Need to know: PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship at Shoal Creek
The 36th edition of the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship will take place Monday-Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama.
The championship, formerly known as the National Minority College Championship, was first played in 1987 with the goal of providing student-athletes at minority colleges and universities with the opportunity to compete on a championship stage during an era when they were excluded from playing in many collegiate events. The PGA of America has run the event since 2006.
Here is everything you need to know about this year’s PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship:
The field
Division I men’s teams (Golfstat rank in parentheses): Howard (172), Florida A&M (262), Alabama State (269), North Carolina A&T (271), Chicago State (284), Texas Southern (287), Prairie View A&M (290), Alabama A&M (292), Tennessee State (294), North Carolina Central (295)
Division II men’s teams: Kentucky State (121), Savannah State (146), Miles College (157), Lincoln University of Missouri (171), Virginia State (192), Johnson C. Smith (197), Winston-Salem State (198), Bluefield State (NR)
Women’s teams: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (172), Howard (177), Delaware State (203), North Carolina A&T (243), Texas Southern (244), Chicago State (253), Prairie View A&M (254), Bethune-Cookman (256), Tennessee State (261), Western New Mexico (77; D-II), Texas A&M-Kingsville (88; D-II)
Defending champions
Led by two-time medalist Greg Odom Jr., Howard edged Chicago State by a shot to win the D-I men’s team title in 2022. Both are back this year as Odom looks for the three-peat.
Speaking of three-peats, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is the favorite to win again on the women’s team side, as it enters this week ranked five spots better than Howard in Golfstat.
The men’s individual champ from last year, Delaware’s Sparky Ariyachatvakin, also returns.
Host venues
Shoal Creek Country Club is a 1977 Jack Nicklaus design that plays to a par of 72 and tips out at 7,400 yards, though the length of these championships are still TBD. The course is all Bermudagrass and underwent a major renovation in 2017.
Notable events held at Shoal Creek include the PGA Championship in both 1984 and 1990, 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, 1986 U.S. Amateur and five Regions Traditions, most recently in 2015.
Shoal Creek has a discriminatory history as until 1990, the private club did not admit Black members.
“We have the right to associate or not to associate with whomever we choose,” said club founder Hall Thompson prior to the 1990 PGA being contended there. “The country club is our home, and we pick and choose who we want. … I think we’ve said that we don’t discriminate in every other area except the blacks. That’s just not done in Birmingham.”
After Thompson’s comments made international headlines, advertisers of the championship began to back out and civil rights groups threatened to protest ahead of the tournament. Amid pressure, Shoal Creek admitted its first Black member, insurance executive Louis J. Willie, less than two weeks before the championship began.
“I knew what I was going to do,” said Pat Rielly, president of the PGA of America at the time. “If they didn’t do what they did, we weren’t going to be there. The game is bigger than the PGA Championship. The game is everything.”
Following the 1990 PGA, several golf organizations, including the USGA, PGA Tour and the LPGA, joined the PGA of America in establishing policies that required clubs to prove they didn’t have discriminatory admission practices before they could host one of their public golf events.
Thompson died in 2010. The club now has several Black members, including sports legend Bo Jackson, former Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice and software engineer Garrett Price.
“They [Shoal Creek] want a different legacy going forward,” Price said. “I didn’t need a place to play golf in Birmingham. I wanted to help with the effort. Hall is no longer with us. There’s been a generation of turnover, and it’s a generational shift to a membership more committed to an inclusive future.”
Nearby Bent Brook Golf Course, a 1998 Ward Northrup design, will serve as co-host.
Format
Five different divisions – D-I men’s team (10 teams), D-II men’s team (eight teams), men’s individual (28 players), women’s team (11 teams), women’s individual (24 players) – will compete in 5-count-4 scoring over 54 holes of stroke play. The D-I men’s teams and all individuals will play Rounds 1 and 3 at Shoal Creek and Round 2 at Bent Brook. The D-II men’s teams and women’s teams will compete on the alternate course each day.
What’s at stake?
For the third year in row, Korn Ferry Tour and Epson Tour exemptions can be earned. The top three finishers and ties in the women’s team and women’s individual divisions are eligible to apply for an exemption into the Epson Tour’s Guardian Championship on Sept. 15-17 in Alabama. The top three in the D-I men’s team, D-II men’s team and men’s individual divisions can apply for an exemption into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship on July 20-23 in Missouri.
How to watch
NBC Sports will provide live broadcast coverage of the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship for the first time in the championship’s history on Golf Channel and Peacock. Coverage times are 4:30-7:30 p.m. ET on Monday-Wednesday.
The coverage team consists of Fran Charles (play-by-play), Smylie Kaufman (analyst), Steve Burkowski (holes), Doug Smith (on-course reporter) and Julia Johnson (on-course reporter).