Presidents and precedence: Congressional Country Club has an enviable abundance of both. The venerable club just outside the nation’s capital in Bethesda, Maryland, is set to display its history and revamped place in the game as it hosts the 85th Senior PGA Championship May 22–25 on its Blue Course.
Congressional Country Club was founded in 1924 by a group that included five U.S. Presidents: Calvin Coolidge, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Over the past century, the rolling terrain of the club has been the golf home of countless elected officials during their time in Washington, D.C., while also playing host to the 1967 PGA Championship – won by Dave Stockton – and a trio of U.S. Opens, most recently the 2011 event won by Rory McIlroy, not to mention several years hosting PGA TOUR events like the Kemper Open and The National.
After hosting The National event for the last time in 2016, Congressional charted a new path for itself as a club by undergoing an extensive renovation to the Blue Course. A layout that started as a six-hole routing by Devereaux Emmitt before being expanded and revised over the years by legendary designers Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Rees Jones was transformed by a 2020 renovation headed by Andrew Green. The resulting rebirth of the Blue Course has been praised by golf architecture experts and players alike. The “New Blue” layout made its major championship debut with the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the first of eight PGA of America events set to be played at Congressional over a 15-year period, culminating in the 2037 Ryder Cup. Next up for the Blue Course: this month’s 2025 Senior PGA Championship over Memorial Day Weekend.
“Hosting major championship golf is part of Congressional Country Club’s history, and it’s been great for our members and staff to return to that tradition,” says Jason Epstein, the PGA of America Director of Golf & Athletics at the club. “We’re especially excited to host the 2025 Senior PGA Championship because so many of the players in the field have experience on the Blue Course prior to the renovation, and we’re looking forward to seeing how the best senior men’s players in the world receive the golf course. We know it will be in great shape in May, and it’s going to be a great test.”
The return of many players with history on the Blue Course – like Ernie Els, who won the U.S. Open on the course in 1997 – is one of multiple intriguing storylines to follow during the 2025 Senior PGA Championship.
Blue Course Set for Starring Role
Green’s renovation of the Blue Course was part of a project Congressional’s leadership called “Shaping the Legacy” aimed at modernizing the course for both member play and to host PGA of America events after the club and the Association agreed to bring a number of championships to Congressional in 2018. Work on the Blue Course started in April 2020 and kept the layout closed for 20 months, and the results have been universally praised by players.
“A bunch of past winners on the course and PGA of America Golf Professionals have come in and played it over the past couple of years, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction,” says Epstein, the 2025 PGA of America Bill Strausbaugh Award winner. “They have so many wonderful things to say about how it tests their game, and they’re in amazement of what’s been done to the course.
“A good example was when Rory McIlroy was out. Throughout his round, he just kept looking around with his mouth open because he couldn’t get his head around what had been accomplished with the course. Phenomenal’ was the word he kept using.”
The Blue Course renovation nearly doubled the amount of fairway turf on the layout and increased green sizes and the number of bunkers on the course. Several trees were taken out to improve sightlines and the green complexes were redesigned to increase strategic options for players. The end result is a golf course that blends a throwback aesthetic, complete with acres of native grasses, with modern architectural flourishes that ensure the Blue Course will challenge the game’s best players for decades to come.
“Something that (PGA of America Chief Championships Officer) Kerry Haigh identified and used in his course setup for the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is the amount of movement along the ground throughout the Blue Course,” Epstein says. “So many courses that host tour events are flat lies everywhere. Tour players know all the variables when they’re playing in those conditions, so they just need to execute shots that are pretty comfortable for them.
“The Blue Course, on the other hand, is all about uneven lies and rolling terrain, especially around the greens. This golf course is going to put a little stress on their games.”