The Tulsa, Okla. club will become the first course to host the PGA of America’s signature event five times. Last summer, the club completed an $11 million course renovation that included the reconstruction of every tee box, bunker and green. Next up for Southern Hills is the Senior PGA Championship, scheduled for May 2021, and General Manager/COO Nick Sidorakis is optimistic spectators will be able to attend that event.
Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. will host the PGA Championship in 2030, the Tulsa World reported. In 2017, it was announced by the PGA of America that Tulsa would host two events—the May 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and a PGA Championship in a year that hadn’t been determined.
More recently, it was known that Southern Hills would get the PGA Championship—and its eighth professional major championship overall—in 2025 or 2030, the World reported. On May 12, a PGA of America press release ended the guessing game. It’ll be 2030.
When the 2030 PGA Championship is played, Tiger Woods will be 54 years old, Brooks Koepka will be 40, Rory McIlroy will be 41, and former Oklahoma State superstars Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff will be 32 and 31, respectively, the World reported. Somewhere in the U.S. or Europe or Asia, there is today an eighth-grader who by 2030 will have emerged as a hot-shot player and a contender for the Wanamaker Trophy.
In 2030, when the PGA Championship is played for the 112th time, Southern Hills becomes the only venue to have hosted the tournament on five occasions, the World reported.
“We already had a signed contract for ’30, but in our conversations with the PGA, we were trying to get an earlier date,” said Nick Sidorakis, General Manager/Chief Operating Officer of Southern Hills. “There was some hope that ’25 might materialize, but that didn’t work out.
“It’s exciting for our members, and it’s exciting for the city and also the state,” Sidorakis added. “A PGA Championship is pretty special. There are [only] two handfuls of clubs that can host something like this. To have it [in Tulsa] is very special and rewarding. It brings a lot of notoriety.”
Tulsa’s first PGA Championship was conducted in 1970, when Dave Stockton collected the $40,000 winner’s prize by outscoring Arnold Palmer and Bob Murphy by two shots, the World reported. There also were PGA Championships at Southern Hills in 1982, when Raymond Floyd won; in 1994, when Nick Price lapped the field; and in 2007, when Tiger Woods shot a second-round, course-record-tying 63 and went on to capture the 13th of his 15 major championships.
The U.S. Open was played at Southern Hills in 1958 (only 22 years after the Southern Hills development was completed), in 1977 and in 2001, the World reported.
The last couple of years have been eventful for Southern Hills, the World reported. Last summer, the club completed an $11 million course renovation that included the reconstruction of every tee box, bunker and green.
Sidorakis told the World traffic on Southern Hills’ 18-hole championship course has been heavy since the ban on golf in Tulsa due to the coronavirus was lifted May 1.
“We’ve been very, very busy on the golf course, and tennis utilization has increased,” Sidorakis said. “We reopened the clubhouse and the [food-and-beverage service], which is exciting.”
Sidorakis said all club employees are wearing protective masks, have their temperature checked daily and must fill out a daily, health-related questionnaire, the World reported. Southern Hills has 940 members.
Previous Tulsa-hosted PGA Championships were conducted in August. When Woods won in 2007, the average high temperature that week was the hottest in the history of major championship golf, the World reported. In 2019, the PGA of America moved its signature event to May (although this year’s PGA Championship was postponed, because of the coronavirus threat, until August).
Comparing a Tulsa May to a Tulsa August, Sidorakis said, “[May] is better [for] the golf course, rather than having the abusive heat like we can have in August. It gives us the ability to control moisture on the greens a little bit more, and the golf course will be a firmer golf course on the fairways and greens. I think it’s more difficult when it plays firmer.
“It’s better to be in 80 degrees than 105 degrees. More comfortable, for sure, and easier to walk the golf course in that type of temperature.”
The Senior PGA Championship, including practice rounds, is scheduled for May 25-30, 2021 in Tulsa, the World reported.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to host the championship and have spectators,” Sidorakis stated. “It will be normal and we’ll bring championship golf back to Tulsa and Southern Hills.”
C+RB’s cover story in its May 2020 issue features Southern Hills and its new History, Trophy and Founders’ Halls, which feature archives and memorabilia from all of the championships it has hosted, as well as the history of the club.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.