Tom Adderhold is the Atlanta Athletic Club tournament chairman for the 2017 Arnold Palmer Cup. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Alabama, Adderhold owns his own insurance company, Preferred Insurance Agency, and is a past national president of the Professional Insurance Agents Association.

A member at the Atlanta Athletic Club, he has been in involved in multiple major tournaments at the club, including serving as a volunteer for the 1976 U.S. Open and the 1981 PGA Championship, chairman of the caddies for the 1990 U.S. Women's Open, vice-chairman for the 2001 PGA Championship, and tournament chair for the 2011 PGA Championship.

In the lead-up to the Arnold Palmer Cup, we spent time with Adderhold to get news about the event.

1. Tom, you have been to several Arnold Palmer Cup (APC) matches over the past few years. Why did you think Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) would be a good fit to host and why?

I have been to probably five or six Arnold Palmer Cup matches and thought that it would be a great fit for the Atlanta Athletic Club for two reasons.

Number One, we have a great physical plant, and we've hosted many major tournaments in the past. Plus, with Bobby Jones being a lifetime member here at the club and an amateur his whole career, I thought this amateur event would be something special to promote the legacy Mr. Palmer is trying to continue on.

2. AAC has a history of hosting major professional and amateur golf events. Take us through the process of how AAC looks and evaluates an event as a potentially good fit for the club and membership.

We have had a history of hosting major professional and amateur events. It goes back to early on in the club's career when we had a Ryder Cup in 1963.

The process basically is just hosting something that will enhance the history and tradition of the Atlanta Athletic Club. The club has a tremendous history and tradition. In fact, John Heisman was our first athletic director and Harold Sargent, one of our professionals, was a president of the PGA of America.

We have had PGAs, we've had U.S. Opens, we've had amateurs, we had the Women's Open — we've had quite an array of tournaments. The club does a great job, and the membership gets involved as volunteers to make it a great event.

3. When did the club decide to host the 2017 APC?

We were approached about four or five years ago by Jim Awtrey who works with the Golf Coaches Association of America and the Arnold Palmer Cup. He had been here as the CEO of the PGA of America in 2001 and saw what a great facility we have and how we handle major events. So he approached us thinking that this would be a real good fit for our history and tradition and so forth.

With it being the 20th anniversary of the cup, we were excited. I took it to the board, and Jim was nice enough to come up and make a presentation to the board, and we decided to do it.

We are really excited. This will be the first time in Arnold Palmer Cup history that they will have representatives from past venues coming and as well as future venues. It's a big celebration of the 20th year as this will be the last year as men only. I think it will be a big event next year when things change and they incorporate women into the event as well as other parts of the world.

4. You are the AAC tournament chair for the 2017 APC. This is certainly not your first time as a local tournament chair for the club. What other major events have served in a similar capacity? How are the events similar/different?

I'm the chairman of the event. No, this is not my first deal, I volunteered back in the 1981 PGA, I was chairman of the caddies for the Women's U.S. Open, which was a lot of fun, and then I was a vice-chairman for the 2001 PGA and then tournament chairman for the 2011 PGA. So we've had a little experience of doing some of the things.

It's great working with the Golf Coaches Association of America. Their staff does a great job, and we are looking forward to a very successful event.

5. AAC is known for its strong junior golf program. Similarly, the APC — per Mr. Palmer's wishes — has always been all about including local juniors in the event. How will junior golfers from the club be involved, and was this something that was considered in the decision to host the matches?

The Atlanta Athletic Club has a very, very strong junior golf program. This was one of Mr. Palmer's wishes to include the juniors in this event, and we are expecting over 200 juniors for the clinic on Wednesday.

Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A have been nice to provide all of the refreshments for the kids, and Nike is furnishing them with T-shirts, and we've got a busload of kids coming up as far away as Macon, Georgia, from Idle Hour Golf Club. First Tee is involved, all of the local junior associations have been invited or involved, and I think the excitement of the competition that we had here among our juniors to participate in the caddie program was extremely well received.

You know golf has taken a few hits here recently about how it takes too long to play and this, that and the other. Today's junior has a multitude of activities to choose from, from video games to lacrosse to soccer to golf. I think getting them involved in golf — because it is something that you can play for your whole life versus football or some of the other stuff that has a life limit so to speak — I think it’s great to get them involved.

There are an awful lot of lessons to be learned that you can carry on through life and in to business.

6. To expand on the previous question, local junior caddies are used by the collegians during the event. Additionally, one caddy will go with the player who is awarded an exemption into the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour. How has this aspect of the event been received at the club? What short-term and potentially long-term benefits do you see for junior golf at AAC as a result?

The fact that the caddie that will be selected by the players after the tournament will be able to go with that player to the Ball Hill Arnold Palmer Invitational next year is just a tremendous thing, and I think that generates an awful lot of excitement among the caddies. I know I saw it at the previous events where it was implemented, and I think it generates a lot of excitement.

Of course, one of the players — Maverick McNealy — and his caddie made the cut at Bay Hill the year before last, which had to be exciting for these young caddies.

In the short term, I think it's great. It generates interest in our junior program. Long term, these juniors are the potential future members of this club as well as other clubs, so getting them involved and letting them participate and see how much fun the programs are and what things are available and exposing them to the legacy that Mr. Palmer is trying to carry forward is just a tremendous opportunity.

7. Volunteers are the foundation of any major golf event. Approximately how many do you expect to be involved during the week of the event? What has been the memberships response to volunteers request for the week. Is there any one volunteer position that you know has been the most requested?

Volunteers at a golf event are extremely important. With it being the 20th anniversary and all the peripheral invitees that we have, we got more volunteers than some of the sites have had in the past. We've taken on transportation for the GCAA so we can pick up everybody and get the VIPs to the hotels and homes that some of the are staying in.

The volunteers make any golf tournament, and I think you will see as you watch — particularly the professional tournaments — the players are extremely good to thank the volunteers, and it gives the volunteer a chance to be involved in what's going on and give something back to the game.

We've had very good participation, not only in this event, but also the ones in the past that we've hosted.

8. The Highlands Course will be used for the matches. Recently, the green complexes underwent renovation. What do you think of the changes, and how do you see these affecting the playability of the course? What do you think will be the most important part of a player's game at AAC?

We have two golf courses here — the Highlands and Riverside — and both are equally championship courses. We held the Women's U.S. Open on the Riverside course back in 1990, and it did extremely well. The Highlands, of course, has been the one we've put most of our championship play on, the amateur — the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and U.S. Open qualifying have been held up there.

We did regrass and recontour some of the greens here within the last 18 months, mainly trying to get some more pin placements. It's awfully hard to get enough pin placements, particularly on par threes, but I think the changes have been good.

They took out about 20 percent of the bunkering on the Highlands course. A lot of it was not in play for the championship players, but it did come in play for some of the hacks like me that don't hit it very far. I think that has provided some softening effect for the members but has maintained the championship qualities of the golf course.

9. Finally, every great club has an onsite staff that makes everything run smoothly. Who will be some of the key staff members this week, and what will be their primary responsibilities?

We have a very fine staff. Our general manager has been here about four years, and our new course superintendent has been here about three.

We have a lot of long-time employees in the clubhouse and in the golf shop. Rick Anderson, our director of golf, has been here 25 years, and he is now involved in the USGA rules officiating. And we've had a long-time history of our golf professionals being involved in the PGA of America.

We have a great staff that will do everything they can to make this a first-class event, and I'm sure the players and the spectators will enjoy the facilities as well as the competition of the college boys.