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St. Louis To Host Annual Pro Golf Tournament Starting In 2020

Norwood Hills Country Club will host the PGA Tour Champions' Ascension Charity Classic beginning next year.
Corinne Ruff | St. Louis Public Radio
Norwood Hills Country Club will host the PGA Tour Champions' Ascension Charity Classic beginning next year.

The PGA Tour Champions on Tuesday announced plans to bring an annual golf tournament to St. Louis. 

During a press event, the PGA said the Norwood Hills Country Club in north St. Louis County will host the Ascension Charity Classic.

The four-year partnership will tee off late September 2020, featuring professional golfers 50 and older. It’s the latest addition to the PGA Tour Champions’ 27-tournament schedule across the country.

Miller Brady, president of the PGA Tour Champions, said the group has been looking to bring an annual event to the region for years.

While baseball and hockey tend to dominate sports conversations in St. Louis, last year tens of thousands of golf fans attended the 100th PGA Championship at the Bellerive Country Club.

“We’ve viewed St. Louis as such a great sports town for a long time,” Brady said. “The PGA Championship just reinstated just how good this golf town is.”

The 54-hole golf tournament will take place annually over the next four years at Norwood Hills Country Club.
Credit Corinne Ruff / St. Louis Public Radio
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St. Louis Public Radio
The 54-hole golf tournament will take place annually over the next four years at Norwood Hills Country Club.

At the press event, Hale Irwin, a Missouri native and World Golf Hall of Fame member, described what golf fans can expect out of the senior tournament.

“When we get into next September, you’re going to see the competitiveness, but you’re going to see the friendliness, the camaraderie that is shared by all of us, because we all understand that we don’t have that many more years left to do what we’ve loved to do,” he said. 

All net proceeds from the tournament will go to local charities, including Marygrove, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Miller isn’t sure how much money will be raised, but he said the association helped raise $190 million across all of its tournaments last year.

Hazel Erby, director of diversity, equity and inclusion for St. Louis County, said the tournaments will help spur economic investments in north St. Louis County.

“There’s a lot to offer in North County, and I don’t think we’ve said that and emphasized it enough,” she said. “We’ve heard the negatives, but there’s so much good in our community and apparently they realized it, so that’s why they’re coming.”

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson speaks at Norwood Hills Country Club during a press event announcing the annual PGA Tour Champions tournament.
Credit Corinne Ruff / St. Louis Public Radio
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St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson speaks at Norwood Hills Country Club during a press event announcing the annual PGA Tour Champions tournament.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said the fact that the tournaments will take place over several years will drive a lot of new economic development and interest in the sport.

“This provides jobs; this provides the opportunity for many young people to learn to play golf and just be involved in that mentoring kind of relationship,” she said.

Local health care provider Ascension is the lead sponsor of the tournament series.

Follow Corinne on Twitter:@corinnesusan

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Corinne Ruff joined St. Louis Public Radio as the economic development reporter in April, 2019. She grew up among the cornfields in Northern Illinois and later earned degrees in Journalism and French at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has since reported at the international, national and local level on business, education and social justice issues.