Local tourism officials are banking on the recently awarded 2022 PGA Championship having a big impact on Tulsa’s economy.
Using data from four past championships, a computer model calculated a total economic impact for the 2022 event of $143 million, including $80 million in visitor spending and a $4.6 million increase in tax revenues, along with the equivalent of about 1,100 jobs.
"It’s probably if not the biggest one of the biggest events that will be hosted in the state, and clearly, when you put that and you put Ironman in the same weekend in 2022, it’s going to be a great weekend, a great week for Tulsa," said Tulsa Regional Tourism President Ray Hoyt.
2022 is set to be the second running of the Ironman Triathlon in Tulsa after the inaugural race was postponed from 2020 to this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoyt said surveys indicate a lot of people want to travel as soon as COVID-19 vaccination rates reach levels that make it relatively safe.
"I think you’ll see huge pent-up demand kind of unleashed in late 2021 and into 2022, kind of people looking to get back to some normal activity. And certainly, watching PGA golf will be one of those," Hoyt said.
Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club was awarded the 2022 PGA Championship last week after the organization pulled it from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey in the wake of pro-Trump extremists storming the U.S. Capitol. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died during the invasion.
The Tulsa club is also hosting this year’s Senior PGA Championship, which Hoyt estimates will have a nearly $25 million economic impact. The PGA has listed the host of its 2030 championship originally awarded to Tulsa as to be determined.
