Roundtable: Alternate Tour Championship Venues

The Tour Championship needs to transition to a rota. Get four to six major cities to host every handful of years → Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Milwaukee. This means we could visit courses like Medinah #3, Olympia Fields, Bethpage Black, LACC, Chambers Bay, Aronimink, Philly Cricket Club, Erin Hills, and Whistling Straits. This takes the pressure off of one club having to host every single year while also giving golf-crazed cities a big-time event to get excited about. – Matt Rouches

West Coast is a must. A fun town for the golf world to descend upon would be an ideal bonus. Given those two pieces of criteria, somewhere like Las Vegas is probably the dream host city for the PGA Tour’s season-ending championship, but I don’t know that any golf courses in the Las Vegas area should host a massive tournament.

I’ll go with Pebble Beach. Wrapping up the season at an iconic venue on primetime television would be about as good as it gets. The West Coast swing works well right now, but I don’t think changing Pebble’s position in the schedule would do any damage to the early portion. The correct answer is for the PGA Tour to commission a new championship venue somewhere on the West Coast, but given existing options, Pebble Beach would be a wonderful Tour Championship host. – Joseph LaMagna

If heat weren’t an issue it would be TPC Sawgrass or TPC Scottsdale for me. A second trip in a season with a smaller field and a different format would still make both of these venues pop. But given that no one wants to play in 110 degrees in Scottsdale in August, I would absolutely love for a Pacific or even Mountain time zone venue. Chambers Bay, Olympic Club, and Colorado Golf Club would all make for extraordinary hosts to a season-ending championship that ends in primetime for much of the country. – Will Knights

Why not just set up camp at Caves Valley for three straight weeks during the playoffs every year? Between the heat, the humidity, and the extreme topography, it’d make for a true survival of the fittest/last man standing endurance test that the playoffs should be. – Cameron Hurdus

I am a big fan of the idea of a rota, as Matt Rouches alluded to with rotating major metro markets and great golf courses every year. This relieves the burden of finding a golf course willing and able to host year in and year out. The Tour Championship is among the most desirable golf tournaments for a big club to host. It’s the very best players in the world, Talor Gooch not withstanding, and the small field causes minimal disturbance and damage to the golf course.

An out-of-left-field suggestion, particularly if the Tour Championship were ever to go to match play, would be the new Keiser resort outside Denver, Rodeo Dunes. It’s among the best American sites for golf that I have seen and offers a 45-minute drive from Denver International Airport, not too far flung for fans or players to find accommodations. The Coore & Crenshaw design will open for preview play this fall and will quickly climb to one of the best public golf courses in the world in short order. Rodeo Dunes, particularly with a match play format that protects it against the stigma of low scoring, would provide a world-class golf course for an event that feels less world-class every year, despite an elite field. – Andy Johnson

My plan is twofold. First, appoint Gary Player to fill the rumored figurehead PGA Tour Commissioner role. Next, send the Tour Championship to Chambers Bay and let Mr. Player cook. You want TV ratings? You’ve got TV ratings. – PJ Clark

I think Firestone should return to the schedule and host the Tour Championship so the greatest sports market in the country, NE Ohio, gets PGA Tour golf again. On a semi-more-serious note, I do think the Tour Championship is an opportunity for the Tour to actually make a property more “major” with venue selection. The light 30-man field with less wear and tear could make more selective spots open to hosting, say … once every 20 years or so. This is what majors do! Rotate it up to a great New York spot that’s not Liberty National. Is it insane to suggest Winged Foot? Come to Congressional. Go to the Bay Area. Pinehurst, Olympic, and Southern Hills hosted it once upon a pre-FedEx Cup time. It will take some work. But I do think it’s plausible — 30 of the best players in the world, once a generation, for one of the most (purportedly) prominent events in golf. If the Tour cares about product, they’ll try. It only elevates their own property and the attractiveness of hosting builds in other spots. – Brendan Porath

Look, I know this is a boring answer, but Chambers Bay is just sitting there in the Pacific time zone, near a large metropolitan area that has been neglected by the pro tours for decades, desperate to host any and all high-profile tournaments. Give Chambers another chance. It’s an excellent golf course, and it plays beautifully in August. – Garrett Morrison