Extol Magazine Celebrating Southern Indiana is a local publication that covers stories about businesses people places or events throughout the cities of New Albany Jeffersonville Clarksville Sellersburg and Louisville KY
Issue link: https://extol.epubxp.com/i/497401
French Lick does have history when it comes to PGA tournaments. Te 76th Senior PGA Championship will be the fourth major championship at the resort, following the 1924 PGA Championship, which was played on the Donald Ross Course and won by Walter Hagen, as well as the 1959 and 1960 Ladies Professional Golf Association Championships. Wanting and needing to prove itself as a viable option, French Lick started at the ground foor and began setting up smaller-scale tournaments, like the Big 10 Conference Golf Championships, the women's senior PGA Tour Legends Tour Championship and PNC Championships for club pros. "Tose events being held at French Lick really paved the way for us to continue looking at them (as a potential host)," Karns said. "Obviously, a lot of courses would like to have a Ryder Cup or a PGA Championship, but for us, ideally, we want to be able to go to a course and see how a smaller event plays out frst. "French Lick was defnitely willing to host some of those as a way to really showcase itself." Not every potential host site is cut out to host a championship-caliber event, but Karns said along with French Lick Resorts' willingness to prove itself, the team went above and beyond to answer any critique that was presented. "Tere was never one silver bullet – and there never is – on why we came here or choose other sites," Karns said. "It was just a combination of things and relationships, and ultimately a real commitment by French Lick Resort to work to say, 'We'll get that done, make those improvements and do whatever's necessary to get (the Senior PGA Championship).'" A CHAMPIONSHIP DECISION On July 30, 2013, French Lick was chosen as the 22nd host city in the history of the Champions Tour Senior PGA Championship. French Lick is the smallest site they've ever selected, Karns said. "It's not a situation we would normally go for, but having a beautiful facility to house our players and all the support staf really sold us," Karns said. "When you can fnd those pockets of the country where people are passionate about golf, that's really important. We've never done an event at a location this small and we probably won't ever." Karns also cited the role that Louisville's Valhalla Golf Course played into the decision. Te previous host of several major golf tournaments, including the Ryder Cup, PGA Championship and Senior PGA Championship (2004 and 2011), the ability of French Lick Resort to emulate Valhalla's success and to draw upon regional golf fans was another signifcant factor. "During the last seven years (Valhalla) has done all three events – Ryder Cup, PGA Championship and Senior PGA Championship – so Louisville is a really a great resource to all of our host sites when it comes to anything," Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort