JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Despite the rain on Friday, it was still a loaded course with nearly all of the world’s best golfers competing in THE PLAYERS Championship.
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Last week, Action News Jax got a tour inside the PGA TOUR headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach.
It’s a 187,000-square-foot space for more than 750 employees and there’s room to hire several hundred more.
The new global home of the PGA TOUR has been a dream in the making for the last seven years before it opened its doors in 2021.
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Allison Keller, the chief administrative officer for the PGA TOUR, took me on a tour of their new headquarters.
“We have a chef that prepares fresh meals from stations including flatbread items, fresh salads, and other really nice gourmet items,” Keller said.
It’s clear to see why these employees don’t want to work from home.
There’s a coffee and smoothie bar and places to sit back and unwind, as well as a 24/7 gym to get your heart pumping.
“We encourage our employees to come and work out even in the middle of the day, even at odd hours to again get that refreshment, that energy to do what we have to do,” Keller said.
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Its economic impact in the area, combined with THE PLAYERS Championship helps generate over a billion dollars and its only going to expand.
“In fact we’re actually designing a media facility. A media production facility that will open in 2024 and that will have an additional $112 million annual impact so that will be another 165,000-square-foot building that is a lot of technology and broadcast equipment for digital and social satellite feeds. It just really speaks to the growth that we’ve experienced in this area,” Keller said.
Keller said THE PLAYERS Championship has been a flagship event in Ponte Vedra Beach for the last 40 years and if you work here, you can catch the championship right in your backyard.
“We’re just a short walk through those trees to the roar of the 17th Island Green, which is one of the most famous holes of golf on the planet and our employees love that,” Keller said.
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