Major and Ryder Cup coming to S. F. course
San Francisco’s Olympic Club, a venue awash in golf history, has agreed to host the 2028 PGA Championship and 2032 Ryder Cup, The Chronicle has learned.
The deal, which will be officially announced Wednesday in a news conference at the club, effectively removes Olympic from the U. S. Open rotation for the foreseeable future.
That’s big news in golf circles, because the club’s Lake Course has hosted the Open five times, from Jack Fleck stunning Ben Hogan in 1955 to Webb Simpson winning in 2012. The United States Golf Association, the organization that runs America’s national championship, offered the 2027 U. S. Open to the Olympic Club, but contract talks stalled over the past several months.
Then the USGA — sensing Olympic might accept the Ryder Cup/ PGA offer instead, according to one source — announced Oct. 24 that Pebble Beach would host the ’ 27 Open.
The PGA of America sent out media invitations Thursday for a “special announcement” at the Olympic Club on Wednesday. PGA President Paul Levy and Chief Executive Officer Pete Bevacqua are among those scheduled to attend.
The 2032 edition of the Ryder Cup, on the Lake Course, will be the first held in Northern California and the first in the state since 1959. The Ryder Cup is a team match- play event pitting the top U. S. players against their European counterparts.
The Ryder Cup, which has a rich history dating to 1927, is known for raucous crowds and terrific theater. Europe has won six of the past eight competitions, though the U. S. steamed to a 17- 11 victory last year outside Minneapolis.
San Francisco hasn’t hosted the PGA Championship, one of
four majors in men’s golf, but the tournament is scheduled to come to Harding Park in May 2020 and the Olympic Club in ’ 28.
That marks a striking change for Olympic, a mainstay in the U. S. Open rotation for more than 60 years. Most of the greatest players in history have strolled the Lake Course’s narrow, tilted fairways, even if they usually didn’t win.
Hogan lost to Fleck, an unheralded Iowa club pro, in the 1955 Open; Billy Casper chased down Arnold Palmer in ’ 66; Scott Simpson outlasted Tom Watson in ’ 87; Lee Janzen held off Payne Stewart in ’ 98; and Webb Simpson prevailed over Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell in 2012.
The Lake Course also was the scene of three U. S. Amateur Championships, the oldest tournament in the country. And the U. S. Women’s Open will be played there in 2021.
In landing two more marquee events, the Olympic Club will extend a remarkable run on the Northern California golf scene. Pebble Beach, Harding Park and Olympic collectively will host eight professional majors or team match- play events in the next 15 years.