PGA Championship at Oak Hill

For more than 100 years, PGA of America has hosted the PGA Championship in cities across the nation. As the only all-professional major in men’s golf, the championship features the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Rankings, making it one of the premier events not only in the golfing world, but the sporting world at large.

As PGA of America geared up for its return to Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, organizers knew they needed local experts who had established relationships with the community, businesses and political leaders to help create and maintain buzz. But more than that, they wanted to uphold their charitable mission of leaving the community better than when they arrived.

To meet these challenges and ensure the event left an even greater mark than it did a decade earlier, PGA of America turned once again to DS+CO as its agency of record in Rochester. Not just for our sports event marketing capabilities and delivering an experience, but to help them find opportunities to make a difference.

With a 15-month window, the DS+CO PR team needed to create unique and purposeful touchpoints we knew would resonate with our region and golf lovers everywhere. These touchpoints took a number of forms, including:

• Announcements for when tickets became available, were running low and when the championship was officially sold out
• An exclusive outing with 20 top members of local and regional media at the prestigious Oak Hill Country Club
• Photo opportunities with the iconic Wanamaker Trophy at Buffalo Bills Training Camp at St. John Fisher University—with leaders from the PGA and Buffalo Bills joining in
• Connecting the official trophy presentation with local partners, namely RIT’s National Technology Institute for the Deaf, which supported Championship Week with American Sign Language services and 35 volunteer interpreters who enhanced an accessible environment for spectators
• Coordinating press conferences with the PGA and various local leaders, including the county executive, town supervisor, Monroe County sheriff, and local fire, police and EMS partners
• Unique photo opportunities for fans and media to promote the Wanamaker Trophy tour
• Hosting a “PGA Championship Night” with the Rochester Americans hockey team
• Inviting local college mascots to compete in a golf outing
• Managing onsite media relations during championship week, which included hosting media scrums with
important and timely updates, crisis communications when needed and close collaboration with
championship officials
• On-site event support for the PGA Secretary’s Cup, a Buffalo Bills visit with Josh Allen at the PGA WORKS
Beyond the Green event, and a formal ceremony with sports commentating legend Jim Nantz

As work progressed, we never lost sight of PGA of America’s goal of improving the communities it enters. So when PGA REACH, the charitable arm of PGA of America, designated money with the county to build a new golf course in Genesee Valley Park, we made sure it was given the attention it deserved.

Thanks to the trust we established 10 years prior, DS+CO helped make the 2023 PGA Championship an undeniable experience across New York State and beyond—garnering more than $4.5 million in earned media throughout the campaign. And when all was said and done, with Brooks Koepka taking home the Wanamaker Trophy, PGA of America celebrated another hugely successful experience—and gave the Greater Rochester region another point of pride.