PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Have you ever wondered how the PGA Tour players nourish themselves for golf tournaments each weekend? We got an inside look at The Players Championship dining and it’s probably not what you think.
“PGA Tour players and golf players are now professional athletes, and they need nutrition and we want to make sure that they’re ready for the game. We’re giving them the right food that is nutritious and is sourced in a right manner,” PGA Tour & TPC golf course properties national culinary director Azhar Mohammad said. “The Players is so important because it’s the fifth major. It’s the biggest event for PGA Tour and for us at TPC Sawgrass.”
The PGA Tour and TPC Sawgrass culinary staffs curate a week’s long menu to make sure every golfer and caddy competing optimizes performance through nutrition. The PGA Tour’s nutrition program is only for signature events like The Players Championship.
The culinary staff starts planning the menu 90 days before the tournament.
“This is one of the most exciting weeks that we have throughout the year,” TPC Sawgrass executive chef Johnattan Hernandez said. “The whole planning and the whole sourcing and then sitting down with Chef [Mohammad] and do all of the sourcing part to make sure that the quality and the sourcing is correct, is one of the best results for us.”
You can imagine cooking for 144 golfers, their caddies, family, support staff, and even VIP events around the tournament will require a ton of prep work. The Players Championship builds two temporary kitchens for the week. As well as hiring 35 additional people to help cook, including five chefs from other TPC courses, a few local chefs, and even a chef from outside the country.
“It becomes important that the menu is done right and it’s targeted towards nutrition, performance, and execution is correct,” Mohammad said. “Making sure that everything is cooked in organic and extra virgin olive oil. The third and the most important part for us is we use signage so when you walk through our buffets for player dining, every ingredient is labeled and it’s tagged with a sign that says either pregame, which is going to give you energy, or is it postgame for recovery.”
The provisions list is extensive, including ordering 1,000 pounds of fish and hundreds of pounds of fruits and vegetables. The PGA Tour and TPC Sawgrass prioritize the highest quality of food. They source from local farms to prepare and consume the food within 24 hours to make sure the food is as fresh as possible. All food is organic and there are no added sugars nor heavy carbs used in any of the cooking.
It literally takes a village to feed the entire tour, but it’s something that brings a lot of joy to the executive chefs.
“Making sure that the players at the end rave about the food,” Hernandez said. “That’s pretty much our satisfaction at the end.”
