The move from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was certainly a bold one.
FRISCO, Texas — PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh stepped to a podium on Monday, looked back through massive windows at two sprawling golf courses behind him — one designed by architect Gil Hanse and the other by Beau Welling — then turned back toward the 500-or-so attentive guests invited to the opening of the organization’s breathtaking new home and smiled.
“Welcome to our field of dreams. Build it and they will come,” Waugh said in his typical wry style. “And in this case, it’s 500 of our closest friends in the future. It’ll be all 28,000 of our PGA professionals and millions of golfers that enjoy this, this land, and all the future players, You know, you realize that in most places that I’ve spent most of my life if we’d done this it might be a blurb in a sports page that we moved our home here.
“But we are in Frisco — in Dallas — and it’s front page news. And it’s incredible what’s happened here. You know you’re on to something if (Dallas Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones is sitting in the back row. I certainly hope this doesn’t reflect on the time that I come to AT&T (Stadium) in the future where I might sit.”
The move from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was certainly a bold one. PGA Frisco — which was born from an incentives package the organization couldn’t ignore — sprawls over 600 acres of former ranch land and has grown into a $550 million mixed-use project. The facility, which is just over 100,000 square feet, includes practice bays, indoor putting greens, conference rooms, and a massive foyer/conference area where Monday’s presentation took place.
Among those on hand for the ceremony were a number of Dallas Cowboys legends — Tony Dorsett, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Drew Pearson, Billy Joe DuPree and the aforementioned owner, Jerry Jones, as well as LPGA Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth and former WNBA superstar Nancy Lieberman.
“I’ve been very lucky to work all over the country, but I really think that this project will be the epicenter of golf here, right here in Frisco, Texas,” said PGA of America president Jim Richerson. “That will do things to promote and bring people from different backgrounds into the game, that will do things to bring people from different backgrounds in the industry of golf that will utilize golf in a way to bring people together from the business world from the sports world, and from the golf world and a very unique way that’s never been done before.”
Here’s a look at the new facility, which will see 26 high-profile events over the next dozen years, including a pair of PGA Championships (2027 and 2034), the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in both 2025 and 2031, two KitchenAid Senior PGA Championships (2023 and 2029), a pair of National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship (2023 and 2024), and three PGA Professional Championships in 2024, 2030 and 2033.
TULSA, Okla. — There has been severe sticker shock at the prices on concessions this week at the 2022 PGA Championship, with the prices on the cans of beer reaching almost $20 a pop.
Michelob Ultra is going for $18, Stella Artois $19. A glass of wine is $13. Souvenir and signature cocktails are $19. Some of the food prices: $16 for the chicken Caesar salad, $14 for the Butcher’s Grind Cheeseburger is $14, $8 for a hot dog.
Justin Thomas saw the news and reacted on Twitter to the high prices.
“Gotta treat the fans better than that,” he said.
$18(!!!!!!) for a beer… uhhhh what. Gotta treat the fans better than that! 🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/7DeyC7WTJE
Brooks Koepka, who counts Michelob Ultra among his many sponsors, defended the prices.
“Yeah. Michelob Ultra is 18 bucks, but it’s a tall boy,” he said, referring to the fact that the cans of beer at Southern Hills are of the 25 oz. variety. “It’s bigger than the normal 12 ounces, 16 ounces. It’s bigger than the normal ones, so you’ll be all right. You drink enough, you’ll be fine.”
Tournament officials were asked about the prices as well Tuesday.
“We do have a new concession area, but we also have a new ticketing pricing offering for all the spectators this year, which includes basically as much food and non-alcoholic beverage as they want included in the price of the ticket,” Kerry Haigh, Chief Championships Officer of the PGA of America, said. “Starting Thursday, spectators will be able to drink non-alcoholic beverages and as much food as they want for the price of their ticket. For those on the practice days, all spectators can bring in bottled water, and starting Thursday we’ll have refills on water.
“The pricing of the product is sort of comparable to stadium events. We’re comfortable with where we are, and we hope spectators will come out and have a great time and a great experience.”
Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, admitted things may need tweaking.
“It’s a new model for us, right, so at the end of it we’ll go back and, like we always do, try to figure out if it worked or didn’t work and what we can do better and raise the bar.”
Jim Richerson has 34 years of experience in the golf business, including time with Troon and the PGA of America.
From the PGA of America and Troon to Riviera Country Club, Jim Richerson is on the move.
Riviera Country Club President Megan Watanabe made an announcement on Wednesday that Richerson will be the new general manager of the historic venue in Los Angeles, site of the Genesis Invitational.
Richerson, who works at Troon’s corporate headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, will move with his family to southern California when he begins his new role. He has been president of the PGA of America since November 2020 and his term, which included a Ryder Cup victory for the U.S. last September, will end at the two-year mark this November.
“We are thrilled to have Jim join our team at The Riviera Country Club,” Watanabe said in a statement released by the club. “Jim is a respected leader in the world of golf and his expertise and relationships will be a great asset in leading us as we head toward our centennial as well as the U.S. Women’s Open in 2026 and the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competitions in 2028.”
The club was founded in 1926.
“The Riviera Country Club is one of the most prestigious clubs in the world,” said Richerson in the same statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of continuing the great legacy and history of this iconic club and working with our dedicated executive team and passionate membership.”
Richerson, who has 34 years of experience working in golf, has been with Troon for five years, where he was Senior Vice-President of Operations. Before that, he was the general manager for Kohler Co. in Wisconsin where he ran the facilities at Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run as well as The Duke’s Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Richerson’s dad was the golf coach at Northeast Missouri State, now called Truman State.
“The 2022 PGA Show will play an especially important role in helping the industry and PGA Professionals move forward from the pandemic.”
Like many things in early 2021, the annual PGA Merchandise Show was forced to go virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In late January, the idea of encouraging 20,000-30,000 from all over the United States to travel and descend on Orlando to attend an indoor trade show wasn’t safe or feasible.
However, the PGA of America and Reed Exhibitions, the organizations that host the show, announced on Monday morning that the 2022 show will be an in-person gathering. It will take place January 25-28 at the Orange County Convention Center and Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge.
Jim Richerson, the president of the PGA of America, said, “The 2022 PGA Show will play an especially important role in helping the industry and PGA Professionals move forward from the pandemic, capitalizing on the growing interest in the sport and uncovering new tools to improve the grassroots golf experience.”
Richerson added that decreased attendance at the show is expected, with some PGA of America members, industry insiders and media members still electing not to travel. However, a recent survey of potential attendees found that 70 percent of PGA professionals and top buyers currently plan to attend the 2022 PGA Show, with another 19 percent planning to decide as the show’s date gets closer.
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“The 2022 PGA Show will continue to be the largest annual gathering of our membership with thousands of PGA Professionals and top buyers experiencing first-hand the innovative offerings from more than 650 golf brands,” Richerson said.
Coming on the heels of a historically good 2020 golf season, 2021 has been another fantastic year for the golf industry, which oddly is a double-edge sword of the PGA Show.
On the positive side, golf’s popularity is booming. People are taking lessons, tee time sheets are filled across the county and manufacturers are seeing record sales too.
However, several categories are struggling with supply chain issues, especially grips and some popular shafts. Orders that used to be fulfilled in a week or two now take months. For those reasons, as well the continued concern for the safety of their employees and the cost of traveling with scores of people, several major manufacturers have not yet committed to attending the 2022 PGA Merchandise Show. Final decisions from some of the largest brands are expected to be announced in the next week or two.
Presidents of the PGA of America and the Northern Ohio Section explain the value that 28,000-plus pros bring to their clubs and communities.
The PGA of America is shining a spotlight on Wisconsin this month, with the Ryder Cup scheduled Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits on the shore of Lake Michigan. It’s not a bad time to shine a light on the organization that operates the biennial matches, as well.
The PGA of America gains much attention for the Ryder Cup and its PGA Championship, but the heart of the organization is nearly 29,000 golf professionals who teach the game, operate courses, conduct thousands of local charitable and fundraising events each year, and basically make the game more inviting and fun for members of private clubs and public-access facilities.
Golfweek spoke with PGA president Jim Richerson, as well as Northern Ohio PGA Section president Steve Parker, to highlight their enthusiasm.
Jim Richerson, president of the PGA of America (Courtesy of the PGA of America)
Richerson, the senior vice president of golf operations for course-management company Troon, was elected president of the PGA in 2020. His career included an 11-year stint at Destination Kohler, the resort that operates Whistling Straits. Parker is the director of golf operations at Portage Country Club in Akron, Ohio, and was for years employed at Firestone Country Club, longtime host of a PGA Tour event and three PGA Championships.
Companies are seeing delays the release of new models and pushing back innovations that would otherwise be in pro shops already.
This week, the PGA Championship is making its second trip to The Ocean Course at Kiawah, Pete Dye’s fiendishly challenging track along the South Carolina coast. It meanders over, around and through dunes, but unlike the last time the Wannamaker Trophy was handed out at this windswept venue in 2012, the pros will be carrying extra technology.
“We’re always interested in methods that may help improve the flow of play during our championships,” said Jim Richerson, the president of the PGA of America, last winter. “The use of distance-measuring devices is already common within the game and is now a part of the Rules of Golf. Players and caddies have long used them during practice rounds to gather relevant yardages.”
So now, instead of pacing off distances from sprinkler heads, players and caddies will be able to zap the flag to get a precise yardage to the flag, then refer to the daily hole location sheet to work out the distance to the front and back of the green.
However, it is ironic that as laser rangefinders are primed to get more exposure than ever, a looming semiconductor and microchip shortage is playing havoc with the industry. Companies ranging from start-ups to industry leaders are haggling with suppliers, delaying the release of new models and pushing back innovations that would otherwise be in pro shops already.
Tiger Woods uses a rangefinder from his golf cart during a practice round for The Match: Champions For Charity at Medalist Golf Club on May 23, 2020 in Hobe Sound, Florida. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images for The Match)
Shortage related to pandemic
Like so many other things, the semiconductor and microchip shortage was caused by a series of events related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, companies worldwide were forced to close, workers stayed home and kids started attending school remotely. Businesses in many industries canceled orders and stopped production because no one knew what the global economy might do. That forced chipmakers to either stop or severely reduce their output.
Then, with more people working and studying from home throughout 2020, the sale of computers, webcams, smartphones and other electronics surged. As robust demand continued throughout 2020 for high-tech products, factories ramped up production but could not keep up.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired in May, Intel’s CEO, Patrick Gelsinger, said, “I think we have a couple of years until we catch up to this surging demand across every aspect of the business. COVID showed that the global supply chain of chips is fragile and unable to react quickly to changes in demand.”
The shortage hurt makers of automobiles, consumer electronics and even, yes, golf laser rangefinders.
While there are subtle differences from one laser rangefinder to another, they work similarly. When you press a button, a laser rangefinder pulses light in a wide beam. When that light hits something, it bounces back to the rangefinder. Microprocessors inside the device measure the time it takes for the light to reflect, and then, using that information, determine the distance to the object. Laser rangefinders with sophisticated processors can do the job faster, but all devices rely on microchips to get the job done.
Bushnell Golf, based in Overland Park, Kansas, is the most popular brand of laser rangefinders on the PGA Tour. Derek Schuman, the company’s senior brand manager, told Golfweek, “I created our sourcing team because they have done a pretty good job of finding some workarounds. We have even helped to solicit going above and beyond our vendors to source and find the chips ourselves.”
Schuman also said the shipments sent in cargo ships from Asia are taking significantly longer to pass through ports and customs in Long Beach, California.
“It’s taking twice as long to get the containers off the ships, and then there are further delays in getting the container on the rail,” he said. “It’s a mess.”
Shot Scope has made a name for itself as a maker of shot-tracking systems and GPS watches. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, it entered the laser rangefinder market in 2021. Gavin Dear, the company’s chief commercial officer, said Shot Scope recognized the shortage was coming late last spring. It spurred the company to buy enough parts from different distributors to create a stockpile of 40,000 sets of components for its lasers and watches. Those parts are now sitting two miles from its factory.
“We can draw on that at any point over the next two years,” he said, explaining that the stockpile allows Shot Scope to build what it needs when it needs it, while replenishing the inventory separately.
“So we are in a phenomenal position, however, that is because we recognized the shortage was coming early on, and our leadership team has very good links into the distributors,” Dear said.
Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Precision Pro wanted to release a new laser rangefinder in the first quarter of 2021. The chip shortage and other supply chain issues pushed the timing back to this week. It has also pushed back another product, initially slated for an early-spring release, to September at the earliest.
Rickie Fowler’s caddie Joe Skovron at 2019 Masters. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Alex Everhart, Precision Pro’s director of products, said that Qualcomm, the company that provides some of the chips Precision Pro needs, recently notified Precision Pro that it would not be receiving the parts it had ordered.
“It wasn’t that there was a price change. They didn’t say that it was going to be delayed. We were just flat out told that this chip was no longer going to be available,” Everhard said.
That, in turn, necessitated Precision Pro’s engineers to go back to the design and “basically rebuild all the internals based on the newly-available part,” according to Everhard. He said the item now scheduled for a third-quarter release had been redesigned four times because of situations like this.
“It’s like, ‘These are the parts that are available at this time, so let’s start mapping and creating the internals and just hope that by the time this project is actually completed, those chips are still going to be available to us and we don’t have to restart,'” Everhard explained.
For golfers, laser rangefinders are still readily available from numerous brands. Prices have not spiked, but replacing some models may be slower as people buy the inventory in stores.
All the same, Bushnell’s Schuman has a tip for people who might be looking to wait until the end of the year to grab a good deal on a laser.
“We certainly get a significant spike (in sales) around the holidays,” Schuman said. “So if the supply constraints that we anticipate in Q3 lag into Q4, that becomes a problem.”
