All your favorite teams and sources in one place

Build your feed

Your Teams.
All Sources.

Build your feed

© 2024 BVM Sports. Best Version Media, LLC.

No results found.
The Greenbrier: ‘America’s Resort’ has long relationship with sporting world
The Greenbrier Resort, located in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., has been the home to a number of sporting events over its 242 years of existence. Most recently, the resort has been tied to possibly house an NFL team during the league’s COVID-19 planning. (Photo: @The_Greenbrier/Twitter)

The Greenbrier: ‘America’s Resort’ has long relationship with sporting world

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (BVM) — When a facility houses over 240 years of events and guests throughout its lifetime, chances are it has seen a number of sporting activities. The same is the case for The Greenbrier. 

Nestled on 11,000 acres among the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, the 710 room “America’s Resort,” as it has become known, has been at the epicenter of a number of sports related events and activities since its opening in 1778. Most recently, The Greenbrier has been the topic of numerous conversations in the National Football League as a potential temporary home for franchises, as teams look to find ways to continue their operations while working through the current COVID-19 environment. This news, however, is only a small portion of a long history of sports and famous athletes’ connection to the famed resort.

Perhaps the sport that is most well known for its connection to The Greenbrier is golf. Golf has been offered at the resort since 1914 when its first course, The Old White TPC, was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald. Since that point, The Greenbrier has expanded to five unique course offerings including three resort courses, one private course and a nine-hole, par-3 walking course. These courses have been the host to a number of national and international golfing events including the 1979 Ryder Cup, the 1994 Solheim Cup and the Greenbrier Classic/A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier Professional Golf Association event from 2010-2019.

Many great golfers have either played on the courses or have had a significant impact on the resort itself. 

Sam Snead, a PGA Hall of Famer and widely regarded as one of the best golfers of all-time, was hired as an assistant golf professional at The Greenbrier in 1936 and served as the resort’s golf professional from 1946 through 1974. In 1993, he was rehired as the resort’s Golf Professional Emeritus and held the position until his death in 2002. In 1977, Jack Nicklaus helped the resort renovate its Greenbrier Course to accommodate the Ryder Cup that would be hosted at the resort in 1977. 

Of the 11 sub-60 rounds shot in PGA Tour history, two occurred at The Greenbrier, Staurt Appleby shooting a 59 in 2010 and Kevin Chappell shooting a 59 during last year’s event. Among some of the other golf greats to have played at the resort include Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and more. 

However, the marriage of professional golf and The Greenbrier may be in jeopardy. 

The PGA and the resort mutually agreed to end its contract in May, citing a lack of attendance and a recent federal investigation surrounding the resort, its current owner West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, and the tournament. The resort also decided to cancel future golf contests that were scheduled at the resort through 2026, but the courses will remain open to guests and members of the Greenbrier Sporting Club.

“We owe a supreme debt of gratitude to Governor Jim Justice and his Greenbrier resort for a highly successful 10 years of partnership with the PGA Tour,” Andy Pazder, Executive Vice President and Chief of Operations for the PGA Tour said in a press release.

“From the best players in golf, to the biggest musical acts in the world, the tournament gave West Virginians an opportunity to experience these great events at home. Golf fans from all over the world were able to see the best of our state. It was a real positive for showing West Virginia in one of its brightest lights. Our people were able to take pride in the tournament, and it belonged to every West Virginian,” Dr. Jill Justice, President of The Greenbrier said.  

Although professional golf may be away from the resort for a few years, other sports are still at the center of the resort’s daily activities. One of the sports gaining popularity at the resort is tennis. 

In 2012, the resort held its inaugural Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic, which is now in its eighth year. In 2015, the resort created its 2,600-seat stadium which has hosted a number of famous tennis players including Pete Sampras, the resort’s first Tennis Pro Emeritus, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Venus and Serena Williams. This past year, the resort hosted Maria Sharapova for its tennis classic along with Caroline Wozniacki. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Sharapova to The Greenbrier for the first time,” said Justice in an August press release. “Her record speaks for itself, and I know our loyal tennis fans will be excited to see another new face join the legends who have competed in this tremendous event in the past.”

Sports betting also recently joined the atmosphere of The Greenbrier when the FanDuel Sportsbook opened in 2018 in the resort’s casino club. In Aug. 2019, the resort and FanDeul announced the launch of a new sports betting app allowing for wagers to be placed anywhere online within West Virginia’s borders. The addition deepened the resorts guests’ connection to the outside sporting world, now being able to bet on most of their favorite sporting events.

“We are incredibly excited that this new app is available for download, and the timing couldn’t be better with football season and A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier right around the corner,” Justice said in an August press release. “We hope sports fans across the state will try out the app and then some visit the amazing FanDuel Sportsbook retail location here at America’s Resort™.”

Now, it seems that the biggest sporting draw back into the resort would be the NFL. Though the idea may sound strange on its surface, there are no NFL teams in West Virginia and the closest, the Carolina Panthers, are over two hundred miles away from the resort, it is not a new concept for the resort. 

In July 2014, the New Orleans Saints began calling The Greenbrier its home for training camp, using the 55,000-square-foot sports performance center created by the resort for the team. The Saints would end up holding their training camp there for three straight seasons, followed by the Houston Texans who used it for both summers of 2017 and 2018. Even the Arizona Cardinals once used the facility in 2015 as a training space between two East Coast games instead of flying back home, but the trip was more memorable due to rumors from team members claiming the resort was haunted.

Although some former players may be nervous of the news, the Cardinals have discussed the idea of staying at The Greenbrier similar to the way it did in 2015. This would happen the week between weeks four and five of this season when the Cards play at Carolina on Oct. 4 and then at New York on Oct. 11.

“We will look at The Greenbrier, we will look at some other places too. We’re going to analyze that as we get deeper into the details,” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill said during a team podcast. “It’s exciting to try and minimize that east coast, three-hour time change and the long flights. Having those two back to back are great.”

The Greenbrier reopened its doors on May 22 following a two month closure due to the pandemic. As the world recovers and works its way through the COVID-19 pandemic, the resort continues to try to build on its sporting world legacy. Though things today certainly aren’t normal, sports and The Greenbrier are staying together, as they have for years.