America General Manager Jeremy Wiernasz says hosting the second PGA Professional Championship in the last four years will be a greater opportunity for the club because players can see it the way it was meant to be without the social distancing and limited meal options during the pandemic.
“This is a great thing for us because it will allow the players and their families to enjoy all the great facilities we have here,” Wiernasz says. “We couldn’t do any of that in 2021.
“The Association owns and operates this club and looks at it as the hub of their own member championships. What is the purpose of PGA Golf Club? Hosting PGA events is at the core of what we represent.”
The PGA Professional Championship puts the spotlight on Chris Sykes, PGA Golf Club’s Director of Golf Course Maintenance, and his staff of 75. Not only are they staging a major tournament, but one of the courses, the Wanamaker, underwent a renovation last fall. It has been difficult to nurse that course back to tip-top shape with the PGA Tournament Series and PGA Winter Championships being held from December through January.
“It makes it harder because we’ve had such little access,” explains Sykes, who paid close attention to last year’s Championship in Frisco, Texas. “We’re regimented on how to host events because we do it all the time. The plan for the PPC is just a little more intense version than what we do on a daily basis.”
The PGA of America Championship Team is anchored by PGA Chief Championships Officer Kerry Haigh – long considered by the players as the best set-up person in major championship golf – and Matt Weinberger, PGA, Senior Director of PGA Member and Amateur Championships. They will be relying on their seasoned on-site staff of about two dozen working with PGA Golf Club’s staff to put on the best possible championship. In a sense, this is a home game for the tournament staff because of their familiarity with staging major tournaments at PGA Golf Club.
“The uniqueness of hosting so many tournaments at PGA Golf Club throughout the year gives them a lot of familiarity with the courses and the PGA Golf Club staff to create the best possible experience for the players,” Weinberger says. “They can anticipate the players’ needs before they happen.
“All our people there have run multiple events, which is a great help.”
Haigh and Weinberger will handle the course set-up for the Wanamaker, which hosts three of the four rounds, and PGA of America Director of Competitions Trenton Blundell will be the lead set-up person on the Ryder Course. And let’s not forget those unsung heroes: The 350 volunteers who will make the event run even smoother.
They all join together to make up the city of championship golf. —Craig Dolch
