Concession Golf Club owner builds a village

Bruce Cassidy Sr. has established a long line of success over his years of being an executive.

Now the majority owner of The Concession Golf Club, Cassidy's ascension in the business world includes his founding of Excel Mining Systems in 1990 and running that company for two decades. An Ohio native, he also took on many board roles, including his current position of Loop Media, Inc.

So when Cassidy was named by the PGA of America to be the general chair for the 2026 Senior PGA Championship that will be hosted by The Concession, it was just an extension of his lifetime's work.

"I didn't have to do it, but it is something I want to do," Cassidy said. "We're running a business and my main job is to support (the PGA of America's) needs. There could be more than 1,000 volunteers."

Cassidy said the task of hosting a senior major championship is made easier because he has the right personnel.

"We have an amazing team here," he said as he sat next to Brian Weimann, The Concession Golf Club's general manager.

Weimann will be on a four-person executive committee for the tournament, which will be held April 16-19, 2026. As many as 23 volunteer chairs will head up various other committees. Many of the committees will be headed by The Concession residents.

Cassidy, who took over as The Concession's majority owner in 2009, also will be assisting the tournament's sales initiatives and community relations efforts. He has been instrumental in The Concession hosting events such as the 2015 Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championships, the 2021 WGC-Workday Championship, and the 2024 World Champions Cup.

“For more than a decade, our team has worked diligently to shape The Concession," Cassidy said in a PGA of America release.

The Concession is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course designed in association with Tony Jacklin.

That club's commitment to major events will go beyond 2026. The Concession, which was named as Best New Private Course of 2006 by Golf Digest, will host the Senior PGA Championship in 2027 and 2028, and Cassidy's hope remains that the venue eventually will host the PGA Championship, one of professional golf's four majors.

But first comes a lot of work to host the 2026 Senior PGA Championship.

"The saying, 'It takes a village,' is true,'" Cassidy said. "It's important to get the community support and the support from Manatee and Sarasota counties ($4.5 million for each county over the next three years) has been huge. Moving people is going to be one of our biggest challenges."

The Concession already had made up a people-moving plan for more than 25,000 people in a bid to host a PGA Championship. This, obviously, will be a scaled-down effort with an approximate average of 5,000 spectators a day, although the weekend rounds could be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 spectators.

Manatee County will assist when it comes to people moving.

"We will have an operations meeting with Public Safety, Public Works, the fire district and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office," said Elliott Falcione, the executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We will go over all the logistics and figure out off-site parking and the ingress and egress points. Premier (Sports Campus) will be used somehow, in some way.

"We will all work in lockstep in our region to help create awareness of this unique championship event."

Manatee and Sarasota counties already have begun cross-promoting themselves in Europe as "the Home of the Senior PGA Championship." Other social media platforms will be used as well to attract interest. 

Falcione said the two counties are creating a toolkit to share with the hospitality industry to promote the event. 

Courtesy image

"We are going to be on the offense," he said. "I will be meeting with the PGA of America to make sure all the platforms are resonating."

Falcione said he is "under-promising" by saying the event will have a $25 million effect on the region each year in direct spending.

"The PGA of America feels it will be higher," he said.

As far as the actual course goes, Cassidy and Weimann said little must be done.

When the Workday Championship was held in 2021, it was a last minute switch from Mexico City, which cancelled its event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials checked out The Concession to see if it could host a tournament with no time for revisions.

"We didn't need to do anything," Weimann said.

One of the few tasks The Concession is performing before the Senior PGA Championship is to remove some Palmettos for better sight lines.

"At the end of the day, we want to put on the best event we can," Cassidy said.

If that happens, then Cassidy is hoping to land a spot to host the PGA Championship.

"We've been pushing as much as we can," he said. "This is kind of a stepping stone. But (the PGA of America) is taking a big risk with a new club."

He said the PGA of America has given no commitment toward allowing The Concession to host a PGA Championship.

"Our course is a natural beauty," Cassidy said. "We're just putting lipstick on it."