Charlotte's Quail Hollow Club wins right to host the PGA Championship

Published Aug. 31, 2010 at 6:39 p.m.
UPDATE: Saying "Charlotte deserves this. Quail Hollow deserves it," PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka officially announced today that Quail Hollow Club will host the 2017 PGA Championship.

The Wells Fargo Championship will continue through 2014, but club president Johnny Harris said there have been no discussions about extending the PGA Tour eventthough it remains a possibility.

Gov. Bev Perdue and Mayor Anthony Foxx were among the political leaders who attended the announcement.

"This is a big deal in North Carolina," Perdue said.

Said Tiger Woods, the world's top-ranked golfer: "Quail Hollow is an outstanding golf course that has the qualities to host a major. This is Charlotte's first major, and the people there, and in the surrounding areas, understand and appreciate great golf."

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With the expected announcement Tuesday morning that Charlotte's Quail Hollow Club will be a future host of the PGA Championship - most likely in 2017 - the club and city will be stepping into the new world of major championship golf.

It is an event that has helped define the careers of the game's greatest players. By hosting a PGA Championship, the club and community will be elevated to a worldwide stage. The city and surrounding areas would benefit from an economic impact estimated at other PGA sites at more than $80 million.

A news conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Quail Hollow, where it is expected that PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka will formally announce the club has been selected to host the PGA Championship in August 2017. It's the first available year for Quail Hollow to host the championship.

Gov. Bev Perdue and other state officials are expected for the announcement.

Quail Hollow Club president Johnny Harris declined comment Monday, saying: "It's not appropriate for me to comment until after the announcement."

It would be the first major championship played in Charlotte and only the sixth played in North Carolina.

"It's a whole new level when you get a major," two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange said. "You get one of the top fields of the year. You get huge name recognition. You get huge worldwide exposure. You get huge world press. It's a different animal."

Quail Hollow already hosts one of the most successful stops on the PGA tour. But Harris has said repeatedly that the club is interested in hosting professional golf beyond 2014, when its contract for the Wells Fargo Championship expires.

While hosting a future PGA Championship wouldn't preclude continuing to host the annual event, it would assure the club retains a prominent presence in professional golf.

Kerry Haigh, senior director of tournaments for the PGA Championship, has been on site to study Quail Hollow's viability as host of a major championship.

"It's no secret that I visited the course during the Quail Hollow Championship," Haigh said earlier this year. "It lent itself to being a wonderful venue to host a big event."

The PGA Championship is one of the four major championships of men's professional golf, the others being the Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. Of the four, the PGA typically draws the strongest field, a virtual guarantee that all the world's best players will be in Charlotte in 2017. While the Wells Fargo Championship has been an overwhelming success, its spectator base is built largely on local and regional sales. The PGA Championship has a worldwide reach and will be expected to draw thousands of fans from outside the Carolinas.

What might hosting the PGA Championship mean?

It's hard to put a dollar figure on the weeklong media coverage of Charlotte and Quail Hollow that the tournament would bring. Estimates from previous tournament sites put the economic impact from $40 million to more than $75 million.

In 2012, the PGA tournament goes to the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, S.C. A College of Charleston study "conservatively" predicts a windfall for the Charleston area of $83.7 million.

PGA stands for Professional Golfers Association of America. The group's first championship took place in 1916 outside New York City.

Department store magnate Rodman Wannamaker hosted the organizational meeting and spotted the first purse of $2,580. For his largesse, Wannamaker now has the championship's trophy named after him.

(For the record, 2010 champion Martin Kaymer took home $1.35 million for his win.)

Staff writer Michael Gordon contributed.

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