LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said last week he believes the PGA Championship will return to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville for a fifth time.
According to our partners at Louisville Business First, Monahan was in town for the Kentucky Derby and took a trip to Valhalla to play a round of golf with club co-owner Jimmy Kirchdorfer and two others.
It should be noted Monahan isn't involved in the decision-making for PGA Championship site selection. He leads the PGA Tour, while the PGA of America runs the major championship each May. But Monahan said he believes it's only a matter of time before Valhalla, which hosted the PGA Championship in 1996, 2000, 2014 and 2024, returns to Louisville.
"It's not our decision, but I would imagine, if you're sitting in the boardroom of the (PGA of America) and you're looking at the success and the history and the tradition of this event and the way that they've been embraced, and our players have been embraced, I would imagine it's just a matter of when, not if," he said.
The next available dates to schedule PGA Championship sites are 2032 and 2033. A source told WDRB News during the PGA Championship last May that Valhalla was being considered with four other courses for 2032. However, many in Louisville believed the arrest of Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, as he attempted to enter Valhalla ahead of his second round, was an embarrassment Louisville couldn't overcome in its quest to lure the major championship back to town.
Scheffler's charges were ultimately dropped, and, as Business First noted in its reporting, the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla set records for attendance, hospitality sales and infrastructure buildout that would, in theory, continue to make Louisville a popular destination for future years. Monahan seems to agree.
"We felt those numbers by just being in the presence of the PGA Championship at Valhalla," he said. "... You see a community and an area that has been completely inspired by the opportunity to welcome the best players in the world and their families to showcase this city, to showcase this incredible facility."
An Uncertain Future
On June 1, 2022, the future of the PGA Championship at Valhalla was thrown into doubt. Nearly two years before the best golfers in the world descended on Louisville for the 2024 PGA Championship, much of the city assumed it would be the last.
That day, a group of Louisville investors and businessmen announced they'd purchased Valhalla, assuming local control of a club that the PGA of America had a least partially owned for 26 years and had repeatedly utilized to host its biggest events. PGA leadership decided to invest elsewhere, building a massive new headquarters in Frisco, Texas, complete with a new championship golf course that already has two future dates for PGA Championships.
Three of golf's four major championships alternative venues each year, though one of those — the Open Championship — is held entirely in England, Scotland and Ireland. Valhalla has been in a semi-regular rotation since it held its first PGA Championship in 1996, but there are many who'd prefer it not return. It isn't the most popular venue, and has never been the most interesting, golf fans and analysts nationally argue.
During the 2024 PGA Championship, players told reporters repeatedly that although the course produces great leaderboards and is a fair test, it lacks a certain variety of shot-making. It's relatively straightforward with little risk for the world's top players, evidenced in some of the scores shot at Valhalla over the years. Three of the eight lowest 72-hole scores in PGA Championship history were at Valhalla in 2024.
But all Valhalla's championships have been compelling, coming down to the final hole to decide a winner. That drama combined with the fan and corporate support Louisville has shown in 1996, 2000, 2014 and now in 2024 set a blueprint for what the PGA of America expects. For a casual golf fan looking at Louisville and Valhalla on TV, it might not be a slam dunk. For fans on site and those in charge of selling a seven-day tournament experience, it's still world class, as Monahan noted.
"Louisville shows up and they show up in every way," Seth Waugh, former CEO of the PGA of America, said last May. "... It's an amazing town that gets behind things, which is fantastic."
Valhalla is already scheduled to host the Solheim Cup — the women's version of the Ryder Cup — in 2028.
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