6/12/26
Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter had a piece earlier this week detailing the Rocket Classic’s demise and other tidbits. Included in the piece was another breadcrumb laid down to the PGA Tour’s return to the PNW. Last month, Carpenter reported the PNW as “a likely addition” to the 2028 PGA Tour schedule and mentioned Sahalee Country Club as an option.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has been open about a “Track 1” and “Track 2” to the future PGA Tour schedule. Track 1 events are being asked to invest $30 million or more for title sponsors. In Carpenter’s new item, he details that, rather than a title sponsor such as Travelers Championship, the tournaments could use locations as the title of the tournament with a presenting sponsor. Carpenter used the example of The Seattle Open presented by Boeing, with a caveat that “the following events haven’t been discussed”. In older days, tournaments were commonly titled by the city, state, or country where they were held, but those are far and few between, with mainly national opens still carrying those titles. Carpenter also added that there haven’t been any decisions on the 2028 schedule yet, but did say the Future Competitions Committee is “in their final stages”.
The Seattle Open was first held in 1936 at Inglewood Golf Club, with Scottish golfer Macdonald Smith winning the inaugural tournament in an 18-hole playoff over Ralph Guldahl. Nine years later, the tournament was hosted at Broadmoor Golf Club, where Byron Nelson won the 1945 Seattle Open in world record fashion. Nelson shot 21-under for the tournament, which broke Ben Hogan’s 72-hole scoring record that he had set two weeks earlier in Portland. Nelson won an astounding 18 times in 1945, including 11 consecutive tournaments during the greatest season a men’s professional golfer ever had and ever will have. Nelson also won by 13 shots with his historic win.
The tournament went on a 16-year hiatus before returning to Broadmoor in 1961 as the Greater Seattle Open, when Dave Marr outlasted Jacky Cupuit and Bob Rosburg in a playoff. The next year, the tournament was played around the World’s Fair, and Jack Nicklaus won his first non-major tournament as a professional. Bobby Nichols won in 1963, Billy Casper won in 1964, Gay Brewer won in a playoff in 1965, and Homero Blancas won the final iteration of the Seattle Open, as in 1966, it was named the Greater Seattle-Everett Open, as it was held at Everett Golf & Country Club.
The Pacific Northwest has largely been underused in men’s professional golf, but there aren’t many courses in the area that are viable options for hosting tournaments. Partially due to infrastructure, partially due to the ball traveling so far that it’s made most courses obsolete. If significant changes can be made to both the ball and equipment, that opens up more options to courses hosting tournaments not just in Washington, but around the world.
The fact that the PGA Tour is not only seriously considering a tournament in this region, but has a course picked out plus a possible naming option, shows this new regime of the PGA Tour has its collective head where the sun shines. West Coast golf allows for primetime golf, which is a dream scenario for the Tour, which seldom gets that chance. An homage to an old tournament is the cherry on top of the Tour, by tapping into a market that’s starving for men’s professional golf.
While it’s not official from the PGA Tour quite yet, the fact that multiple reports are out about the Tour heading this way is a promising sign.
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