Consisting of nearly 29,000 members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish and elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest and participation in the game of golf.

Locked into a retail battle with rival A.G. Spalding & Bros. for the sale of golf balls, Wanamaker enthusiastically approved the initiative.

He asked McNamara to arrange the luncheon inviting prominent amateur and professional golf leaders from throughout the country.

[5] Wanamaker's ninth floor restaurant was chosen as the site for the Monday luncheon, which attracted amateur great Francis Ouimet; noted writer, player and budding architect A.W.

Pulver, the New York Evening Sun reporter and one of the first newspaper golf "beat" writers who later served as the first editor of The Professional Golfer, today's PGA Magazine.

Wanamaker also believed consolidating professionals would also improve their social standing, having long been treated by club members as second-class citizens.

The inaugural PGA Championship was held October 10–14, 1916, at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York, and won by English-born Jim Barnes.

Former British PGA Secretary James Hepburn suggested that the 32 lowest finishers in the U.S. Open would be paired for match play, following Robert White's contention that the U.S. was too large for section qualifiers.

They named Hepburn to chair an organizational committee of professionals that included Maiden, White and Mackie, as well as Gilbert Nicholls, John "Jack" Hobens, and Herbert Strong—none of the group was American-born.

The Association began with seven PGA Sections: Metropolitan, Middle States, New England, Southeastern, Central, Northwestern and Pacific.

[7] With an increase of revenue in the late 1960s due to expanded television coverage, a dispute arose between the touring professionals and the PGA of America on how to distribute the windfall.

The tour players wanted larger purses, where the PGA desired the money to go to the general fund to help grow the game at the local level.

[11][12][13][14] Tournament players formed their own organization, American Professional Golfers, Inc. (APG), independent of the PGA of America.

In 2003, the PGA of America created the Player Development department within the Association in an endeavor to reach out to new, past and sporadic adult golfers.