Hazeltine lands another major golf tournament: Here's how it happened

Hazeltine National Golf Club exists to host major championships, a mission to which it is adding two by two.

The U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Amateur and Ryder Cup all have been — or will be — played twice at the Chaska private club by the time the biennial team competition between Europe and the United States for the seed merchant trophy returns with the Ryder Cup in 2029.

The KPMG Women's PGA Championship will play there two times, too. The major will return to Hazeltine National in 2026, the PGA of America announced Tuesday.

It was first played there in 2019, when Australian Hannah Green won by one stroke.

Founded on farmland in 1962, Hazeltine National will be home to the 2024 U.S. Amateur, 2026 KPMG Women's PGA Championship and 2029 Ryder Cup, all in a span of six summers.

It is the only American venue awarded the Ryder Cup twice since it was first contested in 1927 in Massachusetts.

"Certainly a second Ryder Cup in 2029 puts us in a category that's pretty rarefied air," Hazeltine National General Manager Phil Anderson said. "There's no other club with that résumé."

That history and Hazeltine National's course are two reasons the Women's PGA Championship — the second-oldest major in women's golf first played in 1955 — is returning to Minnesota.

Volunteer, corporate and spectator support helped, too.

The Women's PGA became a collaboration between the PGA of America, the LPGA and KPMG, the multinational professional services firm and title sponsor. Starting in 2015, they restored a tournament that had lost some of its shine into one befitting its major championship status.

They did so by getting TV coverage on NBC, the Golf Channel and Peacock. They identified major markets with historic courses where the men played their majors: Congressional near Washington, D.C., Baltusrol near New York City, Sahalee near Seattle, Aronimink near Philadelphia and Olympia Fields near Chicago.

The championship also more than doubled its purse the last two years, from $4.5 million in 2021 to $10 million at Baltusrol last summer, matching the U.S. Women's Open total purse. Champion Ruoning Yin won $1.5 million.

The 2024 Women's PGA will be played at Sahalee, 2025 at the PGA of America's new headquarters complex outside Dallas before Hazeltine in 2026.

"It lost a little bit of luster, but we put it back on a major stage again," KPMG deputy chair and chief operation officer Laura Newinski said.

She said her firm's involvement was about the growth of a championship and a sport through golfers "inside the ropes" while it advanced "diversity, equity and inclusion" among female executives who seek to reach top management positions.

"We desired to be a catalyst for change and we chose women's golf," Newinski said.

The "KPMG Women's Leadership Summit" brings 300 female executives and a panel of women speakers from business, education and sports together on site the day before the Women's PGA's first round, intending to empower them on and off the golf course. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks every year.

There's also college scholarships and mentorship for underrepresented and economically disadvantaged high school seniors.

It all comes back to Hazeltine in 2026. Tuesday's announcement didn't detail dates, but the KPMG Women's PGA has been played the third week in June.

Hazeltine National hired Davis Love III's course design firm in August to formulate a master plan that will evaluate everything from greens, bunkers, fairways, irrigation, playing distances, drainage, trees and course routing for the membership's consideration in advance of the Ryder Cup's return.

"Where we will reimagine this great golf course once again," Love said about Hazeltine.

The planning itself is expected to take a year. Love was the U.S. captain for an American team that beat Europe soundly at Hazeltine National in 2016.

The club has built new tees on its signature 16^th hole since the KPMG Women's PGA was last played there. It adds 20 yards and adds quite a view.

"The new tees provide a spectacular view of what was already a great golf hole," PGA of America chief championship officer Kerry Haigh said.

Haigh said he'll likely use the new tees come 2026. He and others will review how the course and each hole played last time. He might make some minor adjustments to the tee placements, but doesn't plan on major changes.

"We felt the course provided a strong but fair challenge from how we played it in 2019," Haigh wrote by email from Rome for the recent Ryder Cup there.

Hazeltine National sent a traveling party of about 20 members and staff to Rome to continue their conversations with PGA of America officials.

Next year's U.S. Amateur keeps alive a dialogue with the U.S. Golf Association, which awards U.S. Opens. The 2026 KPMG does the same with the PGA.

"We're dedicated to hosting championship golf with the best players in the world here," Anderson said. "Our club has always been inclusive to all. [The Women's PGA] is a wonderful event to have all the best players here on property. We want the game's best here at Hazeltine. It's our mission."