When Wilmington’s Paul Ruggiero teed up with PGA Tour golfers on Wednesday as part of the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am at the BMW Championship, it was a thrill of a lifetime.
Not only was he playing side by side with Matt Kuchar and Maverick McNealy, it was a rare opportunity to play one of Delaware’s most exclusive courses – Wilmington Country Club.
“It’s a privilege to play here. It’s the Cadillac of country clubs,” said Ruggiero, who is a member at Centerville’s private Fieldstone Golf Club, another posh course where his locker sits across from a fellow member with the nametag “President Joe Biden.”
As president of N.K.S. Distributors, the state’s Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship, Ruggerio is in charge of all beer at this week’s tournament because the PGA Tour and the makers of Budweiser have an exclusive partnership.
BMW Championship: PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ | Leaderboard
One of the perks of the job is being able to wiggle into the pro-am and play just one day before the $15 million championship kicks off Thursday.
And while any day at Wilmington Country Club is a flex of one’s First State status, playing it this week is an ultimate power move. As Ruggiero puts it, “Wilmington Country Club is home to a who’s who of powerful, important Delawareans.”
Private playground opens its gates
Steeped in history, Wilmington Country Club was founded in 1901, two years after the debut of the Western Open, which changed its name to the BMW Championship in 2007.
After more than a century ensconced in privacy and exclusivity, the country club has decided to open to the world this week in its biggest way yet: by hosting the state’s first PGA Tour event.
And not just any event. It’s the top 70 golfers in the season-long FedEx Cup standings for the BMW Championship, the longest-running PGA Tour event on the calendar other than the four majors: the Masters, U.S. Open, the Open Championship and PGA Championship.
A playground for the rich and influential, it’s the kind of place where CEOs, politicians and every other kind of mover-and-shaker mingle in the clubhouse, which underwent a $7 million renovation in 2014. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it hosted Biden’s first round of golf as president in April of last year.
Wilmington Country Club, which counts Biden as a member and is located just four miles from his home, has hosted Beau Biden Foundation fundraisers in the past and is a magnet for bold-face names,…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…