By Tim Altork/Correspondent

Johns Creek isn’t even four years old as an official city. But that hasn’t stopped it from rapidly becoming a hotbed for professional sports events.

On Monday the PGA of America opened ticket sales for the 2011 PGA Championship, which will be August 8-14 at the fledgling city’s Atlanta Athletic Club. It marks the second time the PGA tour’s final major tournament will be held at the course off of Medlock Bridge Road, and the first since Johns Creek’s inception in 2006.

The city has known about the event for some time and has been sorting through the logistics of hosting such a major event.

“When you think about this kind of a tournament, you’ve got 40,000 people coming through here on a daily basis,” said Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker. “You’ve got players that are just incredibly popular with their fans. We’ve got security that we’ve got to take care of. We’ve got to do traffic control. We’ve got to make sure from a health and welfare [perspective] that if anything were to happen to any spectator or anybody else on the course that we can take care and make sure that they get back to their loved ones appropriately. So it’s a lot for the city to do.”

Bodker participated in a celebrity scramble on Monday morning at the Atlanta Athletic Club as part of a media event to kick off ticket sales. Other participants included TNT NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager, Buck Belue of 680 the Fan and former Atlanta Falcons star Jesse Tuggle.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Bodker spoke of the impact – financial and otherwise – that hosting the final major of the season will have on the city.

“I t hink the greatest impact will be on the fact that folks will know about Johns Creek and hopefully return to Johns Creek, spend some time here,” he said. “Our businesses certainly will get some boost. How much it will actually be, I can’t really quantify.”

Johns Creek will be enlisting the help of surrounding municipalities to help it sustain the logistical load that the tournament will bring.

“I don’t think any jurisdiction is big enough to handle something like this by itself,” Bodker said. “But we’ve got great relationships with our surrounding jurisdictions and we’ll get it done. And it’ll be the best tournament ever.”

Only two weeks ago, Johns Creek hosted a professional men’s tennis tournament featuring stars Andy Roddick, John Isner and eventual winner Mardy Fish. And Bodker spoke of future events that the city has its eye on, including a possible Ryder Cup sometime down the road.

Tickets for the 2011 PGA Championship are on sale now at PGA.com and they will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. The PGA also announced Monday that up to four children 17-and-under will be admitted free to the PGA Championship with every paying adult.