The quality of a major championship venue is determined by its champions, and Valhalla Golf Club, host of this week’s PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, has a roster of past winners that stand out at all levels.
Tiger Woods won the Valhalla PGA Championship in 2000, and Rory McGillory won there in 2014. Hale Irwin won the Senior PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2004, and Tom Watson won there in 2011. At the 2008 Ryder Cup, Team USA defeated a European team led by Paul Azinger.
Even on the junior course, elite players are taking part in the course. Akshay Bhatia, 22, is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, winning the 2018 Boys Junior PGA Championship there. Anna Davis, now 18, won the 2021 Girls Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla, and the following year she also won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The new owners, a group of Kentucky businessmen who acquired Valhalla in 2022, said the club’s presence did not match its illustrious championship history. So when the PGA of America, which runs the championship, decided to sell Valhalla, new owners moved in to turn it around.
“We couldn’t leave it to an out-of-town golf management company,” said David Novak, co-founder and former CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. “We felt they would be more interested in making money than building Valhalla’s reputation.”
The “we” in this case is the ownership group comprised of community leaders. Jimmy Kirchdorfer, CEO of plumbing company ISCO; Junior Bridgeman, a former University of Louisville and NBA basketball player who owns hundreds of franchise restaurants and a Coca-Cola bottling plant; Hotel owner Chester Musselman of Louisville.
Novak had the good will of golf to unite the world of golf. He has been a member of Valhalla since 1990, then moved to Louisville to become president of Kentucky Fried Chicken, now KFC. And he also won the Seminole Pro-Member tournament and was the oldest winner of the club championship held in Shinnecock Hills, New York, where major championships are often held.
“There aren’t many iconic buildings in Louisville,” Novak said. “There’s Churchill Downs, the (KFC) Yum Center where Louisville performs, and Valhalla. We wanted to make it better. We said, ‘Dwight built and started the club, the PGA bought it, and we bought it.’”
So what will fans see different this year? Now it’s a venue that aims to leverage its ownership group’s business success to create a Kentucky-inspired golf club. Novak brought home KFC’s Colonel Sanders-inspired chicken sandwich, and Bridgeman helped create a dessert that makes Wendy’s Frosty treats stand out.
Bridgeman, who also owns Ebony and Jet magazines, likened his involvement in the ownership group to that of a celebrity magazine.
“Valhalla was a bit like Ebony magazine,” he told Golf Channel last week. “When he heard it might be for sale, he didn’t think much of it, rather than an investment,” he said. It went beyond what we felt was important to the city of Louisville, the community and the state. We thought we could do a few things with Valhalla to get it to where it probably should be. This is about ranking the best courses in the country.”
There was also an economic factor. The new owners saw the vibrant Walhalla as a conduit for tourism dollars to the city.
“We felt like we had a chance to not only preserve championship history but also win it again,” Novak said. “The PGA Championship brings nearly $150 million to the city. We know the community supports golf, and we can make it better.”
The change started with the club’s image. The partners wanted to follow the example of Kentucky, a state known for horse racing, bourbon and bluegrass.
Clubhouse was the beginning. Now it looks like Churchill Downs. Inside, there is a space dedicated to all the champions, such as Woods and Davis, who have won important tournaments in Valhalla, but also engraved with the names of the horses that won the tournament and the Derby in the same year. The gate to the club along Bluegrass Way looks like a horse farm gate. And yes, there are horses on the property.
And the championship course’s holes follow an equine theme. Number 1 is called Post. Number 18 is Photo Finish.
“I have always believed that the most important thing you can do is know what you stand for,” Novak said. “We wanted to build the Valhalla brand. The first thing we did as an ownership group was get together with the team and think about what we wanted to represent.”
Not everyone accepted the group’s definition of reality. After the group took over the club in late 2022, it changed its entrance fee rules, leading to some members leaving the club.
Disagreements in private clubs are nothing new. Nonetheless, the ownership team, which said it funded the renovation without any testimonials, is ready to put the finishing touches on it this week.
“I was complaining about what Valhalla could be,” Novak said. “My daughter convinced me to buy a club. She said you have all the ideas for the course and love these guys. I found this more fun. We did this together.”
