Preparations Underway For The PGA Championship

The world's best golfers will come to Tulsa next month for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills. The preparations are well underway at the course. The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports Southern

Tuesday, July 10th 2007, 8:43 pm

By: News On 6

The world's best golfers will come to Tulsa next month for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills. The preparations are well underway at the course. The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports Southern Hills Country Club is one of Tulsa's busiest construction sites right now, despite the rain.

"Every day is a full day of work, rain or shine,â€ said managing director Kerry Haigh. â€œWork needs to be done and it is being done, and we're excited and hope one day it will stop raining."

The biggest job is building 500,000 square feet of air conditioned space. That's for the hospitality tents available for the premium ticket holders, who will have an exceptional view of the course.

There's a 36,000 square foot building under way now and it's going to be for PGA Championship merchandise. The heaviest work started just a month ago and has to be done within the next 26 days. It will all be torn apart once the championship is over.

"Our goal is to when we leave here to have it look just as it was when we found it, so by the time we're done, it should be just an 18-hole golf course and you wouldn't be able to tell we're here,â€ said tournament director Ryan Jordan.

Because of the weather, fans have been set up on the greens to keep the air moving. That will decrease the chance of disease affecting the grass. And all over Southern Hills, gravel pathways have been laid down to accommodate the construction traffic.

Just the extra landscaping is an enormous task. Fifteen semi loads of compost and topsoil have been delivered to build beds for an extra 20,000 plants.

The goal is to make Southern Hills look perfect for a national broadcast and the daily crowd of at least 35,000 spectators. Already 200 people are working at Southern Hills to make it all happen. And that workforce will swell to about 1,000 people by the time the championship comes around.

The championship starts August 6th.

Watch the video: PGA Preps Underway