{"id":12189,"date":"2026-06-01T03:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/12189\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T03:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:12:02","slug":"presidents-cup-proves-charlotte-is-golf-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/12189\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidents Cup proves Charlotte is golf country"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Axios<\/a>) – Johnny Harris stands near the first tee box at the Presidents Cup a few hours before the opening ceremony, and smiles when I ask him about Charlotte\u2019s stamp on the event capturing the attention of the golf world.<\/p>\n

Why? Because this one is different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what happened [is] the PGA Championship [in 2017] sorta cracked the wall that was there, where golf events out here had been viewed as maybe more Quail Hollow than Charlotte\u2019s events,\u201d Harris, the president of Quail Hollow Club and a prominent Charlotte developer, told Axios.<\/p>\n

Why it matters:\u00a0The second you step onto the Quail Hollow course, the event feels quintessentially Charlotte. That\u2019s not just because there are decorative signs for concessions reading NoDa and South End<\/a>. Instead of it feeling like, \u201cthis is another golf event in Charlotte\u201d it\u2019s, \u201cthis is a Charlotte event, and golf is the main course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of note:\u00a0Charlotte became the first\u00a0place in the Southeast to host the Presidents Cup.<\/p>\n

Context:\u00a0Quail Hollow Club\u2019s history of hosting golf tournaments dates back to 1969 with the Kemper Open, which ran until 1979 here. Then came the World Seniors Invitational from 1980-1989, followed by the Wells Fargo Championship (then called the Wachovia Championship) starting in 2003, but it did not take place here this year in preparation for the Presidents Cup. The PGA Championship was also here in 2017 and will return in 2025.<\/p>\n

Harris added events at Quail Hollow Club have become not just regional or national; they capture international attention.\u201cThat\u2019s been a hugely positive aspect of everything we\u2019ve ever done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By the numbers:\u00a0The economic impact from the Presidents Cup will be more than $175 million for the region, per N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Events like this also attract big names, whether it was Justin Bieber at the PGA Championship in 2017 or former North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams in 2022. President Joe Biden is the Presidents Cup honorary chairman, a role held by several other presidents, some of whom may make their way to Charlotte this week.<\/p>\n

Cooper said former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will be here, and maybe President Biden.<\/p>\n

The big picture: Charlotte is not just banks and beer; it\u2019s golf country.<\/p>\n

Zoom out:\u00a0North Carolina has 520 golf courses<\/a>, and golf is a big business for the state, generating $2.3 billion in direct spending in North Carolina, per Cooper\u2019s office. (These figures are from a 2017 study<\/a> by the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association when the sport saw a decline in activity).<\/p>\n

Now the sport is booming, thanks in part to the pandemic forcing everyone outside, as Axios\u2019 Zachery Eanes and Michael Graff reported<\/a>.Plus the World Golf Hall of Fame will move to Pinehurst, which will also host the U.S. Open in 2024. The move includes a $25 million investment and bringing 50 full time US Golf Association staff there.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next:\u00a0All that\u2019s left is for Charlotte to host the\u00a0Ryder Cup<\/a>, which runs every other year, and it\u2019s the U.S. against Europe. Like the Presidents Cup, it would be a\u00a0coveted event\u00a0for Charlotte to host.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like Dad always said, \u2018when you get your time at bat, you better swing,\u2019\u201d said\u00a0Johno\u00a0Harris, 2022 Presidents Cup Tournament Chairman and son of Johnny Harris. \u201cSo if we ever have had the opportunity to step up at bat, we\u2019ll see where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2022 Axios Charlotte. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Axios) – Johnny Harris stands near the first tee box at the Presidents Cup a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1296],"tags":[2014,2013,456,3190,44,5336,1407,3189,1323,5335,834],"class_list":["post-12189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-presidents-cup","tag-charlotte","tag-club","tag-course","tag-cup","tag-golf","tag-hollow","tag-play","tag-presidents","tag-presidents-cup","tag-quail","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}