Louisville will host another major golf tournament next month.

The ICO championship is moving from Nicholasville to her neighboring country club in Louisville.

The PGA tour tournament begins July 10th, and Kelsey Stark sat down with the chairman and CEO of ICO Industries and Louisville's mayor to talk about the big business of golf in Louisville.

In this week's Business Beat.

Well, golf is becoming big business in Louisville.

Thank you all both for being here.

We appreciate it.

And Mayor Greenberg, I want to start with you because this is the second year in a row now that Louisville has hosted a large scale golf tournament.

And, of course, at the PGA Championship at Valhalla last year and now the ESCO Championship, which is going to be an annual event.

What is the impact of something like this for the city of Louisville?

It's huge for Louisville.

You know, we've got great practice every year hosting the world for the Kentucky Derby.

So hosting big sporting events and bringing people from all over the world to Louisville is in our DNA.

And we'd love to do it.

It's also it makes such a positive impact in our community year round.

It creates jobs.

It fills hotel rooms, it fills restaurants, supports local businesses, and I think gives our city a really unique identity.

So the world knows us for world class horse racing.

They're now knowing us for world class golf as well.

Years ago we had the Ryder Cup last year we had the PGA Championship and now is an annual event, the CEO Championship at her born country club.

So all of the golf fans from Louisville, from around the entire region can enjoy world class golf right here in Louisville.

Every year.

I'm so excited about it.

And I know you're excited about it, too.

Jimmy Kurt Stauffer is the chairman and CEO of ESCO industries.

And this, of course, you all got the naming rights to this tournament, which was the Barbasol tournament.

And, it was held in Nicholasville and now.

Well, how was why was it so important for you to bring this to Louisville?

Well, we wanted to, keep it in Kentucky.

You know, it's been there and and as kind of a new event, kind of branding it as the ESCO Championship.

But golf is in our roots as a company.

And we were founded as irrigation supply company, a really a golf irrigation company.

And since then have grown to be a piping company for a lot of different applications and a lot of different markets.

So golf is important to us.

But I know how much this community loves professional golf.

Being very involved in the PGA Championship last year.

It was a very prideful moment for myself to see the community come out and support it in record fashion.

I mean, a lot of communities have had PGA Championship.

We broke a lot of records with the support that this community gave.

So we need to continue that and bring professional golf back on an annual basis.

And a lot of people may not realize, but you were one of four partners who purchased a Valhalla and the general chairperson of the 2024 PGA Championship there.

How is this tournament?

As you mentioned, it's different from the PGA Championship.

Yes, the PGA Championship, obviously a major championship.

This is different.

This will be a lot more you have a lot more accessibility to see the players and up close and see great golf.

Speaking of the players, you all have already had quite a few sign on for this.

The 2013 PGA Championship winner, Jason Dufner and Kentucky native JB Holmes, who were some others that we can expect.

And we also have Matty Schmid, who's a young professional, went to the University of Louisville almost one, a few weeks ago on tour.

We have Joel Damon.

A lot of people know him from the Netflix episode he was big on.

Harry Higgs is a great personality.

On tour.

We're going to have some local, young players trying to make it through there.

Steven Stallings, a Kentucky graduate, university Kentucky graduate, and Brendan Doyle, who grew up, at long run golf courses.

His, grandfather's Mo the pro there and he's going to play in his first PGA tour event.

So we're excited for him as well.

A lot going on there.

And, Mayor Greenberg, I know you've said this is a priority of your administration to bring big sporting events, as you mentioned.

What how does Louisville compare to some of the other cities of its size or larger, smaller that are also competing for events like this?

And what does Louisville still need to do in order to get more of these types of events?

Well, of course, Kelsey, where the best city at hosting these types of events we know it from?

We see it every year.

Everyone who leaves having visited for the Kentucky Derby says that was the best weekend of my lifetime.

And that's what we want when they come in for a golf event or any other event, when they come into our community.

So we're going to continue to build on that.

You know, also, it's sort of like annual events are becoming the norm for us with bourbon and beyond and Louder Than Life in September.

Hosting large festivals like that are very similar to hosting world class sporting events like the ESCO Championship.

So Jimmie and I have been working very closely.

We're thrilled that we're bringing in 2028.

The Solheim Cup is coming to Valhalla.

That's the women's version of the Ryder Cup.

It's the premier event in women's golf.

It's going to be played right here in Louisville, and we're looking to do this in other sports as well.

And so what we need are we need even more world collide.

Just like Valhalla is as good of a golf course can be in championship golf wants to be played there or with her sport.

We need great venues for other sports as well.

We're working on maybe possibly bringing a women's volleyball championship team, professional team to Louisville.

That's a new league that just started.

This would be a great city for that.

And as we're looking at other sports as well, we know we have the hotels, we have the restaurants, we have the hospitality.

We do need a couple more venues, for some of the other sports that are out there as well.

I imagine it's a little bit of a snowball effect.

The more you host, the more we'll come after in the footsteps, right?

Yeah.

That's right.

I mean, we we have other sports as well.

We have world class cycling events that are here.

We just did host the first ever national professional championship for the new Love League, which is women's volleyball.

So as different sports events here, word gets out pretty quickly and people want to be in Louisville.

We have a lot of, interest in the city right now, so I'm excited about the future to build upon the championship here in July.

And one thing, too, that you have said is that this is about more than golf, though there's a charity aspect, there's a lot of local impact talk a little bit about that.

Yeah.

And, like the mayor said, he brought in as a guest of his the LPGA commissioner last year to Derby.

And we landed the Solheim Cup, which is 2028 at Valhalla.

That's going to be a great it's kind of the women's Ryder Cup edition.

And then I brought Jay Monahan in here, the commissioner of the PGA tour.

So Derby really helps us promote the city.

People come in and say, hey, these people like to party.

They like to have fun.

So this is going to kind of have a little derby theme because we know how Louisville people like to come out and the social side of it.

But I love the thing I love about the PGA tour is there is a big charity component to it.

When they come to a city, they leave a footprint.

And, the Wendy Novak Diabetes Institute located right here, we're fortunate to have that in our town in the, investment that the Novak family has made in that facility to really help young people and really adults live their best life that are that are stricken with that disease.

And also the first tee of Louisville, something I'm passionate about on the board.

They're going to be a beneficiary as well, from this event.

And that's with the PGA Championship.

When they were here last year, they made a significant investment in the first Tee organization and facilities at Seneca Golf Course, one of our great public golf courses here.

And that's continuing now with this event.

So it's really, keeping these charitable contributions, that Jimmy and his company and that that these PGA tour events make leaves a lasting legacy so that more kids can get involved in the game of golf and can enjoy the sport.

Well, thank you all so much.

We appreciate your time and being here.

The escrow championship begins on Thursday, July the 10th and tickets are available right now.

Back to you.