The semiquincentennial is only a summer season away, and all of Philly’s occasions immediately celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday will likely be complemented by huge sports activities occasions in and across the area.
Whereas the MLB All-Star Sport and the FIFA Males’s World Cup will share the summer season highlight with the nation’s birthday, the sports activities prepare first arrives in March, with first- and second-round video games of the NCAA March Insanity males’s basketball event. Then, the weekend earlier than Memorial Day, the 108th PGA Championship will likely be very shut by at Aronimink Golf Membership in Newtown Sq..
For Ryan Ogle, event director for the Championship, not being in July shouldn’t be a difficulty.
“Folks discuss 2026 once they speak concerning the semiquincentennial, proper? It’s not July Fourth 2026,” he mentioned. “And to have the ability to type of kick off all of the celebrations, in a means, I believe is a superb alternative for us.”
For the non-golf followers on the market, the PGA Championship is certainly one of skilled golf’s 4 prestigious main tournaments in yearly. Solely the Masters, in Augusta, Ga., stays on the similar venue each time. The British Open is performed round the UK, whereas the U.S. Open and PGA Championship roam round America.
Aronimink final hosted the PGA Championship in 1962, when golf legend Gary Participant gained it. Final yr, it was at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville, Ky. Gamers competed for a complete purse of $18.5 million with the winner, Xander Schauffle, bagging $3.33 million. This yr, will probably be at Quail Hole Membership in Charlotte. N.C.
Together with the money, gamers compete to get their names etched onto the Wanamaker Trophy, named after division retailer inheritor and Philly native Lewis Rodman Wanamaker.
The group that runs the event, the PGA of America, additionally places collectively the Senior PGA Championship and the Ladies’s PGA Championship and, in 2020, Aronimink grew to become the first course to host all three. Ogle mentioned that the financial affect of the occasion exceeds $130 million.
Past the event’s status, cash and elite golfers, being part of the lineup for America’s 250th birthday yr ups the ante.
“Our occasion’s been round since 1916, so it has a storied historical past. However when you’ll be able to tag on to one thing as historic because the celebration and the anniversary of the nation, I believe it’s nice for us,” Ogle mentioned. “And we’re excited so as to add one more good thing for individuals to do to rejoice that yr.”
Whereas the “contained in the ropes” preparations to arrange and situation the golf course and accommodate the gamers will occur nearer to the event weekend, planning “outdoors the ropes” — targeted on issues like operations, logistics, visitors, parking, volunteers, tickets and company hospitality — started again in August 2023.
“You’re constructing a stadium on a golf course,” Ogle mentioned. “So we’ve got to seek out the parking, get them there, the ticket scanning, the concessions, the restrooms, all in a brief setting, on a golf course.”
Ogle says the event will take classes from earlier tournaments within the space, together with the 2013 U.S. Open, held at Merion Golf Membership in close-by Haverford Township. which supplied perception into parking, transportation and dealing with a good property.
He additionally plans to lean into Philly’s tradition when potential. Concessions will embody the anticipated cheesesteaks and pretzels. Meals and non-alcoholic drinks are all-inclusive with the event tickets. The fervour and enthusiasm of Philly sports activities followers will even be embraced, and Ogle mentioned he’s wanting to see what it provides to the thrill.
“Golf is historically somewhat bit extra reserved. In fact, we’re going to be respectful of the competitors going down,” he mentioned. “However I believe we’ll see somewhat little bit of rowdiness, somewhat little bit of enjoyable from the Philadelphia followers, that perhaps we wouldn’t see in different communities.”
Ogle mentioned he loved the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl run, and the way the town and the workforce introduced everybody alongside for the journey.
“I believe you study rather a lot a few group or a market when a few of their sports activities groups have success, and I believe they’re doing a little actually cool issues and inventive issues to make individuals really feel part of it,” Ogle mentioned, citing Go to Philly’s inserting telephones for Birds followers across the metropolis for example.
Tickets should not obtainable but for the 2026 PGA Match, however followers can determine their curiosity, in addition to look via volunteer and hospitality alternatives, at the event’s web site.
For skilled golf this yr, the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship runs from Might 8 to 11 at Philadelphia Cricket Membership’s Wissahickon Course in Flourtown, Montgomery County, with tickets obtainable right here.