PGA's New Headquarters is the Ultimate Golf Lover's Office

The development team behind PGA of America's new headquarters transformed 30 acres of former ranchland full of cattle into the ultimate office environment for golfers with opportunities to practice their swing every few feet.

The PGA of America, one of the world's largest sports industry groups, officially opened the doors to its $33.5 million new headquarters in Dallas-Fort Worth last week. The new center is one component of a larger $550 million, 600-acre mixed-use development that includes two 18-hole championship golf courses designed by Gil Hanse and Beau Welling, a clubhouse, a 30-acre practice facility, a performance center, a 510-room Omni PGA Frisco Resort that is expected to open next year, and an indoor and outdoor golf-centric entertainment area.

"Welcome to our field of dreams," PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh told hundreds of attendees at the grand unveiling event this week. "Build it and they will come. In this case it's 500 of our closest friends and in the future, we'll get all 28,000 of our PGA professionals to enjoy this land and all the future players."

PGA's four-story modern headquarters was designed to maximize views of the rolling golf courses that embrace the landscape, bringing the outside into every part of workspace in the building with floor-to-ceiling glass and terraces overlooking the terrain. Once visitors enter the building and go past the main lobby, they are greeted with an open staircase that proclaims "I am golf" in the middle of two ground-floor wings — one for education and one for broadcasting and support.

The building's terrazzo floors even feature the design of a small-scale golf course that can be played through a mobile app.

The educational wing includes a chipping area, putting area, and indoor and outdoor driving range bays with instructional technology designed to measure all elements of a golf swing. It also includes a massive indoor sand-filled bunker and has places for hands-on training areas for all PGA members who work throughout the United States. The broadcast room includes a full greenroom for people waiting to go on air, as well as an event space that doubles as an employee lounge overlooking a small garden.

The upper floors of the building have open-concept workstations for 150 employees with views overlooking the golf courses. The industry group's executive offices are on the second and third levels of the building with views leading to the ground-floor educational and broadcast rooms. Nearly 3,000 square feet is elevated beyond the workstations, dedicated to socializing and a so-called stress-free space for employees.

Each floor has multiple large and small conference rooms, as well as less formal breakout spaces. The event space on the top floor of the building has the most dramatic views of the courses, with a catering prep kitchen for events. The building also has a fitness center.

The unveiling of the new headquarters comes after nearly four years of development — including a construction delay because of the pandemic. But the pandemic also brought good news for the socially distant outdoor sport with a surge in popularity after it had been declining in recent years. Golf's popularity saw a resurgence during the pandemic with a net gain of more than 800,000 golfers in the past two years, according to the National Golf Foundation, an advocacy group for the sport. That is equivalent to the population of Seattle. In 2021, there were 25.1 Americans who played on a golf course, a net increase of about 300,000 golfers after a big influx in 2020.

"There are few things that bring people together in this world like the industry of golf," said PGA President Jim Richerson. "Golf can bring people together from the business world, the sports world and the golf world in a unique way."

PGA of America announced plans in 2018 to relocate its longtime headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens, a city known for its golf courses and gated communities, to the wide open spaces of Frisco. PGA of America still keeps an office at its former headquarters at 100 Avenue of Champions in Palm Beach Gardens but has some of the office space listed on the market, according to CoStar data. The trade group did not immediately respond to questions about the future of the Florida property.

The group teed up agreements for more than $160 million of economic incentives from various Texas government entities for the relocation, including $1.5 million to create 150 jobs from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which offers "deal closing" grants when the Lone Star State is competing with other states for companies to expand.

Commercial development in Frisco, which has nearly 211,000 residents, only got underway about eight years ago when the Dallas Cowboys started building their headquarters, practice stadium and mixed-use development known as The Star in Frisco.

The new campus was a way for the trade group to align with "world-class partners in a world-class location" in a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create the Silicon Valley of Golf" from a commercial perspective, said PGA CEO Waugh, who has been in his role since September 2018 and is the former CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas.

The industry group expects to bring multiple major PGA championship tournaments to PGA Frisco, which is expected to become a destination for golfers of all skill levels, Waugh said. One of those partners is the Omni Resorts & Hotels, a part of TRT Holdings, for the Omni PGA Frisco Resort that is being built adjacent to PGA's new headquarters.

The 501-room resort that includes a 127,000-square-foot conference center broke ground in May 2021 after more than a year of delays because of the pandemic. The resort includes the two designer golf courses as well as a lighted 10-hole short course, 2-acre putting green, and an indoor sports bar equipped with Topgolf Swing Suite technology and virtual games. The hotel and golf courses are expected to open to the public next spring, officials said.

Construction of PGA's headquarters came in on time and under the nonprofit industry group's budget of $33.5 million, said Granger Hassman, vice president of pre-construction and estimating for Adolfson & Peterson, the general contractor of the project.

"All projects of this nature, there's always a financial responsibility to be very financially responsible," Hassman told CoStar News. "They wanted to demonstrate they were being very good partners to their members and the community."

The building's design wasn't affected by the escalation in material costs and supply chain delays like some other major U.S. developments but faced some weather challenges, said Hassman, who likes to golf in his spare time but is shy about sharing his handicap.

"I like to think of myself as a golfer who's been around the game, and this was a very popular project to work on that has had a lot of people's attention," Hassman added. "It's everyone's favorite second sport."

In order to meet PGA's budget, the team trimmed costs in some places to make way for high-end design features like the building's steel frame, Hassman said. The architecturally exposed structural steel wraps the building, melding together with stone, plaster, metal panels and glass, Hassman said.

The headquarters will initially house 120 employees, and PGA is advertising for about 22 open full-time jobs in Frisco, according to its website. While the building is expected to serve as a place for the PGA to recruit top employees and showcase the future of golf, the headquarters also pays homage to the organization's past with interactive videos and displays and trophy cases.

The PGA of America developed the campus through a public-private partnership with the city of Frisco, the Frisco Economic Development Corp. and the Frisco Independent School District. Page was the project architect. Adolfson & Peterson was the general contractor. Cushman & Wakefield was the project manager.