PGA Championship - Valhalla Golf Club

As we were watching the PGA Championship one year ago, the offer to register for 2024 tickets came on TV and we thought "hey, let's register".  It's quite a process - you apply for a time slot to purchase tickets and a few weeks later an e-mail shows up with a date/time to purchase tickets.  When your time slot comes up, you rush to log in and pick your dates.  Tickets weren't cheap and we had NO idea where we'd been in another year, but since we were in Kentucky at the time and the 2024 tournament was to be held in Louisville, we decided to get tickets for a practice round since they are less expensive and if we couldn't attend it wouldn't be such a big deal.  So we threw a dart and picked Wednesday, May 15.  And as luck would have it, we were able to get to Kentucky at that time and here we were.

The Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America and is one of the four men's major golf championships.  It has been held at various venues - some of the early sites are now obscure but in recent years, the event has generally been played at a small group of celebrated courses.

Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville brought back a memory for me.  In 2000, my parents flew to Louisville to visit my uncle (dad's only sibling) and attend the tournament at Valhalla.  I remember my dad's face lighting up when he told us about the trip and now I was there!

Mother Nature was uncooperative but the spectator's spirits remained high as we waited in the rain for the gates to open.

It was a bit overwhelming and we weren't sure where to go but we managed to find our way to the Short Range Practice area.

Cam Smith

And then on to the Driving Range.

Xander Schauffele (black hat facing camera), eventual winner

Tiger Woods, facing camera

As Tiger left the range, we decided to follow him to his starting hole.  We lost him for a minute and then a kind volunteer told us they'd taken him to hole 6.  So we headed to 7, and then 8, and sat in the bleachers waiting for his arrival.

And soon he was putting on 8.

And then he was on to hole #9.

Practice rounds are much more casual than tournament days and the kids were waiting at every hole hoping for an autograph.  The kid in the blue hat above reached out as he said "Mr. Woods, can I have your autograph?"  No response :-(

It's hard to see Tiger aging - I remember when he was a young golfer from Stanford (which made my Stanford grad parents very, very proud) with his career ahead of him.  And what a career it's been!  But his body is failing him and you can see him struggle to even get through a round of golf.

Time for some lunch (or actually breakfast since we hadn't really eaten).  The nice part about our tickets was that all of the food and drink, excluding alcohol, was complimentary.  And believe it or not, it was pretty tasty.

Sandwiches

Snacks

Drinks

We moved on to hole #13, Valhalla's "signature" hole.  I can see why - it is beautiful!

And along came Phil Mickelson, 2005 and 2021 PGA Champion.

As we moved on, we ran across a few familiar faces.

Keegan Bradley, 2011 PGA Champion

Scott Van Pelt, ESPN Sportscaster

The media in their booth.

Whew, the rain had stopped and it was getting hot and humid.  Oh look at that, a nice place to stop for a refreshment!

We had an Old Fashioned and a Birdie Bramble.

Hit the spot!

Cheers!

There was an interesting display where patrons could sign the wall.  After only a day and a half, it was full.

We found a quiet spot to sit and enjoy our drinks.

Moving on to hole #16 where we hung out for awhile to see who was coming up.

What a crowd

And it was there that we saw the #1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler.

 

If you follow golf, you may know of Michael Block, the head club professional in Mission Viejo, California (which is where my sister lives).  He received attention after making the cut at the 2023 PGA Championship where he scored a hole in one at the 15th hole on his way to a +1 final score which tied him for 15th place and a check for a cool $288,000 in prize money.  Because he was in the top 15, he received an automatic invitation to the 2024 PGA Championship.  He was enjoying every minute of it!

We moved on to hole 18 for a bit where the crowds were building.

Of course we had to do a little shopping.

A beautiful print of the signature 13th hole.  There just might be one less for sale in the bin now :-)

Boy, we were exhausted and we had quite a trek to get back to the shuttle/tour buses and the 20(ish) minute ride back to the Kentucky Exposition Center where the public parked.  On the way out we snapped a photo of the Wanamaker Trophy replica - Xander Schauffele won the real thing just a few days later.

It was such fun so we've registered for a spot in 2025.  Who knows where we'll be - maybe here!