Editor’s note: Updating to reflect Jeff Noel’s successor is Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Sustainability Pam Klyn.
It’s Senior PGA Week. The week that professional golfers age 50 & over square off to compete for the most prestigious trophy on the PGA Tour Champions—and some big money! Every even-numbered year for the past decade, the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship has been played at the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Harbor Shores Resort here in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
The tournament will return here next year in May, 2024, bringing thousands of golf fans and some of the most prominent names in the game back into town. Many of those fans are wondering: Will next year be the LAST year for the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores? Or, will the alternate year rotation—or another schedule under the KitchenAid banner—maintain Harbor Shores status as a nationally recognized layout for professional championship golf.
So far, the decision is unclear, amid economic challenges, changing consumer trends and significant changes in the executive suite at Whirlpool/KitchenAid since the last extension of the Senior PGA sponsorship more than five years ago.
One of the tournament’s leading boosters and himself an event chairman, former Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig is long-retired, replaced by CEO Marc Bitzer, who has no personal ties to the event, or the Harbor Shores development. And the driving force for the tournament and its many charity ties to the Community, Whirlpool Vice President Jeff Noel, retired and left the area last year for a new position as a key aide to the Governor of Kentucky, Noel’s home state.
Since Noel’s retirement, the person guiding the corporation’s future participation is Pam Klyn, a long-standing member of the local community, working three decades for Whirlpool Corporation and currently serving as Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Sustainability. Klyn is also the general chair for next year’s Senior PGA championship and will lead the event’s operating committee.
Former Whirlpool Chairman Jeff Fettig
Based on the timing of past announcements of future tournament locations and of KitchenAid’s promotional plans, it seems that the time is ripe for a decision and announcement during this year’s Senior PGA event in Frisco, Texas.
So, MoodyOnTheMarket.com put the question to a Whirlpool spokesperson. What is the future of KitchenAid and the PGA after 2024’s event at Harbor Shores? We received this response: “Talks are ongoing.”
Stay tuned…. MOTM will keep asking the question, as it affects many small businesses, as well as our readers in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
Meanwhile, it’s possible that the PGA of America was paying close attention to Harbor Shores’ success in building a major golf destination ‘from scratch.’ This year’s 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship is being played at the brand new Fields Ranch East course at ‘PGA Frisco’, a golf and residential development on the North side of Dallas, Texas. The PGA of America has moved its headquarters to the new complex and will welcome at least 25 major tournaments to Fields Ranch East over the next decade.
While Fields Ranch at Frisco is not a ‘resurrection’ project like Harbor Shores, built on industrial wasteland property, it is a project that’s designed to put an area ‘on the map’ and stimulate major development with a championship golf course as the centerpiece.
In an article on the the PGA’s website, www.KitcheAidSeniorPGAChampionship.com, the designer of the course talked about how he approached the challenge:
Fields Ranch East golf course architect Gil Hanse was involved in bidding on the project as early as 2016 and broke ground three years later. He identified eight holes right away, and then had to find 10 more. In addition to building a championship test, he also had to keep in mind the resort guests who will visit and play, not looking to run through a dozen golf balls on a property that would potentially be too tough.
Hanse said when he creates a course, he is open to listening to those who experience it, and never can predict exactly what he’ll hear once the ribbon is cut.
Thursday morning, the curtain will rise – Club Professional Cameron Doan of nearby Preston Trail and the Northern Texas PGA Section will hit the first shot – and Fields Ranch East will take its first step into becoming a meaningful part of golf’s championship future. By 2034, the PGA will stage six major championships (PGAs in 2027 and ’34; Senior PGAs this week and 2029; and KPMG Women’s PGAs in 2025 and ’31) at Fields Ranch East.
“You know, I think we feel confident enough that within what we believe in golf architecture, whether that’s right or wrong, we’ve done a good job with this golf course,” Hanse said. “We think we’ve set up a compelling test and what we think would be interesting for people to watch, but also for people to play.
“We feel good about that.”
Just as national coverage of the tournament at Harbor Shores has helped showcase Southwest Michigan, Frisco, Texas will be in the spotlight this weekend as the quest for the Alfred S. Bourne trophy tees off Thursday thru Sunday.
LIVE NATIONAL TV COVERAGE
Thursday, May 25
GOLF Channel: 1:00PM-4:00PM
Friday, May 26
GOLF Channel: 1:00PM-4:00PM
Saturday, May 27
NBC: 1:30PM-4:30PM
Sunday, May 28
GOLF Channel: 3:00PM-4:00PM
NBC: 4:00PM-6:00PM
For complete coverage of the tournament, go to www.KitcheAidSeniorPGAChampionship.com,
Headline photo: 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Winner Steven Alker
