The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) began in 1916 in New York City. The game of golf was becoming increasingly popular and many players were anxious to promote it more. Rodman Wanamaker established the first official meeting of the PGA on April 10th of that same year with 35 initial members. Since that day the PGA has grown to a network of 41 regions, that provides “grass-roots” support to 25 million amateur golfers and 28,000 professional members. The organization assists golfers of all types with divisions for amateurs, professionals, seniors and juniors. One of many annual activities ran by the PGA is the PGA Championship. The first PGA Championship was held October 10-14th 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. It was exactly 6 months to the day after the birth of the organization. In the end James M. Barnes won the trophy and $2,580. The next two years the Championship game was cancelled because of Word War I, but in 1919 the game resumed and James Barnes won his second title.
Even though professionals and amateur golfers have been competing since 1895, the PGA TOUR we know today, only officially begun in 1968. That is when the “Tournament Players Division” of the PGA of America broke off as a new, independent organization. The TOUR hired Joseph C. Dey as its first commissioner.
For more PGA History, see:
PGA History by Year by PGA.com
PGA TOUR History by GolfWeb.com
For alternative news sources, try the following news providers:
ESPN ; SI.com; Golf on Line; PGA Tour Site
For more information on the Game of Golf - Rules, Strategies, Improve your game, etc see Golf Links, or contact Kris our Golf Librarian from TickCo.com
Useful PGA Information
- Stats
PGA Official Site
About the PGA
Tour Money-Leaders
Tour Scoring - Other Professional Golf Associations :
Junior PGA; Junior's Tour Schedule
LPGA; Woman's Tour Schedule
Senior PGA; Senior's Tour Schedule
PGA Sections
The PGA is broken down into different “sections” that offer support to a general areas. The United States alone contains over 40 PGA sections. Each section is responsible for holding regional qualifying tournaments, educational programs, workshops, and seminars for area members. Find out more about your local section: PGA Sections
PGALinks.com - Official site for PGA tickets
PGA Tickets - For sold-out tickets to the PGA Championship, FBR Open and more, visit TickCo
Buy or Sell PGA Tour Championship Tickets and Golf Tickets including PGA Tournament Tickets and Masters Tickets at Empire Tickets.