As we all wish we could, the USGA is moving to Pinehurst. And it’s bringing one hell of a housewarming gift.
In addition to moving some of its headquarters to the idyllic North Carolina hamlet, the USGA named Pinehurst its first-ever “anchor site” and will stage the U.S. Open at the No. 2 course five times between now and 2047 (the 2024 edition already had been announced).
By doing so, the USGA nearly cements the informal U.S. Open “rota” — a term that USGA CEO Mike Davis eschews, but that is by now unavoidable. Six of the next eight U.S. Opens will be held at Winged Foot (2020), Torrey Pines (2021), Pinehurst No. 2 (2024), Oakmont (2025), Shinnecock (2026), and Pebble Beach (2027) — all of which have combined to host 22 of the past 50 U.S. Opens. Pebble, Shinnecock, and Oakmont each have hosted one U.S. Open in every decade since the 1980s, and the 2024 tournament will be Pinehurst No. 2’s fourth U.S. Open in 25 years. There is no reason to believe the USGA is inclined to slow down its visits to those venues.
All of which is to say that the U.S. Open is condensing its lineup of future venues down to its greatest hits, with little room being made for any B-sides. You can call that a rota, or you can call it anything else you want.
But you can’t call it democratic.
Nor can you call it imperative. Why is this necessary? Why must the U.S. Open go to Pinehurst (or anywhere else) every six years? Winged Foot’s upcoming U.S. Open will be its first since 2006 — but in a country with more than 15,000 golf courses, a 14-year absence doesn’t seem inordinate.
Paring down the tournament’s list of future sites is particularly baffling given the USGA’s purported mission to “act[ ] in the best interests of the game for the continued enjoyment of those who love and play it.” But reserving the U.S. Open for elite private clubs and high-end resorts limits accessibility to U.S. Open venues by public golfers, and deprives wide swaths of the country of the chance to attend a U.S. Open. For example, St. Louis is more than 600 miles away from the closest future U.S. Open venue (Oakmont), and Minneapolis nearly 900 miles (also Oakmont). It’s hard to understand how that promotes “continued enjoyment” by the overwhelming majority of American golfers, who are not members of private clubs.
To be sure, private clubs played an invaluable part in the U.S. Open’s history; until the U.S. Open came to Pinehurst No. 2 in 1999, Pebble Beach was the only publicly accessible course ever to host the U.S. Open. But that ushered in a new era of the USGA promoting public courses; in all, six public courses now have hosted the U.S. Open. I’ve played four of them, and each time, I felt something that I usually don’t feel on the golf course: a connection. I’ll never play basketball at Madison Square Garden, and I’ll never leg out a double at Yankee Stadium. But I can put a peg in the ground at Bethpage Black. Playing at a venue where your heroes played is a rare treat for sports fan. Sadly, the USGA seems bound to make that treat even rarer.
The rota’s stated motivation is to allow fans to become more familiar with the U.S. Open’s greatest venues. Even if that were true (and I have my doubts), there still would be room for a decade-long rota of seven or eight “classic” U.S. Open venues, plus two or three first-time, publicly accessible courses. And maybe that’s where the USGA ultimately will land. But for now, the only “public” courses on the U.S. Open’s upcoming slate boast greens fees north of $250 (at Torrey Pines, not counting a $45 booking fee), and the only first-time venue is the elite Los Angeles Country Club. There is room to do both; at this point, though, the USGA seems far more interested in one side of that balance.
And that’s a shame. The USGA has struggled for years to find a clear role for the U.S. Open in an era of an ascendent Masters and Open Championship. But it’s not going to out-exclusive Augusta National, and it’s not going to out-rota the Open. It could, however, be something else that showcases the very best of American golf: sharing the stage between both the country’s greatest golf courses and a small handful of spunky, publicly accessible up-and-comers.
But that would require a balance in which the USGA’s current plans show little interest.
. . .
You might also enjoy reading…