Course of the Week: Southern Hills Country Club

(Photo: John Amatucci Photography)

Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. will be the host of the the 2022 PGA Championship. Golfdom Editor-in-Chief, Seth Jones, recently sat down with Southern Hills’ superintendent, Russ Myers, to discuss the course and the tournament.

“The biggest thing that’s happened here is we put in the hydronic system under the greens,” Myers said. “It’s just changed the world for the greens. It’s like growing them in ideal weather all the time.”

Superintendent Russ Myers. (Photo: John Amatucci Photography)

When asked how preparing for the PGA Championship has been, Myers compared the process to baking a cake.

“It’s not like you’re prepping leading right up to the event. It’s almost like baking the perfect wedding cake,” Myers said. “You bake It and then put it in the freezer for six months until the tournament.”

It was last January when the team at Southern Hills learned that their course would be the new home of the 2022 PGA Championship after the PGA of America made the decision to pull the tournament from Trump National Bedminster.

The club, established in 1935, has hosted 16 major golf tournaments since 1945, with the 2022 PGA Championship on the horizon. The course was initially designed by Perry Maxwell in 1936.

The Heritage Links perfoming fine grading prior to grassing the 13th hole at Southern Hills Country Club during the 2019 renoavtion. (Photo: Heritage Links)

Southern Hills recently underwent a restoration supervised by Gil Hanse and construction from Heritage Links in 2019. The project entailed work on all 18 holes of the course. The restoration project also included new USGA greens, bunkers, tees, cart paths, drainage, a new irrigation system and grassing.

Prior to playing host to the 2022 PGA Championship, Southern Hills hosted three U.S. Opens and four PGA Championships, as well as the 2021 PGA Senior Championship, a U.S. Amateur Championship, a U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.