The World Golf Corridor of Fame is leaving Florida and returning to North Carolina, the place it will likely be a part of the USGAs campus at Pinehurst and have two induction ceremonies throughout the U.S. Open weeks in 2024 and 2029.
The transfer will contain relocating a number of the artifacts which were on show on the World Golf Corridor of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, which opened in 1998. The customer expertise additionally will embrace the USGA museum and its huge library.
The USGA, which has its foremost headquarters in Far Hills, New Jersey, started final month to construct a Golf Home Pinehurst with golf gear testing because the centerpiece.
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner who chairs the World Golf Basis, stated Wednesdays announcement would cement the long-term relevance and viability of the Corridor of Fame and increase on the partnership with the USGA.
Each organizations are dedicated to prioritizing the preservation of golf historical past, which is able to serve followers nicely within the years to return, Monahan stated.
Tiger Woods was a part of the final induction class in March at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Seaside, Florida. In recent times, induction ceremonies had been hyperlinks to large occasions — St. Andrews throughout the 2015 Open Championship, Liberty Nationwide throughout the 2017 Presidents Cup, Pebble Seaside in 2019 throughout the U.S. Open.
It was not instantly determined if there can be different induction ceremonies between the 2024 U.S. Open and the 2029 U.S. Open and U.S. Girlss Open in Pinehurst.
There isnt any higher connection to golfs previous, current and future than Pinehurst, and no group that works tougher than the USGA to protect the historical past of this nice recreation, stated Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA. It simply is sensible. And along with the Corridor of Fame, were extra dedicated than ever to delivering experiences that construct even deeper connections between golf followers and those who have really led the best way on this nice recreation.
Golf lengthy has struggled to place collectively a Corridor of Fame that might be according to Cooperstown (baseball) and Canton (professional soccer), partly as a result of its roots contain multiple group.
The Corridor of Fame opened in 1974 in Pinehurst was privately operated. The PGA of America took over administration in 1983 and bought it three years later, merging its Corridor of Fame that dated to 1940. The World Golf Corridor of Fame introduced a world facet to golf, together with the LPGA Tour.
However visitors to the World Golf Village was gradual. Attendance was greater than 250,000 a yr at its peak and final yr dropped to about 60,000. The World Golf Basiss 25-year lease expires on the finish of subsequent yr.
Monahan had been taking a look at methods to protect golfs wealthy historical past even with out the bodily construction in St. Augustine, and the partnership with the USGA supplies a transparent path.
The USGA will likely be chargeable for the day-to-day operations. The World Golf Basis will proceed to supervise the choice course of and induction ceremony.
Together with artifacts from the World Golf Corridor of Fame — resembling Johnny Millers golf equipment from his 63 at Oakmont within the 1973 U.S. Open and the wedge Seve Ballesteros used to win his first Open Championship — the shrine will embrace the great assortment from the USGA Golf Museum and Library.
Miller and Nick Faldo had been the primary gamers to be inducted within the Florida facility in 1998. The final induction ceremony on the World Golf Village was in 2013, a category that included Fred {Couples} and Colin Montgomerie.
