You might recognize Rodman Wanamaker's last name as John Wanamaker known as the pioneer of the department stores named Macy’s right now was his father. Rodman ended up joining his father's business, but he was very passionate about golf in general. He felt that golf would need an organization that would help the sport grow and expand. He set up a meeting to discuss this inviting many people including Walter Hagen.
The PGA Tour wasn’t created right away at that meeting, instead, that meeting brought many others which eventually ended up bringing the creation of the PGA on the 10th of April 1916. That’s when the PGA Tour was officially established and it had 35 charter members at the time.
Soon after that, the PGA Tour managed to grow more and more. In fact, during the 1920s, a series of tournaments occurred in Florida and Texas. These were a great starting point, and at the middle of the decade the tour was doing well, prizes were over $77k already. However, the first playing professionals organization was created in 1932. The tour became very well structured after WWII, and the 50s and 60s also brought a lot of growth to the PGA Tour. The fact that many of these tours were televised helped the PGA tour quite a bit.
In late 1968, the Tournament Players Division split from the PGA brand. It actually helped the PGA Tour, because it allowed to bring in more and more prizes, up to $200 million. The revenue for the PGA Tour ended up at around $229 million in 1993 alone.
Since then, more and more professional players entered the tournament, with Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Rory Mcllroy, and many others bringing prestige to this amazing title. The PGA Tour continues to expand and it brings in lots of media partners & sponsors. The events are very significant, and we even see large golf seasons of up to 50 events as a part of the PGA Tour. This will most likely continue to expand, it shows why the PGA Tour is the top organization in golfing right now.
