Few venues in American golf carry an unbroken professional history that a 97-year-old course in Akron, Ohio, does. It holds a record that not even Augusta National can claim. Yes, it is the only facility in the world to have hosted three separate televised golf events in the same calendar year, back in 1974. Over the decades, its grounds hosted 88 professional tournaments. Only Pebble Beach, Colonial, and Augusta have had a longer consecutive run on tour. Now, the same iconic course where Woods built his most statistically dominant record in professional golf will no longer host a PGA Tour event.

On May 26, the PGA Tour announced that Firestone Country Club will no longer host a PGA Tour event. PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady said in a statement (credit: Golf Week),

“The Hoag Classic has long been a best-in-class event on the Champions Tour, and it’s great to know we will be heading to that legacy with the Senior Championship starting in 2027.”

The Senior Player Championship, one of the five major championships on the PGA Tour Champions’ schedule, is leaving Firestone GC after the 2026 edition. Kaulig Companies had sponsored the title since 2023, running the event at Firestone GC under a deal set to expire after 2026. Now, healthcare company Hoag has stepped in as the new title sponsor, signing a five-year deal that runs through 2031. As part of the agreement, the event will now be at the Newport Beach Country Club in California. The tournament will now be called the Hoag Senior Player Championship and played in late March rather than its traditional summer slot.

The 2026 edition will be on July 9-12; it will be the last professional golf event ever played at Firestone GC. After 72 years of professional golf, the course will be without a tournament for the first time since 1954.

Newport Beach Country Club is a recognized name on the Tour. It has hosted the Hoag Classic on the PGA Tour Champions calendar since 1996. And under the current deal, it will effectively upgrade the existing event into a full major championship. In fact, the venue already has infrastructure and a fan base in place.

What makes this thing even harder is what the course meant to one of the sport’s biggest names. Nobody defined Firestone GC more than Woods. He won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational eight times at Firestone Country Club. That total ties the PGA Tour record for most wins at the same tournament. And not surprisingly, Woods actually shares that record with himself. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational eight times as well. In fact, over 11 straight visits to Firestone GC starting in 1997, Woods won seven times and never finished worse than fifth.

In 2000, Woods shot 64, 61, 67, and 67, tied the course record, and shattered the tournament record at 11-under 259. He also beat the field by 11 shots. It would not be surprising to say that he was not just winning; he made the results feel predetermined in this course.

Firestone’s history stretches well beyond Woods, though. The course hosted three PGA Championships: 1960, 1965, and 1966. The 1962 inaugural World Series of Golf brought Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player to Akron in what became one of the sport’s earliest must-watch television moments. Nicklaus alone won seven times on the South Course across his career. As for Palmer, he famously gave the course’s brutal 667-yard 16th hole a permanent nickname: The Monster.

This is actually the second time Firestone has experienced this kind of blow. In 2018, the PGA Tour moved the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from Firestone to Memphis after nearly two decades. Justin Thomas had won the final edition. Now, the Senior Player Championship, stepping in from 2019 onwards, was essentially Firestone’s replacement lifeline, and now that lifeline seems to be gone.

Every generation of professional golf’s biggest names left something at Firestone. Palmer named the 16th hole The Monster. Nicklaus won seven times. Woods won eight. Newport Beach has no such legacy. It’s a venue, not a shrine. But the departure of the senior players’ championship is not the only unsettled question hanging over Firestone.

Firestone’s ownership uncertainty compounds the situation.

The timing of this announcement comes against a complicated background. In April 2026, reports emerged that a private equity firm is in talks to buy Firestone Country Club from its current owner, Invited. The company, formerly known as ClubCorp, has owned the property since 1981. Apollo acquired Invited in 2017 for an enterprise value of $2.2 billion.

With a potential ownership change looming and the last professional tournament now set to depart, the club’s future direction is unclear. Firestone has raised over $30 million for local charity through its years of hosting professional golf. That relationship with the community was built through decades of tournament presence. Whether any new ownership prioritizes building that connection or focuses on a private membership model is an open question.