ORLANDO, FLORIDA | For much of the golf world, the true start of the golf season is the Masters. One reason is due to that tournament being the first major of the year. Another is the time of year, in early April, as spring is all about new beginnings. And it is hard not to think of those when one espies the impossibly green turf that covers the old nursery that is now Augusta National and sees the azaleas and other flowering plants on those grounds in bloom.
For those of us who are part of the golf industry, however, our year actually kicks off a couple months earlier with the annual PGA Show, which is traditionally staged here in central Florida in late January.
I’ll grant you that the site of that convocation, the massive Orange County Convention Center, is not nearly as special of a setting as the home of the Masters. And walking the nearly 10 miles of aisles at the place that has been home to the PGA Show since 1985 is hardly as scenic of an amble as that around Amen Corner. Nor is there a single gathering place in O-Town that is as chock full of industry movers and shakers as the spreading live oak that rises behind the Augusta National clubhouse.
But it is the PGA Show that truly is golf’s opening day.
For one thing, the show is invariably the first event on the calendar each year for people in the golf business, from PGA of America club professionals and equipment company executives to course owners, travel operators and inventors trying to strike lightning with the gadgets they have created.
For those of us who reside in more northern climes, the show is also the first time in months that we have seen each other in person. So, when we meet here, it feels as if we are in some ways coming out of hibernation, catching up on the convention center floor or in nearby bars and steakhouses on what has been going on in our lives and discussing where and when we will be getting together in the weeks and month ahead.
The PGA Show is usually when I play my first round of golf of the new year – and get my first sunburn of the season. And as I check out the latest offerings from club and ball makers while wandering around the booths on the convention center floor or by doing a bit of product testing at the massive circular range at nearby Orange County National during Demo Day, I started to wonder once again about golf equipment and the new releases of the year and how I might build my bag for the coming season.
Visits to travel operators from around the globe – whether Ireland or Scotland, Italy or Spain, or places much closer to home – start me thinking about my golf calendar and the trips I might take in the months ahead.
The show is also the first time I have enjoyed warmish weather since early fall. The sense, as a result, is that winter is on the way out and spring about to appear, even if we know deep down in our hearts that we are no doubt in for another snowstorm or two back home after we leave Orlando.
To be sure, the Masters will remain for many the beginning of the golf season. But for me and my fellow PGA Show attendees, by the time April rolls around, ours will have been in full swing for several months.
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Patrons flock to the 2024 PGA Show at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
SCOTT HALLERAN, PGA OF AMAERICA