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Monday, May 16, 2022 10:47:23 PM
A Major moment for Tulsa: Southern Hills Country Club hosts record fifth PGA Championship May 16-22
"Field: MAY 19 - 22, 2022 PGA Championship "
Tim Landes Apr 29, 2022 Updated May 13, 2022
More than 40,000 people are expected to descend on Southern Hills Country Club each day during the upcoming PGA Championship.
Greg Bollinger
Sometime early in the third week of May, Nick Sidorakis will arrive at Southern Hills Country Club in the darkness of the early hours, his headlights illuminating the tree-lined driveway up to the clubhouse.
It will likely be 4:30 a.m. when the day’s golf maintenance meeting will get underway. Thirty minutes later, Sidorakis will walk the course under the stars until the sky starts to light up over the No. 11 green.
“I’ll watch the sunrise and really just try and take it all in and appreciate what we have and what we’re going to host. It’s pretty neat,” says the 63-year-old SHCC chief operating officer and general manager, who will retire at the end of 2023, ending a 28-year career. “I love to go and see them stamp the greens and get green speeds. I’m going to try to take it all in and be thankful we’re going to do another one of these.”
On May 16-22, Southern Hills will host a record fifth PGA Championship. It’s the club’s first since 2007 when Tiger Woods won the Wanamaker Trophy. Much has changed since then.
In 2018-2019, golf course architect Gil Hanse oversaw an extensive restoration of the course to return it back to Perry Maxwell’s 1935 legendary design, while adapting the course to meet current U.S. Golf Association standards. The greens were rebuilt, bunkers renovated and repositioned along fairways, six creeks restored and maybe most importantly, the course also was lengthened by over 300 yards from the back tees.
Scottie Scheffler is the reigning Masters Champion and will compete at this
month’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills. Courtesy PGA Tour
In 2007, 18 players averaged over 300 yards a drive with a tour average of 288.6 yards. This season on the PGA Tour, nearly 100 golfers are averaging 300 yards, with the overall tour average at 296.6 (as of March 29).
“They hit it a heck of a lot farther than we ever thought we would be able to hit it,” Sidorakis says. “It’ll be interesting to see how the distance holds up on our golf course. We’ve lengthened it to the point where they’ll have a driver in their hands a lot more than what happened in ’07. I think Tiger pulled a driver out six times during the four rounds. Well, I don’t think that will be the case this time. I think a driver is going to be in their hands a decent amount of the time.”
Fifteen years ago, this tournament was played in the sweltering heat and humidity of a typical Oklahoma August. This year it should be similar conditions to last year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
“If it’s windy, which it normally is in May during that time, it will throw a whole different element at them compared to the humidity in August of ’07,” he says. “I think the golf course will play completely different than anything we’ve seen, and I think with this new breed of golfer, there are a lot more shot makers.”
Sidorakis has witnessed the evolution of the game, the golfers and what it takes to host a major tournament, going back to the 1995 PGA Tour Championship when Billy Mayfair won by three strokes. This year will be unlike anything ever seen at Southern Hills.
Sidorakis says the buildout is 30% to 40% bigger than 2007. A more recent comparison for those who attended last year’s Senior PGA Championship: “Think about 10 times bigger,” he says.
“We’re going to be using all 300 acres for the Championship,” Sidorakis adds. “It definitely has a different look and feel to this Championship compared to ’07. Everything’s on the golf course as compared to then when it was on the peripheral of the golf course” or only around the clubhouse.
A city within a city
Years of preparation culminate this May for PGA of America Championship
Director Bryan Karns, Southern Hills Country Club COO and General
Manager Nick Sidorakis, and SHCC Tournament Chairman Jeff Smith,
pictured here with the Wanamaker Trophy. Michelle Pollard
It’s the middle of March and construction is well underway as Bryan Karns, PGA of America championship director, drives a roofless golf cart on the path near where the main entrance will be located. The flooring is already in place for a 60,000 square-foot gift shop.
“It will be like walking into a big retail store with all your favorite golfer’s attire for sale, plus a lot of other merchandise,” says Karns, a Stillwater native and Oklahoma State graduate now in his 12th year with the PGA. He originally returned to Oklahoma to oversee operations for last year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Then came a Jan. 26, 2021, announcement the organization was relocating the 2022 PGA Championship to Tulsa due to a parting of ways with Donald Trump and his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
With an operations team in place, a challenging course in great shape and a storied relationship, Karns says it was an easy decision to bring one of golf’s biggest events back to Tulsa.
“First and foremost, we don’t go to venues that don’t challenge the top golfers in the world, and they’ve done just an incredible job over the years here at Southern Hills,” says Karns, who will move to Charlotte, North Carolina, later this year to begin preparations for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
“We’ve never been to a venue five times. It’s tough to stay at that level, but they’ve always had a steady commitment to championships and keeping the golf course in great shape. (Southern Hills Golf Course Superintendent) Russ Myers is as good as it gets, in terms of keeping the golf course in shape.”
Southern Hills Country Club hosted the 2021 Senior PGA Championship,
won by Alex Cejka, seen here hugging his caddie on No. 18.
Greg Bollinger
Karns says the tournament’s relocation to Tulsa one year after the Senior PGA could not have worked out better from a timing standpoint.
“It provided the perfect opportunity for us to work up from a scaled-down Senior PGA,” Karns says. “Everything we built for the Senior PGA could fit in just a few of the tents on the course this year.”
Eight thousand people attended the Senior PGA each day. Last year’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, capped attendance at 10,000 a day due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that caused the 2020 PGA Championship to be delayed and then played with no spectators.
This month more than 40,000 people will descend on the Tulsa golf course each day of the tournament. It will take 3,000 volunteers to help make the tournament run smoothly.
Karns has weaved around the course and come to a stop near a complex of giant tents being constructed near South 61st Street. In a couple of months thousands of people will be enjoying the amenities offered inside them.
“This is the first full-fledged PGA we’ve had since 2019,” Karns says. “It really feels like in a lot of ways, it’s been kind of this three-year hiatus since we’ve been able to do it. It’s exciting. The fact that we get to do it here just makes it that much better.”
Jeff Smith agrees. He’s a 25-year member of Southern Hills and is serving as the tournament chairman for Southern Hills. Smith attended every big tournament the course has hosted since the mid ’90s and says on the heels of the recent economic struggles, this tournament is poised to be a big win for more than one professional golfer.
“We view it as a win for our club, but primarily it’s a win for Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma,” Smith says. “It has a huge economic impact the weeks leading up to the tournament and specifically for the week of the tournament.”
According to Tulsa Regional Tourism, the PGA Championship will have an economic impact of $143.5 million. By the middle of March there were very few hotel rooms available in the metro during tournament week. That means not only will 156 of the best golfers be visiting Tulsa, but also tens of thousands of visitors spending time and money in the city.
“I am so excited about what it means to our club, what it means to our city, what it means to our state, and how the world’s going to be looking at Tulsa for a week and seeing it’s a great place to live and raise your family and enjoy life,” says Smith, who attends lots of operations meetings and serves as a liaison between PGA officials and the Southern Hills leadership.
Come the evening of Sunday, May 22, this year’s tournament champion will pose for photographs as he holds the Wanamaker Trophy.
The droves of spectators, volunteers and workers will clear the course as the sun sets on another golf major. Sidorakis will get in his car and drive home, his final major championship in his rearview mirror.
“It’s going to be fun to look back on it having done seven championships, three of which are majors,” he says. “It’s pretty special. One of the reasons I came to Southern Hills is if I couldn’t play in a PGA Championship, I might as well run it. So it’s been really, really rewarding.”
The shot makers
Jordan Spieth Courtesy PGA Tour
Most of the golfers playing in the PGA have never played a major at Southern Hills. COO Nick Sidorakis says the younger generation’s style of play will make for exciting spectating.
"Patrick Cantlay, (Xander) Schauffele, (Jordan) Spieth, (Justin) Thomas and Brooks Koepka. They’re shot makers,” Sidorakis says. “It’ll be really interesting to see how they approach the course. They’re pretty methodical anyhow. All of them, for that matter. It’s a different group than we’ve seen here before for sure.”
As golf goes through a youth movement, PGA’s Bryan Karns adds a few rising stars to watch.
Viktor Hovland Courtesy PGA Tour
“There are so many of those guys who are out there right now who are bringing a new energy to the tour,” Karns says. “Collin Morikawa won the PGA in 2020 and is one of the bright stars, as are Oklahoma State golfers Viktor Hovland and Matt Wolff.”
Where to watch
Nick Sidorakis Suggests Southern Hills Country Club’s best places to watch during the PGA Championship:
Behind the No. 4 green is a great spot to watch the short par 4; you’ll see very interesting approaches and great putts because everything
sort of downhill runs toward you, away from down the hillside.
You can sit behind the No. 5 green and No. 6 tee box and see basically two greens and a tee shot. You can see the two greens on 2 and 5,
and then you can see the tee shots on 6.
No. 7 is going to be a fun hole because everything has changed.
No. 15 has my favorite green on the golf course. There’s so much movement. It’s hard to read.
On No. 17 it might play a day or two as a drivable par 4, so that’ll be fun to watch.
Another great spot is 13/16 green. You can see two different approach shots, whether it’s a second shot or third shot on the 13, a par 5, and then a long second shot into 16, a par 4.
Related: 2022 PGA Championship Course Guide
https://www.tulsapeople.com/tulsa-people/may-2022/2022-pga-championship-course-guide/article_fb2c80a6-bf21-11ec-b0e1-cf97b7c15ba1.html
Check out the course hole-by-hole and get insight from SHCC champions.
https://www.tulsapeople.com/city-desk/a-major-moment-for-tulsa-southern-hills-country-club-hosts-record-fifth-pga-championship-may/article_3b71e5de-bf22-11ec-9c96-cb2291ac19f7.html
"Field: MAY 19 - 22, 2022 PGA Championship "
Tim Landes Apr 29, 2022 Updated May 13, 2022
More than 40,000 people are expected to descend on Southern Hills Country Club each day during the upcoming PGA Championship.
Greg Bollinger
Sometime early in the third week of May, Nick Sidorakis will arrive at Southern Hills Country Club in the darkness of the early hours, his headlights illuminating the tree-lined driveway up to the clubhouse.
It will likely be 4:30 a.m. when the day’s golf maintenance meeting will get underway. Thirty minutes later, Sidorakis will walk the course under the stars until the sky starts to light up over the No. 11 green.
“I’ll watch the sunrise and really just try and take it all in and appreciate what we have and what we’re going to host. It’s pretty neat,” says the 63-year-old SHCC chief operating officer and general manager, who will retire at the end of 2023, ending a 28-year career. “I love to go and see them stamp the greens and get green speeds. I’m going to try to take it all in and be thankful we’re going to do another one of these.”
On May 16-22, Southern Hills will host a record fifth PGA Championship. It’s the club’s first since 2007 when Tiger Woods won the Wanamaker Trophy. Much has changed since then.
In 2018-2019, golf course architect Gil Hanse oversaw an extensive restoration of the course to return it back to Perry Maxwell’s 1935 legendary design, while adapting the course to meet current U.S. Golf Association standards. The greens were rebuilt, bunkers renovated and repositioned along fairways, six creeks restored and maybe most importantly, the course also was lengthened by over 300 yards from the back tees.
Scottie Scheffler is the reigning Masters Champion and will compete at this
month’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills. Courtesy PGA Tour
In 2007, 18 players averaged over 300 yards a drive with a tour average of 288.6 yards. This season on the PGA Tour, nearly 100 golfers are averaging 300 yards, with the overall tour average at 296.6 (as of March 29).
“They hit it a heck of a lot farther than we ever thought we would be able to hit it,” Sidorakis says. “It’ll be interesting to see how the distance holds up on our golf course. We’ve lengthened it to the point where they’ll have a driver in their hands a lot more than what happened in ’07. I think Tiger pulled a driver out six times during the four rounds. Well, I don’t think that will be the case this time. I think a driver is going to be in their hands a decent amount of the time.”
Fifteen years ago, this tournament was played in the sweltering heat and humidity of a typical Oklahoma August. This year it should be similar conditions to last year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
“If it’s windy, which it normally is in May during that time, it will throw a whole different element at them compared to the humidity in August of ’07,” he says. “I think the golf course will play completely different than anything we’ve seen, and I think with this new breed of golfer, there are a lot more shot makers.”
Sidorakis has witnessed the evolution of the game, the golfers and what it takes to host a major tournament, going back to the 1995 PGA Tour Championship when Billy Mayfair won by three strokes. This year will be unlike anything ever seen at Southern Hills.
Sidorakis says the buildout is 30% to 40% bigger than 2007. A more recent comparison for those who attended last year’s Senior PGA Championship: “Think about 10 times bigger,” he says.
“We’re going to be using all 300 acres for the Championship,” Sidorakis adds. “It definitely has a different look and feel to this Championship compared to ’07. Everything’s on the golf course as compared to then when it was on the peripheral of the golf course” or only around the clubhouse.
A city within a city
Years of preparation culminate this May for PGA of America Championship
Director Bryan Karns, Southern Hills Country Club COO and General
Manager Nick Sidorakis, and SHCC Tournament Chairman Jeff Smith,
pictured here with the Wanamaker Trophy. Michelle Pollard
It’s the middle of March and construction is well underway as Bryan Karns, PGA of America championship director, drives a roofless golf cart on the path near where the main entrance will be located. The flooring is already in place for a 60,000 square-foot gift shop.
“It will be like walking into a big retail store with all your favorite golfer’s attire for sale, plus a lot of other merchandise,” says Karns, a Stillwater native and Oklahoma State graduate now in his 12th year with the PGA. He originally returned to Oklahoma to oversee operations for last year’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Then came a Jan. 26, 2021, announcement the organization was relocating the 2022 PGA Championship to Tulsa due to a parting of ways with Donald Trump and his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
With an operations team in place, a challenging course in great shape and a storied relationship, Karns says it was an easy decision to bring one of golf’s biggest events back to Tulsa.
“First and foremost, we don’t go to venues that don’t challenge the top golfers in the world, and they’ve done just an incredible job over the years here at Southern Hills,” says Karns, who will move to Charlotte, North Carolina, later this year to begin preparations for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
“We’ve never been to a venue five times. It’s tough to stay at that level, but they’ve always had a steady commitment to championships and keeping the golf course in great shape. (Southern Hills Golf Course Superintendent) Russ Myers is as good as it gets, in terms of keeping the golf course in shape.”
Southern Hills Country Club hosted the 2021 Senior PGA Championship,
won by Alex Cejka, seen here hugging his caddie on No. 18.
Greg Bollinger
Karns says the tournament’s relocation to Tulsa one year after the Senior PGA could not have worked out better from a timing standpoint.
“It provided the perfect opportunity for us to work up from a scaled-down Senior PGA,” Karns says. “Everything we built for the Senior PGA could fit in just a few of the tents on the course this year.”
Eight thousand people attended the Senior PGA each day. Last year’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, capped attendance at 10,000 a day due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that caused the 2020 PGA Championship to be delayed and then played with no spectators.
This month more than 40,000 people will descend on the Tulsa golf course each day of the tournament. It will take 3,000 volunteers to help make the tournament run smoothly.
Karns has weaved around the course and come to a stop near a complex of giant tents being constructed near South 61st Street. In a couple of months thousands of people will be enjoying the amenities offered inside them.
“This is the first full-fledged PGA we’ve had since 2019,” Karns says. “It really feels like in a lot of ways, it’s been kind of this three-year hiatus since we’ve been able to do it. It’s exciting. The fact that we get to do it here just makes it that much better.”
Jeff Smith agrees. He’s a 25-year member of Southern Hills and is serving as the tournament chairman for Southern Hills. Smith attended every big tournament the course has hosted since the mid ’90s and says on the heels of the recent economic struggles, this tournament is poised to be a big win for more than one professional golfer.
“We view it as a win for our club, but primarily it’s a win for Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma,” Smith says. “It has a huge economic impact the weeks leading up to the tournament and specifically for the week of the tournament.”
According to Tulsa Regional Tourism, the PGA Championship will have an economic impact of $143.5 million. By the middle of March there were very few hotel rooms available in the metro during tournament week. That means not only will 156 of the best golfers be visiting Tulsa, but also tens of thousands of visitors spending time and money in the city.
“I am so excited about what it means to our club, what it means to our city, what it means to our state, and how the world’s going to be looking at Tulsa for a week and seeing it’s a great place to live and raise your family and enjoy life,” says Smith, who attends lots of operations meetings and serves as a liaison between PGA officials and the Southern Hills leadership.
Come the evening of Sunday, May 22, this year’s tournament champion will pose for photographs as he holds the Wanamaker Trophy.
The droves of spectators, volunteers and workers will clear the course as the sun sets on another golf major. Sidorakis will get in his car and drive home, his final major championship in his rearview mirror.
“It’s going to be fun to look back on it having done seven championships, three of which are majors,” he says. “It’s pretty special. One of the reasons I came to Southern Hills is if I couldn’t play in a PGA Championship, I might as well run it. So it’s been really, really rewarding.”
The shot makers
Jordan Spieth Courtesy PGA Tour
Most of the golfers playing in the PGA have never played a major at Southern Hills. COO Nick Sidorakis says the younger generation’s style of play will make for exciting spectating.
"Patrick Cantlay, (Xander) Schauffele, (Jordan) Spieth, (Justin) Thomas and Brooks Koepka. They’re shot makers,” Sidorakis says. “It’ll be really interesting to see how they approach the course. They’re pretty methodical anyhow. All of them, for that matter. It’s a different group than we’ve seen here before for sure.”
As golf goes through a youth movement, PGA’s Bryan Karns adds a few rising stars to watch.
Viktor Hovland Courtesy PGA Tour
“There are so many of those guys who are out there right now who are bringing a new energy to the tour,” Karns says. “Collin Morikawa won the PGA in 2020 and is one of the bright stars, as are Oklahoma State golfers Viktor Hovland and Matt Wolff.”
Where to watch
Nick Sidorakis Suggests Southern Hills Country Club’s best places to watch during the PGA Championship:
Behind the No. 4 green is a great spot to watch the short par 4; you’ll see very interesting approaches and great putts because everything
sort of downhill runs toward you, away from down the hillside.
You can sit behind the No. 5 green and No. 6 tee box and see basically two greens and a tee shot. You can see the two greens on 2 and 5,
and then you can see the tee shots on 6.
No. 7 is going to be a fun hole because everything has changed.
No. 15 has my favorite green on the golf course. There’s so much movement. It’s hard to read.
On No. 17 it might play a day or two as a drivable par 4, so that’ll be fun to watch.
Another great spot is 13/16 green. You can see two different approach shots, whether it’s a second shot or third shot on the 13, a par 5, and then a long second shot into 16, a par 4.
Related: 2022 PGA Championship Course Guide
https://www.tulsapeople.com/tulsa-people/may-2022/2022-pga-championship-course-guide/article_fb2c80a6-bf21-11ec-b0e1-cf97b7c15ba1.html
Check out the course hole-by-hole and get insight from SHCC champions.
https://www.tulsapeople.com/city-desk/a-major-moment-for-tulsa-southern-hills-country-club-hosts-record-fifth-pga-championship-may/article_3b71e5de-bf22-11ec-9c96-cb2291ac19f7.html
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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