5 things I learned starting a PGA Tour event from scratch (hint: it’s really hard work) - Golf.com

Bermuda has been good to P.H. Horgan III. Three of the pro golfer’s seven professional wins came on the island. Now, Horgan, 59, is looking to give back to the country he first visited with his parents when he was growing up in Rhode Island. After more than a decade of back and forth, Horgan is set to realize a long-held dream: bringing a PGA Tour event to Bermuda.

“It’s such a special place with its natural beauty but also its proximity to the East Coast,” he said.

This week, the island nation will host a full-field event for the inaugural Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones. The country has signed a five-year deal with the PGA Tour to host the tournament.

Horgan, who turned pro in 1984 and still has provisional status on the PGA Tour Champions, is the executive director of the tournament. He spoke with GOLF.com about the fun and frustrations of creating a brand-new PGA Tour event with little time to plan it — and a hurricane to contend with.— Paul Sullivan

1. When dates free up on the Tour calendar, you best be ready to pounce

“After playing all these events in my 20s and 30s, I said Bermuda would be a great place to host a Tour event, be it a Champions or PGA Tour event. Around 2011, I brought the minister of sport and the minister of tourism to the PGA Show in Orlando. We started a conversation about a Champions tour event. Three years ago one of my good friends on the island, Zane DeSilva [the minister of labor, community affairs and sport], said I think this is a good time to take a look at it. He has been pushing this on the government side. From the players’ side, I was constantly trying to encourage Bermuda to try to host an event. The Bermuda Tourism Authority saw the value, and they bought into this event. We got a good feeling about it happening in June when a date opened up on the schedule. The Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss., got a new date and the Tour needed to fill the spot. Good on Bermuda for taking the chance to go after this, because rarely do dates on the schedule open up.

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