A Louisvillian Guide for Golf and More at the Home of the 2024 PGA Championship
by Juan Luis Guillen
In just a few weeks, shortly after the 150th Kentucky Derby and in the middle of the 25th Anniversary of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the 106th PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, on May 13-19, will be a unique opportunity for golf fans to enjoy a celebratory cocktail combining the best golf in the world with Louisville traditions.
And for those golf enthusiasts from all over the world gathering in Louisville for the second major of the year, there is no better guidance than the advice of local golf aficionados in the horse, hospitality, and bourbon industries.
“Our brand is ‘where the world meets Kentucky’ because everything that we are is a small representation or expression of the world,” said Andy Treinen, who, after 25 years as a sports broadcaster, including the coverage of the 2014 PGA Championship in Valhalla, presides and manages the Frazier History Museum, home of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Welcome Center.
“The industry has grown immensely, we work with 49 distillers in Kentucky,” added Treinen, a “convenience golfer” who plays casually at the 9-hole Cherokee Golf Club, one of the oldest municipal golf courses in the United States.
This oldest golf course in Louisville is nested in Cherokee Park, designed in 1891 by Frederick Law Olmsted—the same landscaper behind New York City’s Central Park-- with more than 400 acres of paved paths, wooded trails and wide open spaces “great for walking, biking, and enjoying some fresh air” according to Tara Guenthner, accomplished junior and college golfer and now Owner of Hipp Inspired Experiences.
Guenthner also recommends enjoying the many shops that are local to Louisville such as Pappy & Company, a home goods store with a selection of bourbon-inspired products, and Clayton and Crume, an upscale leather goods company in the historic building where Muhammad Ali began his boxing career. This unique location also features handcrafted cocktails at the surreptitious Stitch, the speakeasy hidden in the store.
The numerous Louisville speakeasies –the clandestine establishments that sold alcohol during prohibition—hold the recipes of the best mixologists and the secrets of Kentucky whiskey founding fathers, like Elijah Craig, a name associated with the invention of bourbon and the brand partnering with the PGA of America as the official whiskey supplier of the PGA Championship and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“For Elijah Craig it is a natural fit. We think about people who are really striving in life and looking for ways to win. We share a lot of the same values: the greatness within the bottle and the greatness within you,” said Susan Wahl, Vice President of American Whiskey for Heaven Hill Brands.