PGA of America says 2022 PGA Championship won’t be played at Trump course
The 2022 PGA Championship will not be played at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
The PGA of America announced Sunday night that it is canceling its contract with the Donald Trump-owned course, just days after a large group of Trump supporters illegally and forcibly stormed the U.S. Capitol in protest of the recent presidential election.
“The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,” Jim Richerson, PGA of America president, said in a one-sentence statement.
The PGA’s decision to move its major championship away from a property owned by the President, whose four-year term is set to end in less than two weeks, isn’t unprecedented. The PGA Tour moved what is now the WGC-Mexico Championship from Trump Doral to Mexico City in 2017, ending a 50-plus-year run of Tour events at the Miami club. The year prior, the PGA canceled the Grand Slam of Golf on the basis that the event no longer fit “today’s golf landscape.” The event was set to be played at Trump’s club in Los Angeles. Trump Turnberry, which Trump purchased in 2014, has hosted four Open Championships, though it’s held none since 2009 and has no future Opens secured. It did host the Women’s Open in 2015.
Other events to be held at Trump courses include the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and 2017 Senior PGA Championship.
No replacement options for the 2022 PGA were provided by the PGA. Trump Bedminster, which Trump opened in 2004, hosted the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open. That week, Trump attended the women’s major championship while several protests took place outside the club’s gates.