When Cameron Young hoisted the Cadillac Championship trophy May 3 after cruising to a six-shot victory at Trump National Doral, it continued a trend that began more than two months earlier.
Nico Echavarria's victory at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches started a 10-tournament stretch which nine were won by golfers living in Palm Beach County.
Golfers such as generational superstar Rory McIlroy winning the Masters. The hottest players on Tour the last two months, Young and Matt Fitzpatrick, combining for five of those wins. Ascending star Akshay Bhatia slipping on the red cardigan that goes to the winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Gary Woodland providing the most inspirational story of the season with a victory at the Texas Children's Houston Open.
And then there was Echavarria, who wasn't even settled into the area when he became a made man in Palm Beach County golf circles. Echavarria's wife, Claudia, was closing on their Palm Beach Gardens home during the second round of the Cognizant. The next two days, her husband posted a pair of 66s to take home the trophy and start the county run.
Ten tournaments. Nine champions residing in Palm Beach County. The only outsider being J.J. Spaun winning the Valero Texas Open. And that was before Kristoffer Reitan extended that streak May 10 with a victory in the Truist Championship.
And it all started in Palm Beach Gardens. At the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches.
How fitting.
"It's the best place in the United States for a golfer to live," said Echavarria, who moved from the Jacksonville area. "Not only the best players in the world but the best courses. And it's always windy. It's hard golf. It's make you better."
The tech world has Silicon Valley. The financial world has Wall Street. The fashion world has Paris.
The golf world has Palm Beach County.
Palm Beach County the "professional men's golf mecca"
Jordan Spieth, who lives in Dallas, calls the area the "professional men's golf mecca." More than 60 active members of the PGA Tour call the area home. When including all professional golfers — those currently on the LPGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, LIV Golf tour, Korn Ferry Tour — that number rises significantly.
And not all the golf royalty in our area currently is grinding away on courses around the world. The area is home to most of the greatest legends and icons of the game.
Jack Nicklaus, 86, started the migration to this warm-weather wonderland where it is not necessary to hammer a tee into the ground during the winter months. Nicklaus, who lives in North Palm Beach, moved to Palm Beach County six decades ago.
South Africa's Gary Player, who still plays, may be among the most fit 90-year-olds in the world. He settled in Jupiter Island about 25 years ago.
Raymond Floyd, 83, designed the Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens and made it his home more than 20 years ago.
South African Nick Price (Jupiter) and Australian Greg Norman (Palm Beach Gardens) continue to call the area home.
"If you're going to be a pro golfer, you've got to play where the sun shines," Player said. "And they were all coming here. It was a sensible thing to do."
Looking for the best? How about seven of the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking through the Cadillac Championship residing in Palm Beach County. And 19 of the top 50.
How about major champions? The area is home to professional golfers who have accounted for a staggering 82 major championships on the PGA Tour, including three of the top five: Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (15), Player (9). At least 35 on the PGA Tour Champions.
PGA Tour winners? Among active players, four of the top six winners on the PGA Tour live in the area: Woods (82 career wins), McIlroy (30), Dustin Johnson (24), Justin Thomas (16).
The 2025 Ryder Cup not only included captains who live locally and just 4-miles apart — Europe's Luke Donald (Jupiter) and America's Keegan Bradley (Palm Beach Gardens) — but also eight players living in Palm Beach County and one in the process of making the move to the area.
Then there are the Golden Oldies — oldies being relative considering 50-year-olds are eligible to play on the PGA Tour Champions. That senior circuit includes Palm Beach County residents Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Justin Leonard, Jesper Parnevik and Mark Calcavecchia, to name a few.
"I compare it to college golf," said Thomas, the 16-time PGA Tour champion, including two majors, who lives in Tequesta. "I wanted teammates. Guys I was around and practiced with not only fueled me, but I was able to learn from them. It just makes me better. I like being around players that are trying to do the same thing I am."
Rory McIlroy followed Tiger Woods to area
Woods, 50, gets a huge assist in helping establish the area as a golf hub. In 2006, Woods spent $38 million on a 13,700-square-foot home that sits on a 10-acre parcel stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal on Jupiter Island in southeast Martin County.
"I miss the ocean," he said at the time. "Being in Orlando … there's a bunch of lakes, but it's not the ocean."
Woods made Jupiter Island his permanent address in 2011 following his divorce. Many followed, including McIlroy. The six-time major winner, including the last two Masters, arrived in 2013 and bought Els' 17,000-square-foot estate in the Bear's Club in Jupiter in 2018.
"We give these golfers an environment where they want to make their home and raise their families," said County Commissioner Maria Marino, whose district includes northern Palm Beach County, where most of these golfers live. Marino won the 1985 Connecticut Women's Amateur Golf Championship and is a 30-year member of the LPGA.
"For us, that says a lot," Marino added. "What we offer in Palm Beach County in the way of golf courses, 47-miles of coast line, all the parks and recreation we have, we're a community where people want to live and raise their family."
And golf.
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka and four-time PGA Tour champion Daniel Berger live in Jupiter. But they did not make that decision to move into the area. That was made for them, by their families. Koepka was born in Palm Beach County and Berger's family moved to the area when he was a boy.
Unlike their peers, Koepka and Berger honed their game on our courses from the time they were very young.
"We all live probably within 15 minutes of each other in Jupiter, and everybody plays the same golf courses," Koepka said. "I don't go a day without seeing a guy out here, so there's always people talking, having lunch, practicing together. It happens way more frequently than I think people realize."
Young (Palm Beach Gardens) and Fitzpatrick (North Palm Beach) have cracked the top 5 in the world off their strong starts to the season. One of Fitzpatrick's wins was the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he teamed with his brother, Alex, who now is planning to house hunt near his brother.
"Any given day you could call a number of the top-10 players in the world, top-20 players in the world, and get a pretty good game together," Young said.
Bradley was born in Woodstock, Vermont, which averages 82 inches of snow annually. When Bradley traded in his snow skis for golf clubs, he headed south and settled in Palm Beach County around 2010.
"I tell younger players always invest in your practice facility," said Bradley, a four-time winner of the PGA Tour, including the 2011 PGA Championship. "I try to look at it as your office space and the Grove and Bear's Club, that's like Madison Avenue. When you're building a business, you're trying to always upgrade your office space.
"So it comes down to having the best facilities along with year-round golf."
Alex Noren visited fellow Swede Parnevik for about 10 years before decided to move to Tequesta in 2019. Noren, 43, has improved his world ranking 74 spots to No. 18 in the last 10 months.
"The coaches, facilities, playing with other players ... it all helps," Noren said.
Rickie Fowler, a six-time PGA Tour winner, has lived in Jupiter for more than 16 years, one of the longest tenured residents among the active PGA Tour members. Fowler is a big believer the competition during time spent practicing and playing while at home is invaluable.
So, too, is seven-time PGA Tour winner Viktor Hovland.
Hovland lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma, since his freshman year at Oklahoma State. He is building a home in Jupiter.
"There's so many PGA Tour players in the area, you're going to play matches against them, be very familiar with their games," Hovland said. "So then when you're (in a tournament) you're not maybe intimidated by the players that you're competing against, especially a rookie and young players. That could be very beneficial."
About 40 PGA Tour members play out of Jack Nicklaus' Bear's Club
Florida has more than 1,250 golf courses, the most of any state. The golf capital of Florida — Palm Beach County — has more than 160.
Jack and Barbara Nicklaus founded the Bear’s Club in Jupiter 27 years ago and it is the hotbed for local professionals with 39 members being PGA Tour members. Many others clubs, including Panther National, Dye Preserve, Medalist, Tequesta Country Club, Turtle Creek, Floridian and Michael Jordan’s Grove XXIII have everything a professional golfers needs to stay sharp.
Many of those who have played and practice at the Bear's Club have sought advice from the founder and greatest major champion of all-time.
“I don’t go out and seek this, but I am available," Nicklaus once said. "I’ve always felt like I might have some knowledge — you might call it wisdom, I don’t know whether it is or not. I might have something to impart to the kids that might help them and I’m delighted to supply that to any one of them."
Bradley tees it up with Thomas and Bud Cauley. Thomas also plays with Fowler and Xander Schauffele. Bhatia likes to hang with Fowler, Sahith Theegala, Patrick Cantlay and Schauffele.
Thomas and Fowler were on the back of the range at Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound three years ago when the initial announcement of a possible PGA Tour-LIV Golf alliance was announced. Also there was then-LIV golfer Koepka.
You get the point. At any time, one or more of the top golfers in the world is available for a game somewhere in the county.
Echavarria is one of those members at the Bear's Club and the two players he has seen practice more than any other: Young and Fitzpatrick, the two best players on the Tour in recent months.
"This sport is so hard you have to put the hours in," Echavarria said. "You can see how hard those two work and how well they're playing."
Woodland is the only local in the top 100 in world who does not live in north end of the county. When the Kansas native decided about 15 years ago to move to Palm Beach County, he settled in Delray Beach.
"I see everybody every week, I don't want to see them when I am home," Woodland once said, jokingly.
Woodland's win in Houston was his first since the 2019 U.S. Open and first since his 2023 brain surgery to remove a tumor.
Golf is not the only draw. Many of these golfers are married and have children and enjoy the lifestyle away from the course. Yes, they, too, become average citizens when the clubs are in the garage, or wherever multi-millionaires store their most prized possessions.
So do not be surprised to see McIlroy at the park with his daughter, Bradley at Rocco's Taco, Johnson at the Gardens Mall, Shane Lowry at Juno Beach, Camilo Villegas riding his bike, Lucas Glover at Leftovers Cafe, Berger fishing off the Jupiter coast, or any number of golfers dining at 1,000 North, whose partners include Els, Bradley, Donald, Fowler, Johnson, Koepka, Thomas and Villegas.
Even Woods often has been spotted at local courses and soccer fields to watch his kids.
But Nicklaus, of course, has them all beat.
For years, Nicklaus has been seen all across the county watching his children and grandchildren play sports. The most famous story is when he jumped on a plane after the second round of the World Series of Golf in Akron, Ohio, in the early 1980's, and flew home to watch son, Jackie, play in a high school football game in Belle Glade. Nicklaus returned in time for his final two rounds.
“We are very lucky, we have an amazing backyard," Lowry said. "The weather is so nice we cook out a lot. We just take it easy at home. I just love being around here. The climate and the golf courses are just perfect for us.”
Just call it a winning formula.
Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
PGA Championship
May 14-17
Aronimink Golf Club, Newton Square, Pa.
TV: ESPN, CBS
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Golfers living in Palm Beach County on PGA Tour winning streak
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