The PGA "plans to move from its longtime home in Florida to a newly built campus at the northern edge" of Frisco, Texas in a deal that could cost more than $500M, according to sources cited by Robinson-Jacobs & Townsend of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. The Frisco City Council is "scheduled to vote" on the deal tomorrow. The project would "include a new 500-room resort by Dallas-based Omni Hotels & Resorts, the new 100,000-square-foot headquarters building, two championship-level golf courses and a 9-hole practice course." Sources said that it will also "include a guarantee that two PGA Championships, two Women's PGA Championships and multiple men's Senior PGA Championships will be played in Frisco." Much of the project is still being designed, but a source said that the development would "include about 30,000 square feet of retail space." The PGA has been headquartered in Florida since '56 and in Palm Beach Gardens since '81 (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 12/1).
RIGHT COURSE OF ACTION: In West Palm Beach, Brian Biggane noted one of the "many elements making the Frisco offer attractive is a promise to build two championship golf courses on site." Despite the two being separated by less than a mile, PGA of America has "no affiliation with PGA National and runs its on-course events at its PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie." PGA Master Professional Warren Bottke, one of the association's 29,000 members, said that the move will "allow the organization to bring everything back under one roof." Bottke: "I understand PGA of America did its best to find a spot here, but land here is at such a premium it was just impossible to find the scenario they found out there. And also you have 29,000 golf professionals who now have easy access to get to Dallas from almost anywhere, where people before from California and Hawaii had to come all the way east. This kind of puts them in the middle of the map" (PALM BEACH POST, 12/2).
