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Professional golf has four official major golf tournaments held annually:

1. The Masters
2. The PGA Championship
3. The US Open
4. The (British) Open

The PGA Championship has seemingly turned in to a tradition for my family as this was our 4^th time attending – Bellerive (2018), Southern Hills (2022), Valhalla, (2024), and Aronimink Golf Club (2026).

Here are my tips for prepping for the tournament and a look at our day.

Note: Every event is unique with its own set of transportation instructions as every city and course are different. I hope that this gives someone the confidence to go themselves.

Planning

Tickets go on sale a year prior to the tournament. You can sign up in advance to be notified of the ticket sales and get assigned a group to be able to buy tickets for your preferred tournament dates without markup.

Juniors 15 years of age and younger will be admitted into the PGA Championship grounds for FREE when accompanied by a ticketed adult. Each ticketed adult will be permitted two (2) junior grounds admissions per day at no additional charge. Junior tickets may be picked up onsite at the Ticket Office at the Main Spectator Entrance on the day of admission. Junior tickets cannot be obtained in advance and will be available regardless of a sellout. (Courtesy of pgachampionship.com) 

PGA Championship+ tickets are the standard and they include admission to the tournament, food, and non-alcoholic beverages including water, Gatorade, soda, and coffee. You can visit the markets around the course as much as you would like and you can “take 1 at a time”….this is honor system.

Once you have your tickets, about a month/6 weeks prior to the tournament, the PGA Championship website updates with Know Before You Go information including….PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION. For this year’s event, there were three primary ways to get to the tournament:

• Drive yourself and park at one of two lots (which were prepaid and sold out) and take a shuttle 10-12 minutes to the golf course.
• Rideshare to a designated location…and then take the shuttle to the golf course.
• SEPTA…and then take the shuttle to the golf course.

A few weeks before the golf tournament, the course map is released. My husband and I study the map to determine where the best spots may be to sit on the course (we take the sit at one hole and see all the players come through approach vs. following one player or wandering the course). Things to look for on the course:

• Bathrooms. These can be difficult to get to – make sure you know where they are, especially if you have a potty-training toddler.
• Markets. Will you be able to easily get food and beverages? Days on the golf course can get HOT, hydration and staying fueled is so important.
• Are there any double greens? Twice the golf for the same location. This can also be said for a green next to a tee box where depending on the crowd size you can hop back and forth.
• Main Entrance/Transportation Hub: Where are you getting dropped off in relation to the spots you are interested? Are you going to have to traverse the whole course with a stroller? Pass.

Download the PGA Championship App to have the above mentioned map at your fingertips while on site and to see the score updates in case you are not in front of a scoreboard.

Our Strategy

There seem to be variations of how people choose to spend their day at golf tournaments:

1. Follow groups, aka certain golfers
2. Meander and just walk around all day
3. Pick a spot and stay in it

I think most people do a mix, but we tend to fall in the third category and here is why:

• Same spot all day to sit or stand and you know you have a great view.
• You see every player. 
• My husband, a golfer (not pro), likes seeing how all the players play the same hole. We noticed that most of the players were missing putts in the same way. 

Packing

Always check the website for the latest on what is and isn’t allowed, but here is what we packed:

• Diaper Bag: This is allowed for those traveling with kids.
• Stroller (Preferably one that can handle off road as most of the time you will be walking on grass)
• Stroller Fans
• Quiet and compact toys/books
• SNACKS
• SNACKS
• SNACKS
• Sunscreen
• Hats
• External Battery
• Charging Cables
• Folding Chairs (not super large ones)
  • Some take stools that are more mobile to switch holes throughout the day
• Comfy shoes
• A friend to help carry everything

Our Day

This is how our day went, but it’s totally personal how to tackle a golf tournament. There is no right way, just like there is no right way to Disney.

• We set our alarms for 5-5:15 am.
• Left for the parking lot at 6:20 am.
• Arrived at the parking lot at 7 am.
• Was on the bus and on our way to the golf course by 7:10 am.
• We were through security and shopping at 7:30 am. The best shopping tent is the one at the main entrance, this tournament had a satellite shop at the Rideshare bus terminal, but it was not the same.
• Finished shopping and grabbed breakfast food and our first rounds of beverages from the market at 8:05 am and started walking the course to find our homebase for the day. Prime viewing areas on the greens can fill in early with those that plan to stay for the whole day so we prioritize arriving early.
• Found our spot on the 2^nd green near the 3^rd tee box and settled in by 8:45 am. It was a TREK to get there. The hills at Aronimink Golf Club are no joke.
• We spent the day at this spot rotating going to the shade, bathroom, and market. We messed up and were not as close to a bathroom as we had hoped. It is what it is. We survived.
• It got HOT. We would go to the market and come back with multiple gatorades or water at a time to share and stay hydrated. We brought these water toppers to help the kids drink water. My kids were not fans, but our friend’s 16 month old liked it.
• We frequently reapplied sunscreen.
• We tried to keep the kids in the stroller with the shades down and fan going as much as possible as it got hotter and also took them for breaks in the shade. Shade was very hard to come by.
• Until it got hot, they enjoyed being out and about and playing with their books. My 3-year-old did a great job watching the first couple of hours.
• We lasted until Rory McIlroy’s group, which was like 4^th from last? It was 3 pm and we were all hot and done.
• My 1ish year old took a 45-minute nap. My toddler did not nap. All day. That’s all we got.
• We walked to the shuttle and ultimately got back to our Airbnb around 4 pm where we promptly turned the tournament on. And showered.

How did we keep our kids quiet?

1. Luck. 
2. Binky for the baby. All day. No regrets.
3. Snacks.
4. Beverages. When we needed them to be quiet we would try to hand them something to drink.
5. Sticker books.
6. Books.
7. Talking in a whisper and hope that they follow your lead.
8. Tell the kids when it is ok to be loud when players aren’t around.
9. Give the kids breaks from the quiet. Take them to walk around. There really is a lot of open space when the leaders aren’t around for the kids to play a bit.
10. Escape plan if they decide to cry or not use listening ears.

Hope this helped! We attend our first BMW Championship this August when the tournament visits Bellerive Country Club. No babies will be attending with us as it is August in St. Louis and we aren’t that insane.

Questions? Interested in help planning your next vacation? Message me at melanie@simplyperfectvacations.com.