- June 12, 2025
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The Concession Golf Club has had aspirations of hosting some of the highest-profile events in golf since it opened in 2006, and that’s starting to take shape.
The PGA of America announced last week that it has reached a three-year agreement with The Concession to host the PGA Senior Championship — a major golf tournament for the PGA Tour Champions 50-year and older group — beginning April 16-19, 2026.
Hosting this particular tournament has been on the radar for the past three years, and is an important step toward the club’s ultimate goal of hosting the PGA Championship at the start of the next decade.
The Concession has already hosted some premier golf tournaments, including the World Golf Championship in 2021 and the Senior World Champions Cup in 2023.
“In 2021 we had the World Golf Championship, and that really put us on the map,” The Concession Golf Club General Manager Brian Weimann said. “We had the top 70 players in the world at the club. For us doing that, it kind of opened the box to looking at other events. The players loved it. The tour loved us. That’s how we had the World Champions Cup come to us two years ago. These are the building blocks as we make our way in these major events.”
The Senior PGA Championship was a natural next step.
The 2025 event, which just took place from May 22-25 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, includes players such as Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington, Fred Funk, Mike Weir and Stuart Appleby.
Tiger Woods, who turns 50 on Dec. 30, is a name who could join that list of big-name golfers in the coming years.
Weimann said hosting this event over the next three years will serve as a test run for the club potentially hosting the PGA Championship, one of the four major golf tournaments.
The PGA Championship is scheduled for sites through the 2030 season, and it’s likely no coincidence that the 2031 location — Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland — is the same site as this year’s Senior PGA Championship.
“This is an opportunity for us to show what we’re made of and possibly to look at bigger and better things as far as hosting the actual PGA (Championship) in the future,” Weimann said. “That’s something that is our long-term goal, and this is a great opportunity for us to showcase Concession on the national and world stage.”
One of the final dominos in hosting the Senior PGA Championship, and other events on that scale, recently fell.
Manatee County Commissioners voted to release a 3-acre conservation easement on May 6 that will pave the way to allow the club to create an entrance and exit area for VIPs to be dropped off near the clubhouse.
“That was an important piece of the puzzle, to be able to make this tournament entry area,” Weimann said. “It’s all about usable space, and we have 520 acres. We need to utilize our land to what fits these events best, and that easement was a crucial piece of the puzzle.”
Future aspirations aside, the Senior PGA Championship is a prestigious event.
Some of the most famous golfers in the sport’s history have won the Senior PGA Championship, including Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer.
The event debuted in 1937 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, but soon shifted to Florida, where it was held from 1940-2000.
Hosting the event at The Concession will mark the event’s return to Florida for the first time in 26 years at a course that Nicklaus designed.
“I am happy and excited that the Senior PGA Championship is coming to The Concession Golf Club,” said Nicklaus, the 1991 Senior PGA Champion, in a press release. “It’s quite a compliment to The Concession and Bruce Cassidy, who, along with a passionate membership, has worked very hard to create a world-class club anchored by a world-class golf course.
“…With an interesting blend of trees, water and Florida landscape, The Concession is a tremendous golf course, and a challenging one,” Nicklaus continued. “I think in recent years we have tried to soften it, but it’s still a stern test. But the course rewards good golf shots, so if you play well, you score well. There is at least one drivable par-4, and strategic par-5s that will make you think. The golf course should challenge every aspect of their game, and once they get the ball on the green, let’s just say the game is not over.”
Succeeding with the Senior PGA Championship, and earning the right to host the PGA Championship, would be an accomplishment that goes beyond The Concession Golf Club.
Florida has not hosted a major golf tournament since the PGA Championship was held at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens in 1987, and would elevate the rapidly growing golf community of Manatee County to a new level.
“We have an elite championship golf course, and we have such a great area,” Weimann said. “It’s an opportunity for not just Concession. It’s an opportunity for both Manatee and Sarasota counties to showcase what we have to offer. Both from the golf course, to our beaches to the downtown areas. I think as an area as a whole, these types of events that we can attract definitely benefits Concession, but it also brings that worldwide view to our area, which is great for the economy. All of those together is the real reason why we want to host these events.”
