A long-awaited opening is finally here.
Five years after the PGA of America announced their plans to move to Frisco, Texas, Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco will host its first major, the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, this week.
How will patrons get to celebrate the occasion? The PGA of America, alongside their partners at KitchenAid, have put together an unprecedented experience for fans to mark the heralded new era.
“When you walk into the Championship main entrance, it's going to be like going down Main Street USA at Disney World,” notes 2023 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Director Jason Mengel.
When fans arrive, Margaret’s Cups and Cones will serve ice cream. Music will blare next to a 70,000-square-foot putting green. Fans have a chance to hit putts on the 75,000-square-foot Dance Floor putting green on the or just soak up the fun atmosphere.
KitchenAid will have its primary activation on-site, the KitchenAid Fairway Club, with celebrity chef demonstrations and product displays, adding a foodie culture flare to the week.
Moreover, it's the starting point for the upcoming Major Championships booked at the facility: the 2023 and ‘29 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, the 2025 and ‘31 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and the 2027 and ‘34 PGA Championship.
“This will be the first chance that many of the best players in the world — and our spectators who are coming out and our viewers around the world — will get a chance to see Fields Ranch East (at PGA Frisco),” Mengel says.
The course will also be in rarely seen conditions ahead of the major. While the Home of the PGA of America opened last year and the Omni PGA Frisco Resort opened earlier this month, Fields Ranch East has been kept closed.
Fields Ranch East is looking pure.pic.twitter.com/dP7ftiV4gZ
— KitchenAid Senior PGA Champ (@seniorpgachamp) May 21, 2023
Mengel explained that the course has been ready, but the over 7,200-yard layout reaped the benefits of staying shut down. So now, it's prepared for its major debut and 156 players, the first competitors to ever take Fields Ranch East on.
“It is a challenging golf course,” Mengel adds. “It's a true major championship test.”
