Fans lapping up free food and drink at Quail Hollow with their admission tickets
Golf spectators
(Image: PA)
The PGA Championship has offered perhaps the largest-scale all-you-can-eat buffet in the history of sport.
Spectators entering the grounds at Quail Hollow during the week of the tournament pay nothing to scoff food and drink for all their time at the event.
For the first time, it was announced in advance that, included in the price of an admission ticket for the days of the event to watch heroes such as Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, fans were entitled to help themselves at the feeding points all across the course in North Carolina.
Under the all-inclusive food and beverage program, fans simply munch a range of items with breakfast list including a breakfast roll, chicken biscuit, doughnuts and fruit before lunch is served with hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, cheeseburgers, sausage sandwiches, ham ciabattas and salads on the go along with crisps, pretzels, cookies and cream pie for sweet treats.
Alcoholic drinks must be paid for, but the non-alcoholic ones are also dished out for free and one report stated that prior to the event that an estimated 130,000 burgers and 90,000 hot dogs would be consumed over the Championship with 11 on-course kitchens, 200 cooks, 58 chefs and over 1,000 staff members preparing the hot stuff.
Naturally, though, that leads to increased ticket prices. Prices for a Championship+ ticket for Sunday’s final round are on the website at the time of writing for $381, which comes in at at just under £290. That, of course, has been slightly less during the previous three tournament days and the practice days.
The PGA prices are nothing compared to what it has cost to get into the next all-you-can-eat golf buffet at the Ryder Cup in September. Tickets prices for the three competition days when the United States meet Europe at Bethpage with the free food and drinks concession were $750, which is just over £560 at current rates.
However, with the Ryder Cup competition set to be as hot as the free food, those available tickets are already long gone for the showdown and the sell-out signs up.
