Championship golf is making its way to Rochester once again.
The 80th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship will be held at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford in May 2019.
The premier event for male golfers age 50 and older was held in Pittsford once before in 2008.
Director of the Championship Bryan Karns says whenever they opportunity arises; they take advantage of the chance to play again in Rochester.
On even years, the event is held in Benton Harbor, Michigan where KitchenAid is based, and on odd years, Karns says, it travels to a new location.
"When we go to the away years we really want to go to the best golf courses in the country. We want to go to golf courses that the players are going to want to go to and have history behind it. And so naturally one of the first places we looked was here."
Karns says there are only a few courses that have held a PGA championship, a Ryder Cup and a Senior PGA championship like Oak Hill.
An event of this scale always brings an economic boost to the area, with hotels and restaurants seeing thousands of spectators. However, Karns says there are also long-term benefits for a city to host.
“Having the television coverage, the 12 hours of NBC golf channel coverage that comes along with this event and then that whole time people are seeing Oak Hill, they’re seeing the sights from Rochester."
Karns says he and a small team move two years before the championship to whatever town will be hosting, to really get a feel for the community.
"When it comes time for tough decisions and when it comes to crunch time, I think having the relationships, getting to know the people from the police department, the sheriff’s office, the fire department. When you only have a six day window to run this event and really everything has to be done right then and lots of things you have to react to in a very short period of time, it’s good to have relationships."
Next year's event runs May 21st through 26th.