Food, glorious food at the PGA Championship

Story written by Ed Levine

Those attending the PGA Championship this week will likely notice something beyond just a beautiful golf course, incredible golf, and hefty ticket prices. With your ticket you will also get the “Championship+ Inclusive Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverage Program”. But what does that even mean??

It means “frictionless” concession stands. No pulling out your wallet or scanning a card or your phone to get food or drinks. Just walk into one of the four event tents throughout the course, grab an entree, a snack and a drink and walk out. Just take what you want…take it! It sounds crazy, but it actually makes a lot of sense financially and will spare fans all the headaches of waiting in line to order and pay for food and drinks. This does not apply to alcohol purchases, sorry. My alcoholic brothers and sisters will be out of luck and out of pocket waiting in line.

The concept of frictionless concessions is the brainchild of Patina Restaurant Group based out of Los Angeles. Patina has been the official catering partner of the PGA since 2021 and has developed the Champion+ model since 2022.

“The concept centers on convenience to the fans and enhancing the tournament experience,” says Vice President of Patine Restaurant Group Eric Babcook. According to Babcook “everything is made fresh on site daily and because of this all of the food is locally sourced from the salad to the hot dogs.”

There is a production facility on course that prepares all the sandwiches, salads, sauces, etc., and then distributes those finished products to the 46 various sized coolers throughout the course and the four large event tents for Champion+ spectators. All of the grilled meats — like hot dogs, burgers, and chicken — are taken directly to the event tents where grills are cranking out entrees behind the scenes at all times making sure the heated entree stands are filled at all times with freshly cooked items.

The numbers are staggering. An estimated 30,000 fresh burgers will be prepared daily, and over 20,000 chicken sandwiches (my favorite). 150 tractor trailer trucks will be delivering the food throughout the week and 170 managers and 800 hourly associates will be working round the clock to make sure every fan has no issues being fed:

It is an amazing operation that begins years ahead of time according to Babcook. “We are already beginning planning for the 2028 PGA Championship at Olympic Club in San Francisco,” explained Babcook.

It isn’t just food that needs to be planned for, the whole infrastructure is involved from where the production facility will be housed, how the food will be transported throughout the course, to how necessities like plumbing and electricity will be accomplished. There is also the labor and planning involved in building the temporary structures just for the week of the Championship.

The biggest issue for Patina is getting fans accustomed to simply taking whatever they want. While fans are asked to only take one entree, snack and beverage at a time, you could grab an extra item if need be, there won’t be any food police. That being said, be reasonable and don’t try to run off with 20 Mountain Dews…or American Dews as they are called this week.

The most important question, of course, is how is the food? Based on my small samples it was very good, much better than your typical large sporting event fare. Removing greasy fried items like french fries, nachos, mozzarella sticks, etc, not only removes frozen, poor tasting foods from our mouths, but it is much healthier. Snacks will be a bevy of bagged chips, cookies, pretzels and Rice Crispy Treats (I’m in trouble. Rice Crispy Treats are my weakness!) The entree items won’t be sitting under heat lamps for long, and you will have a large variety of choices including burgers, dogs, chicken sandwiches, Italian sausage and even a vegan burger. There will also be cold ham and cheese sandwiches prepared daily, as well as a Mediterranean Salad. This could be the first sporting event I attend where I gain weight.

All of the food production and preparation is overseen by PGA Executive Chef Ed Milan. He doesn’t just oversee the PGA Championship, but all major PGA events including the Women’s and Senior PGA Championship.

“Planning the food and distribution aspect is a year-round job, but I begin working on location weeks ahead of time,” says Milan. “We have to have everything set up and running smoothly and safely,” explained Milan, which makes sense as there are also giant grilling stations in the back of each station just out of view.

The Aristocrats at the tournament will also be well taken care of by Patina. The private hospitality tents will feature premium all-inclusive chef driven buffets, with a rotating daily menu. I didn’t get to sample that but I heard the words “sushi” and “steak” being thrown around. Trust me, your elite spectators will be very happy in their premium tents.

Is it all worth it? You are probably not going to eat the amount of need to cover the overhead cost that is added to the ticket. The average ticket in 2021 was just under $200. Even accounting for inflation they are still charging you a markup of about $150 for food and beverages. Seems like a lot, but this is likely the future of sporting events, or at least golf sporting events. With that being said, the experience is highly enhanced in terms of convenience, quality and cleanliness. You are paying a bit more, but you can always eat as many burgers and dogs as you want to offset that feeling of being overcharged.