Why the host of the 2025 PGA Professional Championship is one of American golf's underrated places to play

In 2025, the road to Charlotte winds through Port Saint Lucie.

This weekend, 312 club pros will step out of their shops and away from the lesson tee for a few days to vie for the chance to earn one of 20 coveted berths in the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. In order to get a major championship start - and, who knows, maybe steal the show like Michael Block did at Oak Hill in 2023 - they will have to outlast their peers around a freshly renovated venue.

This year's PGA Professional Championship is a homecoming of sorts, held at PGA Golf Club, the 54-hole facility about 45 minutes north of the Palm Beaches and owned by the eponymous organization. Although the PGA name appears on other facilities around the country and world (including PGA Frisco in Texas, which is licensed by the PGA of America), PGA G.C. is the only one the 109-year-old organization owns outright.

Because I live just half an hour north of PGA Golf Club and the surrounding PGA Village development, I am fortunate to get to play golf there at least couple of times each year. Few places have more serious golfers in one location at a given time, especially in the winter, when dozens of current and retired PGA professionals spend anywhere from a few days to several months connecting with friends and working on their games. The sheer golf passion and knowledge is palpable; everywhere you turn, there is someone who has taught and/or played the game at a seriously impressive level. As a result, PGA Golf Club is one of the strongest cultural outposts in the American game. I adore the place.

A view from the appropriately intimidating tips on the par-3 4th hole at PGA Golf Club's Wanamaker course. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

Back-right hole locations at the Wanamaker's par-3 6th hole can be diabolical. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

The 2024 renovation of the Wanamaker included removal of 40% of the course's sand, leaving only a few tan-colored waste areas remaining on holes like the par-5 7th. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

Like several Tom Fazio designs, the Wanamaker has a shortish par 4 with two small greens. Here, it's the 8th. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

The undulating 10th green at the Wanamaker makes even short-iron and wedge approaches dangerous. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

Broad, clamshell bunkers have replaced smaller, deeper ones and really stand out on holes like the Wanamaker's par-5 13th. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

The par-5 16th represents a late opportunity for a final-round eagle that could catapult a PGA Professional Championship contestant into the coveted top 20. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

Water, sand and tournament pressure make a heady brew at the Wanamaker's closing hole. Tim Gavrich/GolfPass

What more fitting name for a course to winnow down a deep and talented field to 20 worthy PGA Championship participants than Wanamaker? The Tom Fazio design named for the PGA Championship's founder, fresh off a thorough renovation project, will host three of the rounds, while the field will also play one of the first two rounds on the Ryder Course, another fun Fazio loop on property. (The third course, the Dye, is actually my favorite of the three; I have written about it before.)

Originally opened in 1996 as PGA Golf Club's South Course and updated in various ways since, Wanamaker serves up an elevated take on South Florida golf with Fazio's recognizable modern flair. Its mostly generous fairways tend to have a friendly, slightly concave feel that gives golfers a measure of confidence off the tee. That said, missing on either side of several landing areas can result in hanging lies and poor approach angles. Best to attack from the fairways as the greens house plenty of contour that tends to shuttle indifferent shots to the margins. High tiers and low surrounding swales tend to make the putting surfaces play smaller than they appear, although certain hole locations grant opportunities to use gravity to one's advantage.

Wanamaker reopened in November 2024 after a summer-long renovation project overseen by club director of agronomy Christopher Sykes. It was a medium-impact undertaking relative to the design of the golf course, with most tweaks resulting from removal 40% of the course's sand, both in the form of formal bunkers and sandy waste areas. The course, which had previously been a little scrubbier in aesthetic, now sports a pristine look characterized by the broad, white-sand clamshell hazards that most Fazio designs have converted to in recent years, eschewing the former amoeba-shaped forms in favor of something obviously inspired by Augusta National.

I personally preferred the less squeaky-clean iteration of the Wanamaker, but the course remains plenty fun to play and relevant for competition, especially knowing its firm new Tif3D Bermuda greens can be sped up. Holes like the long par-3 4th, the par-4 8th with its two separate greens and the two-shot 10th, with just one very ornery putting surface, remain favorites of mine and have retained strong shot values in the wake of the renovation.

The course's four par 5s will be key to players' success in the PGA Professional Championship. They are all definite birdie or eagle chances, with just enough trouble lurking to cause some volatility, especially late in the rounds. The course finishes with as eclectic a five-hole run as one could hope for, whether you're playing or you're watching on Golf Channel this week. The 14th is the toughest par 4 on the course, stretching to 460 yards and playing slightly uphill to a long, narrow, heaving green with palmetto bushes uncomfortably close. A par here creates momentum heading into two golden-opportunity holes in the short par-4 15th and reachable par-5 16th, the latter of which has an interesting banked green that can create eagle opportunities. Numbers 17 and 18 comprise a stern final exam: a long par 3 and medium-long par 4 that culminates at a two-level green situated gorgeously in front of the clubhouse patio. It's a fitting place for a lot of exhilaration and some heartache to transpire come the final round.

PGA Golf Club is a vibrant members' club, but it does accept some outside play, although the increased popularity of the club has curtailed it somewhat. Typically only one of its three courses is available to non-members in the winter, at most. The best option is to play in the summer when things quiet down somewhat. A rotating maintenance schedule means each course gets a rest of several weeks while the others remain open and in tournament-caliber shape. Although I personally find the aforementioned Dye Course to be the class of PGA Golf Club's 54 holes (plus a fun 6-hole pitch-and-putt), it is hard to go wrong at one of Florida's greatest accessible golf havens.

Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club

Port Saint Lucie, Florida

Public

4.0416666667

9

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Ryder Course at PGA Golf Club

Port Saint Lucie, Florida

Public

4.8125

16

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Dye Course at PGA Golf Club

Port Saint Lucie, Florida

Public

4.3303176471

16

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