The PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh and the organization moved their headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to Frisco in August 2022 and recently opened the rest of its new campus.
The campus features two 18-hole golf courses, a 10-hole par-3 course, a 2-acre putting course complete with a massive screen displaying results of the current tournaments, a 500-room resort, ranch houses, and plenty of other shops and entertainment options.
Last weekend, the facility hosted its first professional golf tournament on the Fields Ranch East course: the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
The Dallas Express spoke with Waugh, the former CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, at the Monument Realty PGA District to learn more about the move to Frisco and the plans for the new headquarters.
Question: What are your early impressions of the new headquarters and the District since they opened?
Answer: I’ve noticed it was spring-loaded. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but there was pent-up demand. Everything that we hoped would happen happened. The golf course is incredibly active. The Swing, the par-3 [course], is incredibly active. The Dance Floor [putting course] is incredibly active, and I think the resort is amazing. The golf courses are amazing — just the sheer breadth of them, but what is really cool is the District.
That’s where it’s all going to happen, and that place has been bumpin’. I’ve come over here [at] kind of every time of the day to see what’s going on in the morning on the way into work, I’ve come over at lunch to see what’s going on, and I’ve checked it out after work to see what’s going on at night.
We’ve had [sponsorship] activations where we’ve had a couple thousand people in there. It’s everything you wanted to see. Last week, they were showing the PGA Championship on the giant screen, and people were putting, going to get a snack, going to the ice house, and hitting balls. It’s all things going for one place, and we talked about it becoming a destination to play golf [and] a destination to learn golf.
It’s a destination to become a PGA professional, it’s a destination to understand commerce, it’s a destination to see the best golf played in the world, and it’s your local town square where you can putt with your kids and get ice cream. … It’s cool. There are a million reasons [to visit].
Q: Are you trying to attract any more businesses to the development?
A: Not at the moment because everything’s kind of sold out. I don’t know if we could build more, but certainly, sponsorship opportunities are here, those kinds of things. There are different activations we could do at some of the shops and products we could add.
Q: What made Frisco the ideal location for the new headquarters?
A: We’d kind of outgrown our building. We went to all the places you’d imagine — Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix, Southern California — everywhere with sun and a golf background, including Dallas. Departments did step up, and states did step up, but Frisco jumped off the page for two reasons.
One was they were aggressive financially, but more importantly, they had 650 acres. No one else had 650 acres. We started to think of it as not just a headquarters building but a campus. Once we found Omni as our financial partner in the city, it was very clear they were going to be a very forward-thinking partner and really wanted to do this.
For them, it was to add the fifth sport, which they didn’t have. For Omni, it was about creating a destination for them and a legacy in their hometown.
We built an ocean in the desert. That’s what’s happening, and that’s what people are coming to. We created an oceanfront property, and that’s creating enormous value for everyone, including ourselves. We realized it was a game-changer for us.
The combination is kind of a perfect storm. A town that is very geared up on planning and growing had 650 acres and a dream and a building partner. Look at what they built! Everything is absolutely top priority and top-notch.