PGA Championship 2024 and Kentucky Derby 150 show Louisville sports scene at its best

Zack Davis was new to Louisville's tourism department when the Ryder Cup took over Valhalla Golf Club in 2008.

The United States' victory over Europe was thrilling; but what got Davis really excited was experiencing for the first time how the city goes all out for big events — even while dealing with extensive wind damage after the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit the area — and thinking about what was to come.

"We will never lose that energy," said Davis, a Columbus, Ohio, native now in his sixth year as Louisville Tourism's vice president of destination services.

That energy will be at an all-time high this month. And it's due mostly to the city's one-of-a-kind sports scene.

Up first was Kentucky Derby 150 — a major milestone for the spectacle that is Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May, which ushered in weeks of celebration.

Then, there's the PGA Championship coming to Valhalla for a fourth time, from May 13-19.

They couldn't be more different; yet both, in the words of Valhalla co-owner Jimmy Kirchdorfer, "highlight the beautiful things" about Louisville and the commonwealth as a whole. They also generate a lot of money.

When Davis crunches the numbers — factoring in a national archery competition and an AAU girls basketball tournament occurring on back-to-back weekends at the Kentucky Exposition Center — he projects a record number of visitors, nearing or exceeding 500,000, and an economic impact of roughly $500 million in the span of 31 days.

"The heart of the destination," he said, "just has so much to do with sports."

Chances are, if you're reading this, you knew that already.

You've likely picked a side in the Louisville vs. Kentucky rivalry and will defend it until you're red (or blue) in the face.

You've likely toured the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory and the Muhammad Ali Center.

You've likely visited Slugger Field to watch the Louisville Bats and/or Lynn Family Stadium for a soccer match featuring Louisville City FC or Racing Louisville FC.

The latter just hosted its biggest crowd to date (11,365) on April 20, during Thunder Over Louisville. While players ran across the pitch, the stadium shook when planes participating in the air show zipped by.

Racing met the moment by notching its first win of the season, a 5-1 rout of the Utah Royals.

First-year head coach Bev Yanez called it a "breakthrough" moment. After scoring two goals, star midfielder Savannah DeMelo, who represented the United States at last year's FIFA Women's World Cup, said she and her teammates "put on a show."

Before kickoff, Ali appeared on the Lynn Family Stadium video board. It's the same clip shown often at U of L sporting events, recorded after the legendary boxer reclaimed his world heavyweight title in 1974.

"My greatness came and started in Louisville, Kentucky," Ali boasted. "That's one of the greatest cities in America."

He knew it then, and Davis knows it now. The 502 has an ability to, as Davis put it, "wow people in a good way.

"People think highly of Louisville, but maybe sometimes they don't know really what specifically to think," he added. "Then, they come here; and there's these moments of, like, 'Whoa, what is this place?' It's really cool to see it firsthand."

A spokesperson for the PGA Championship told The Courier Journal they're expecting to set an attendance record for the tournament — about 200,000; so roughly 24,487 more people than the then-historic crowd at the 141st Derby in 2015. The only tickets remaining are for its May 13-15 practice rounds.

Of the projected attendees, about half are expected to arrive from out of state. That means a strong contingent of locals will be on hand after some members of the community have voiced concerns of being priced out of Derby.

The tournament's director, Ryan Ogle with the PGA of America, said more than 3,100 people from around the area have also volunteered to work the event in return for free admission. They covered about 95% of staffing needs, Ogle said, within a week of the application process going live.

If you're going, regardless of whether it will be your first time at Valhalla, you should be in for a treat.

The first two PGA Championships it hosted needed a playoff round to declare a winner; with Mark Brooks besting Kenny Perry, a Kentuckian, in 1996 and Tiger Woods taking down Bob May for back-to-back titles four years later.

In 2014, it came down to the 18th hole — with daylight dwindling. Rory McIlroy seized the moment and finished a stroke ahead of runner-up Phil Mickelson.

Then, there was the 2008 Ryder Cup; which Ogle said put the international competition "on more of a different pedestal.

"Something about that event ignited a passion in the States; and I think it ignited a competitive spirit in Europe," Ogle said. "From there, the event has grown exponentially."

"A lot of people will tell me that was the best sporting event they've ever been to in their life," added Kirchdorfer, one of the four local investors who bought the club from the PGA of America in 2022.

The owners — Kirchdorfer, ex-Yum! Brands CEO David Novak, Musselman Hotels President Chester Musselman and Junior Bridgeman, a former Louisville men's basketball star who became a wildly successful entrepreneur after spending 12 years in the NBA — have taken painstaking measures to ensure Valhalla delivers again when the best golfers in the world arrive.

"We want to make sure that the visitors coming to our community feel welcome," Kirchdorfer said, "and create fond memories like they have at past events at Valhalla."

Matt Hartlage, a club member of more than a decade who contributes to its advisory board, said he "would be scared to know" how much money they've pulled out of their own pockets to fund renovation projects done with the PGA Championship on the horizon.

The course has been Kentucky's crown jewel for decades now, but Hartlage will tell you it's come a long way from the place he first visited as a high schooler during the 1990s.

"They've done it out of passion and love," he said of the ownership group, "for golf, for Valhalla and for Louisville."

Kirchdorfer & Co.'s investments should pay off for everyone involved.

A PGA Championship spokesperson said hosting the tournament has, historically, resulted in an economic impact exceeding $100 million — nearly $80 million in direct spending, plus more coming via indirect spending and taxes.

Rochester, New York, reported generating $193 million from hosting last year's event. In 2022, it brought a reported $157 million to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And because of Valhalla's location near the eastern boundary of Jefferson County, Davis said the event's impact will be relatively widespread — and extend to areas that don't often see tourists by the droves, plus the usual hubs. Ticketed attendees, for example, can park at the Expo Center for free and take a shuttle to and from the club; making rooms at hotels neighboring it and the nearby airport even more valuable.

As Davis and Ogle both pointed out, it takes an entire city to make an event accessible and successful.

"You've got to have a place that wants you to be there, that wants to support the event," Ogle said.

As for Valhalla hosting a future PGA Championship, we'll have to wait and see. Sites have already been picked through 2034.

But Ogle's experience living and working in Louisville over the past two years, and the major tournament being on the verge of breaking a corporate-sales record, has him advocating for continuing the partnership.

The city, he said, has "checked all the boxes" for putting on the Senior PGA Championship — which it has done twice already, although not since 2004 — and another Ryder Cup.

"I'm extremely proud to be a part of it," Ogle said, "and would welcome the opportunity to explain why this continues to be an incredible host site. I think it has a bright future ahead."

As Ogle alluded to, there's plenty to be excited about.

In the coming months, the KFC Yum! Center will be the site of a UFC Fight Night and the Final Four of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament. Lynn Family Stadium will be hosting the Women’s Cup, a professional tournament involving Racing and three other clubs from around the world. This after March Madness stopped through the arena, and the men's College Cup was held at the soccer stadium, last year. And we can't forget about USA Gymnastics making the city its destination for the first meet of the domestic season.

What keeps everyone coming back? The hospitality, maybe. Both Hartlage and Davis used the word "fortunate" to describe Louisville's knack for rolling out the red carpet; and it shows.

There's the Louisville Slugger bats Hartlage gifts to men's college basketball coaches whose teams have played in Sweet 16s at the Yum! Center; a tradition he started in 2016. And there's the sadness that hits Ogle when he thinks about saying goodbye to the city and its people before heading off to plan the 2026 PGA Championship on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

"You go through this journey with people and with organizations," he said. "You come together and you overcome and build something really big and you have success. Then, it's on to the next one. That's always the toughest part."

But, if everything goes according to plan, he can leave knowing he helped write an impressive chapter of Louisville's sports history — one that will be felt long after his departure.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: PGA Championship 2024, Kentucky Derby 150 show Louisville at its best