Fellow Americans, is this not land of the free? So, why is this years U.S. Open being held at a private course? I understand it’s at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda but that doesn’t make it any better. In fact it makes it worse. Let me break this down…
Last time I checked “U.S.” meant the United States, our country. This should be our tournament. In the past they have held it at municipal courses and that’s the way it should be.
Diving deeper into this I realized that hosting tournaments at muni’s gives the game of golf such a unique position in the world of sports. What other sport allows regular old hacks, such as you and I, to play where the pro’s play. I really don’t see the Yankees letting the ol’ local Bronx beer league have their Thursday night softball games there. Never in a million years plus the beer can pyramid on top of the dugout might not bode well.
I think a lot of golfers would enjoy playing where their favorite golfer has played. I know I would. Not to mention it would probably attract more golfers and help out the declining golf market. According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), they found that 37% of public courses have had to lower their course maintenance standards, and 71% have had to defer capital improvements in recent years due to financial considerations.* In a nutshell this means the courses are not kept as well as they should be…damn recession.
So what do you think?
I couldn’t agree more. I was beyond excited to play Torrey Pines South after Tiger and Rocco’s showdown. It gave the course an added allure I couldn’t resist.
I agree with playing a course that these guys have played. There is something special about it.
I just played TPC Louisiana which is home of the Zurich Classic. Not close to the prestige of the US Open and I still thought it was awesome.
If you look at the list of venues for all US Open Championships since 1895 you’ll notice very few have been played on public courses. Other than the occasional trip to Pebble Beach, the recent trend toward public courses started only in 2002 with Bethpage Black.
I think the USGA ought to have a rotation between public and private courses.
It comes down to which can present the best challenge, has the infrastructure and location to host and event such as this. You are absolutely correct that golf is like no other were you can play on the same playing grounds as the best in the world.
Yes being able to play Torrey is amazing and the ’08 Open created some great drama but was that the course or the players. The course is merely average compared to a host of other past public Open venues and compared with Bethpage Black, Pebble and even Chambers Bay.
The USGA has it right now that they are mixing some public facilities that anyone can play (although Pebbles fee is unattainable for 90% of the golfing population) and the old classic Private clubs that have withstood modern equipment and still present a challenge.
Out of these courses
http://www.golfweek.com/news/2010/mar/11/2010-golfweeks-best-courses-you-can-play/
which ones have the infrastructure, challenge and location to hold a US Open?
For me there aren’t enough quality facilities that make is feasible for the USGA to host Opens on public courses every year.