Harbor Shores Development

By DARREN PHILLIPS - H-P Sports Writer

BENTON TOWNSHIP — A golf course that isn’t 100 percent open yet in two years is going to host one of the biggest events of senior golf – twice.

Then again, the PGA of America hasn’t shied from staging its biggest events on new golf courses.

Through a video feed from Parker, Colo., the organization Wednesday announced the 2012 and 2014 Senior PGA Championships will be played at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, on the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that straddles Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Benton Township.

Additionally, KitchenAid, a Whirlpool brand of kitchen appliances, will be the title sponsor of the Senior PGA Championship from 2011 to 2014.

Local officials and community members listened to the announcement made from Colorado Golf Club, the site of this year’s Senior PGA Championship, via teleconference at Lake Michigan College’s Mendel Center.

The PGA of America is the host organization for the PGA Championship, a major tournament on the PGA Tour; the Senior PGA Championship, a major on the Champions Tour; and the Ryder Cup, the sport’s top international competition.

The Colorado Golf Club, host of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, has only been open since 2007, and Harbor Shores won’t fully open until this summer and will be two years old when the 2012 event is played.

"We are always going to have a mix of great traditional sites, but we have an opportunity to identify the next generation of major sites," said Joe Steranka, the CEO of the PGA of America.

Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., will host the 2011 Senior PGA Championship and also has played host to the Ryder Cup and the PGA Championship. Also a Jack Nicklaus design, the course opened in 1987.

Nicklaus feels the opportunity to host such events has helped build a tradition at Valhalla, and the same can be done at other new courses such as The Golf Club at Harbor Shores.

"Everybody seemed to think for a while the traditional golf courses were the only courses golf should be played on," Nicklaus said on a separate video feed from Scotland. "It’s really hard for me to believe that new golf courses aren’t equally as good if not better than the old courses. They don’t have the tradition yet, but you can’t develop tradition at a new course if you don’t go play it."

The Harbor Shores course has had 10 holes open for play since last summer and plans to open all 18 holes July 1. It will play to a par 71 at 6,981 yards from the championship tees.

"The golf course is a course where length is not the most important thing,” Nicklaus said. “It’s shot-making, using your head, putting the ball in the right position and just playing good golf. It’s got some great holes. The seventh, eighth and ninth holes play into the dunes of Lake Michigan, there are some beautiful trees, and we have two rivers that run through. We have some spectacular holes on it. I think people are really going to enjoy the golf course. It’s going to be a testing golf course from the back tees.”

The official grand opening ceremony for the course is planned for Aug. 10, with Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller joining Nicklaus for a charity event titled Champions for Change.

“I’m very happy to be a part of that coming up this summer,” said Watson, in Colorado to compete in this year’s Senior PGA Championship. “I’m looking forward to it in two years in 2012 and four years if I’m still alive and kicking, and playing it again as somebody very long in the tooth at age 64.”

Dates for the 2012 and 2014 tournaments have not been announced. However, the current Senior PGA Championship as well as the last several championships have been contested from Thursday through Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The past few championships have had a purse of $2 million, with $360,000 awarded to the winner.

Steranka feels Harbor Shores can effectively broadcast some of the PGA of America’s core messages. The PGA of America is part of We Are Golf, a coalition of national golf organizations promoting the sport’s economic impact of job creation, the human impact of charity and its environmental impact. “Those three messages about just how good our sport is are capsulized at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores,” Steranka said.

“It’s going to be a great platform for a major championship, but also a great platform for our sport and our industry to share that message.”