Frisco, Texas, United States: The PGA of America is moving its headquarters from Palm Beach County, Florida to Frisco, Texas, the ‘2018 Best Place to Live in America,’* where it will anchor a 600-acre, mixed-use development with an initial investment worth more than US$500 million.
The announcement follows votes by the Frisco City Council, its Economic and Community Development Corporations and the Frisco Independent School District (FISD) Board of Trustees.
The PGA of America will initially employ at least 100 people at the Frisco-based headquarters. Under this agreement, two PGA Championships, two KPMG Women’s PGA Championships and potentially a Ryder Cup will be held in Frisco.
This ground-breaking agreement is estimated to have an economic impact of more than US$2.5 billion over the next 20 years based on a city commissioned tourism feasibility study.** The study considered the economics of golf course activities, including tournaments, plus the additional impact from the new conference centre.
The PGA of America is teaming with Omni Stillwater Woods (OSW), a joint venture led by Omni Hotels & Resorts with Stillwater Capital and Woods Capital; the City of Frisco, as well as its Economic and Community Development Corporations; and the Frisco Independent School District.

“Our move to Frisco will be transcendent for the PGA of America,” said Seth Waugh, CEO, PGA of America, an Executive Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.  “Everything great starts with a dream. This is the beginning of a bold, new journey as we bring together world-class partners in a world-class location – to deliver innovative and differentiated experiences for our nearly 29,000 PGA Golf Professionals, golfers of all abilities and our staff.
“We welcome the opportunity to develop friendships and partnerships with the community and its residents, as well as across North Texas and throughout the state. We are grateful to the City of Frisco, the State of Texas and Omni Stillwater Woods for embracing our vision of creating a trans-formational headquarters that, together with our world-class partners, helps us advance our mission of serving our Members and growing the game.”
Two championship golf courses, a short course, and practice areas totalling 45 holes; a clubhouse; Class AA office space; a 500-room Omni resort and 127,000-square-foot conference centre; a technologically advanced retail village; parks and open space plus several miles of trails, will complement this unique, signature development.
The PGA’s Northern Texas Section will also move to PGA Frisco, where state-of-the-art connectivity will provide opportunities to pilot promising new growth-of-the-game programming for all 41 Sections of the PGA of America.
A welcoming gateway at Frisco’s northern border, the upscale development will be located at Rockhill Parkway and Legacy Drive. The 600 acres are primarily situated within 2,500 acres being masterplanned by Hunt Realty Investments. The development will be open to the public, as well as golfers.
The entire project will have an initial, estimated public-private investment totalling more than US$520 million. The PGA of America will invest US$30 million to build its 100,000-square-foot global headquarters and education facility. OSW will invest US$455 million to purchase the land, construct the hotel, conference centre, retail space, parking facilities and golf courses.
The golf courses, clubhouse, practice areas and associated public facilities will be owned by the city. More than 300 FISD high school golfers will practice at the facility on a weekly basis.
The agreement calls for the City of Frisco and its development corporations (each funded by a half-cent of Frisco’s sales tax) and FISD to contribute no more than US$35 million toward development of the public facilities (City of Frisco, US$13.3 million; Frisco Economic Development Corp (FEDC), US$2.5 million; Frisco Community Development Corp (FCDC), US$13.3 million; and FISD, US$5.8 million.
The City of Frisco will also provide performance incentives, which include a portion of hotel occupancy, mixed beverage, sales and property taxes generated by the hotel and associated retail on the site for a 20-year-period. These performance incentives are estimated to total between US$52 million and US$74 million.
Additionally, the State of Texas will contribute all the hotel and sales tax, along with a portion of mixed beverage tax collected on the project for 10 years. The state grant total, provided through Chapter 351 incentives, is valued at more than US$62.5 million over 10 years.
FEDC is also investing US$14.3 million over a 15-year period for the PGA of America’s headquarters relocation, job creation and PGA tournament incentives.
The golf courses are expected to open in summer 2022. The hotel, convention centre and other facilities are expected to open within six months of that date. The development will host the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in 2023.
*Money Magazine named the City of Frisco the ‘2018 Best Place to Live in America’.
**Economic impact study for the proposed hotel and convention centre. Hotel & Leisure Advisors, October, 2017 study.