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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Valhalla Golf Club is ready for a sold-out crowd at the 2024 PGA Championship, spurred on by the biggest venue build-out the PGA of America has ever attempted. The excitement is pulsing through the city as local golf fans get ready to see major championship golf for the first time since 2014.
“It sold out well in advance," said Valhalla superintendent John Ballard. "It just shows you that the city of Louisville cares about golf, and they want to support it and they're going to do that.”
At first glance, television will show a crowd full of life and excited for major championship golf. But those of us intimately connected to the Louisville golf scene, are taking a breath of relief. I grew up in Louisville, learning to play golf at a country club where my father has been the PGA pro for 25 years. This city's golf community is like family to me.
It's no secret that Louisville is horse racing and bourbon country. Don't be fooled, though; this is a golf city, too. Unfortunately, the city of Louisville and its avid public golfers were at odds for years, a disconnect that brought troubled times for the municipal golf courses many called home. Finally, the city is putting the past behind it and enjoying the best era of golf Louisville has ever seen.
Municipal golf's struggles in Louisville
Any golfer knows how important it is to have a variety of courses in a local community. Louisville has no shortage of places to play. Some 30 golf courses, ranging from 9-hole munis to top-tier country clubs, lie within Louisville proper. Just outside city limits, there are 24 more.
Today, all is good in the world of Louisville golf. But five years ago, cracks were showing in the public sector.
In the later part of 2019, six public course PGA professionals were nearing the end of their contracts with their respective courses and the city of Louisville. As a result, Louisville Parks and Recreation, which owns nine local municipal golf courses, put these public courses up for bid, taking applications for new PGA Professionals or organizations to manage them. Of these six courses, four received signed contracts for new management in February 2020.
Despite months of negotiations, the city failed to meet long-term agreements for two courses, Cherokee Golf Course and Sun Valley Golf Course. As a result, the courses remained under city management until new partners could be confirmed.
Sun Valley was feeling the pressure of finding new management as one of the only golf courses serving the south end in the neighborhood of Valley Station. Meanwhile, the nine-hole Cherokee was fighting to prevent closure. The next couple of years were a political tailspin for these courses and the entire Louisville public golf community as they tried to save one of the state’s most historic courses and bring peace back to their golf landscape.
Founded in 1895, Cherokee is the oldest golf course in the city of Louisville and has always been a historic staple in the portfolio of Kentucky golf. The 9-hole layout is beloved and has brought playing opportunities to a large demographic of the community over its nearly 130 years.
Instead of working to reach an agreement for new management, Louisville Parks and Rec sat on a proposal to repurpose Cherokee Golf Course into a new park for the community. The idea was brought by a local nonprofit that was looking at the land with a new vision.
City management wasn’t working. “They didn't have a golf pro; the city ran it," former Cherokee Head Golf Professional Greg Basham said. "It was really going down because they didn't offer any food and beverage. They had like 10 carts.”
Basham oversaw the course for 15 years until 2020, when he moved to Iroquois Golf Course, an 18-hole facility across the city.
“So as a consumer, [golfers] are saying [the city] are doing everything to close it," he said. "Walking in the door, it was like a ghost town.”
In June of 2022, community outcries and an array of political support came together to convince the city to spare the golf course from redevelopment. With the park plans discarded, bidding was reopened and the search for new management continued.
New ownership brings changes to Valhalla
During this time, municipal drama wasn’t the only source of Louisville golf turmoil. With the PGA Championship right around the corner, the city’s crown jewel, Valhalla, was also facing changes.
When Valhalla received the 2024 PGA Championship bid, the club was under PGA of America's ownership. But in 2022, the PGA sold it to a group of Louisville locals who vowed to bring a Kentucky theme to the property. New rules and fee structures brought by the new owners didn’t sit well with some long-time members, leaving everyone connected to Louisville's tight-knit golf community wondering how the various changes would impact preparation for a major championship.
Turns out, the construction projects that started three years ago to improve the property only got bigger and better. Valhalla has given their clubhouse a major renovation, redone the entrance to the property and taken on many small projects across the golf course to enhance its appearance.
“They’ve infused a lot of capital … really trying to give it a Kentucky feel," Ballard said. "They really want this Kentucky theme and there’s a sort of energy and enthusiasm in doing this.”
Libby Gilliland/GolfPass
Inside the ropes, the agronomy staff has transitioned from bent grass to zoysia grass fairways and tee areas, which is no easy project. Ballard noted that this change is one he is most excited to see this week. “Zoysia just plays a lot firmer than what bent grass does,” he says. “We can control the moisture into it. It just plays like a tabletop.”
When I visited the course in March, construction was still underway and the new zoysia grass was just waking up from Kentucky’s winter. This week, the sold-out crowd will finally get to see how the course holds up and make their judgments on the club’s new additions.
To see Valhalla complete and primed for competition is a nod to the teamwork of the agronomy staff that worked through ownership changes during the height of preparation and the new owners who brought big ideas and executed each one to put together one of the biggest weeks in golf.
“If you get around the property now,” Ballard said, “we're trying to finish up all these auxiliary projects but inside the ropes we are where we need to be.”
How the Louisville golf community came together
While Valhalla puts the finishing touches on the property, Louisville municipal golf continues to thrive after finally finding new management of its own.
In March of 2023, four years after initially going up for bid, Cherokee and Sun Valley had signed contracts from two local PGA Professionals to oversee the operations.
Louisville locals Chris Wilson and Dustin Fowler grew up working at golf courses in the city and have now stepped up to save two of Louisville’s most cherished facilities. Wilson now oversees Cherokee, while Fowler signed up for Sun Valley.
Cherokee faced a period of recovery after several tough years but has come out on the other side with a stronger customer base that is grateful the course was spared.
The pandemic golf boom has helped turn things around at struggling courses all across the country but more local support played a big role as well. The city has started putting more money into their municipal courses, ultimately elevating the overall experience for golfers. As these upgrades are taking place, city leaders are finally noticing the positive impact to the bottom line that comes from reinvesting in golf.
“All of our golf courses are thriving,” said Basham. “The play is up on every single golf course we have. Public golf right now is as good as it’s ever been.”
Louisville has stayed in the news this year as the host of the 150th Kentucky Derby and now the 2024 PGA Championship. When the cameras fade, though, the golf community will continue working to stay strong. That's something I'm most proud of for the place I still consider home.
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