Reflections On The 2008 U.S. Open: Fan Experience

I forgot to mention in the post on the "Championship Vision" TV that over the next few days I'll reflect on the 2008 U.S. Open and would love to read comments from others who attended. The Open will return to Torrey Pines, so why not start making our wish list for making a successful venue even better (and I know Rees, you just can't wait for the design critique post!).

So, the fan experience, as observed by someone who had an armbadge (for what it's worth)...

- While I never took the shuttle from Qualcom Stadium, I heard excellent reports about the experience. Wish they could find a closer place to park like Del Mar, but with the fair I understand why that was impossible.

- The grandstands were excellent and plentiful, though I'm still mystified by the huge gap between the 18th green and The Lodge while the scoreboard was buried under a tree that made reading it tricky for older fans in the stands. Yes, The Lodge is a beautiful piece of Greene and Greene style architecture and a great place for the Executive Committee to test the limits of a two-drink maximum (wait, that's the staff rule, sorry), but the priorities seemed a bit skewed here.
The 18th green setting and scoreboard (click to enlarge)

-  So much for uninspired SoCal sports fans. The buzz around the marquee pairings and playoff was incredible. I'm still astounded at Rocco's ability to walk from green to tee through a deafening roar and settle down enough to put a good swing on the ball. Tiger is used to it, but I doubt Rocco had ever experienced a rush like some of those walks.

Dick Rugge in the AmEx Tent (click to enlarge)- The corporate sponsors. As you know, I've been a strong supporter of...banishing the corporate involvement. It pains me to admit that the American Express Experience was one of the real highlights of the week. The opportunity to see USGA testing equipment and chat it up with USGA equipment gurus about how the ball rollback will work (just kidding!) was quite unique, as were the history related exhibits. The Lexus tent was much less classy, but for reasons I'll never understand, the fans loved waiting in line to pose with the trophy and hit a closest to the pin shot. 

- The merchandise tent. Reasonable pricing on nearly all items, an incredible array of choices for all taste buds and an efficient operation (at least the times I visited, though I did hear about some long waits to pay).  Whatever they are paying Mary Lopuszynski, it's probably not enough.

- Armband madness. The USGA's Craig Smith and Pete Kowalski are saints, walking 36-holes a day doing a masterful job corralling the massive media and guest entourage (Reggie Jackson?) who were awarded armbadges for inside the rope access. It's not a new problem I'm sure, but there were one too many go-fers belonging to producers for international TV as significant writers had to borrow armbadges. The USGA needs to reevaluate the access here because fans were growing weary of sitting in a spot all day and having their views blocked. And I grew tired of hearing the same old bad jokes.

Tiger's 18th hole eagle Saturday and the media inside the ropes (click to enlarge)- The volunteers. They seemed well trained and I never heard about a lost ball, which was incredible considering the grey skies and how far down some balls would nestle. I spoke to many marshals during the week to hear observations on how holes were playing, and their energy and passion was wonderful. Of course, when there is a waiting list to volunteer, you better behave because you could always be replaced!

Comments

[Mattinchicago]

I was there Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I came away pleasantly surprised by the "fan experience". The only thing I can compare it to is the Masters, where I've been several times, and I have to say the Open at Torrey compared favorably to the Masters in terms of fan experience. The Masters still is a better fan experience for many reasons (easier parking, way cheaper food options, standing bathrooms versus port-o-johns, fewer spectators, etc.) but given the sheer number of fans at the Open, I thought they managed the tournament very well. The lines for concessions were never unreasonably long. I would estimate the longest I waited in line was 5 minutes and that was on Sunday, and only b/c these two giant morons in front of me ordered 8 beers (a cool $56) which took a while to transact. I was amazed at the fact the city of San Diego was able to keep the traffic down. I think that having the offsite parking at Qualcom was the major reason for this and it worked out great, especially for us b/c we stayed in La Jolla and didn't have to take the shuttle. We arrived and departed by cab, which was super efficient, and if the cab option hadn't worked out, there was actually available public transportation options. I saw several people taking buses north and south from the course. I also thought the volunteers at Torrey were excellent. Cheerful and helpful, although perhaps too eager to please (on Sunday, the marshall on the ropes on 15 was way too willing to let spectators cross in the crosswalk in front of the green. At one point, the guy dropped his rope and let spectators walk across the fairway despite the fact that two players were setting up to hit their approach shots and had to shout at the spectators to get out of their way which sent the spectators scurrying. Pretty funny to watch from the grandstands but probably not so funny for the players). I also thought the crowd energy was great and the fans were boistorous in a good way. The "Rocco" chants echoing around the course Saturday and Sunday were fantastic. I didn't run into too many really obnoxious fans, although I ran into my fair share of idiots (ie, the guy who shouted at Luke Donald that he was a p***y for wd'ing with a wrist injury on Sunday) I don't really have many beefs with the experience (the course architecture is another story). The biggest issue I felt was that the sightlines at Torrey are not great, mostly because of the presence of so many trees around the greens. I'm not suggesting the pines be removed so as to improve sight lines, but basically, if you were not right next to a green or a fairway, you would have your view impeded by trees. There were also not any spots on the course where you could easily see action on several holes (oppose this with spots at Augusta like the 2nd and 7th green, where you can easily move between those two greens, as well as the 3rd tee and fairway). Overall, I came away quite impressed. I had gone into it expecting it to be a big corporate love fest that would only be fan-friendly if you had super-duper USGA status, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. The city of San Diego deserves great credit for the way they ran things outside the grounds and the USGA did a good job inside the grounds.

[Mattinchicago]

I forgot to comment on the AmEx tent. I didn't make it into the tent b/c of the lines but one of the persons I was there with went in Saturday afternoon and like you, came away impressed.

The most impressive part of the experience was probably the level of enthusiasm from the fans. I was at the driving range when Tiger showed up on the range and he got a standing ovation! That wouldn't happen at the Masters I can almost guarantee. The "patrons" at Augusta are more refined, which isn't necessarily a good thing. A little enthusiasm and excitement is a good thing. On Sunday, the energy was incredible. It helped that the situation was ideal for that kind of excitement with a nice-guy journeyman contending with the greatest player ever, and lets not forgot a very fine English player who finished a missed birdie putt on 18 out of the playoff. But the energy felt like being at a closely contested basketball or baseball game, which are contested in stadiums and not sprawled across acres. The cheering on 18 when Tiger made his putt was truly thunderous. That's not something you expect at a golf tournament.

[Al]

Mattinchicago and Geoff

thanks tons for the detailed recaps of the experience.

As you know our Cog Hill #4 is undergoing some massive renovations by the Open Dr. to try and get the course Majors ready.

After seeing the course last weekend, I am not sure that Dubs can ever be as good and as fair and as challenging as what we just experienced at Torrey Pines.

What do you guys think?

[Pete L.]

Geoff,

I marshalled there 6 of the 7 days and was very impressed by the overall smoothness of the whole operation. The USGA might have lost control of balls and clubs, but boy they know how to run a great tournament!

I shuttled from both Qualcom and the Volunteer lot at the Polo Fields just on the east side of the I5 across from the Fairgrounds. Both were smooth as silk, with buses leaving every 4 minutes, whether there where 3 or 30 passengers on board. Both trips took me 40 from downtown to be on duty at the course; I doubt you could expect better than that. For the Buick there are shuttles from the Fairgrounds and Sea World; but there's no way those lots could accomadate 25,000 vehicles. The lot at Qualcom was 85% full on Sunday afternoon.

You are quite right about the over abundance of media credentialed folks inside the ropes. People had staked out their spot in the front row waiting all day for the leaders to come through, only to be blocked out by the horde following Mr. Woods. Another annoying aspect is staking out a good spot behind the tee only to be blocked at the very last minute by the roving TV Cameraman.

[Mattinchicago]

Al,

In terms of Dubsdread, I like Dubsdread a lot and frankly don't understand why it required a "major" renovation to be "open ready" although I suppose the
-20 winning scores is a big part of that. In terms of comparing #4 to Torrey South, I can only go by what #4 looked like before they shut it down this year. The old #4 had several holes that I loved, particularly on the back nine) and a handful of pedestrian holes. Torrey Pines for the Open had a whole bunch of holes that I thought were not overly stimulating with a few interesting holes. I liked the first hole, the 3rd hole, the 4th hole, the 7th hole, and the 12th hole in particular at Torrey. But several holes seemed uninspired to my eye.

Another thought in comparing the two is that at Torrey, all three of the par 5's produced eagles and several exciting moments. I thought that both 9 and 18 were surprising straightforward and easy for players to reach in 2. That bodes well for Cog Hill's potential, b/c some of their par 5's are reachable in two and in past USGA incarations that might have been considered a negative but given the praise they received for the Torrey setup, maybe they'll be more amenable to reachable par 5's like the 15th at Dubsdread.

Having never gone out to the Western Open, errr BMW championship, I can't speak to the different fan experiences. One thing that Cog Hill could do that Torrey couldn't is provide parking on site, b/c they could convert either Cog #1 or Cog #3 into parking lots.

I'd defer to Geoff on the architecture aspects of the two courses, but for me, I'll be sad if Dubsdread is made into Torrey Pines midwest and interesting holes to me, like the 12th-15th are buwlderized in favor of 474 par 4's and 620 yard par 5's. Of course, maybe Mike Davis could do what he did last week and simply make adjustments to the Jones' "improvements" with improvements of his own.

[Tuna]

June + Chicago + thunderstorms + boring parkland course = no U.S. Open.

[Square Deal]

How things have changed. During the '82 Open at Pebble, I on-street parked near the Peter Hay course each day.

[Barry Ickes]

I was there Thurs thru the playoff and it was great. The shuttle was much better than at other opens because they could load more buses simultaneously so the lines were much shorter leaving the course, even after the end of the final round. Much shorter. The only improvement that I would suggest is that they need scoreboards to be manned in more places. I was on 15 a lot, and while the 9th hole was being played you could view that scoreboard. But when the leaders finished 9 they stopped manning it. Yet, that was the only scoreboard you could view from 15 or 16 if you were on the right side of the hole. Same thing with the right side of 18. They need more scoreboards, or you have to find people with AMEX tv's for updates.

Also, they should cut the number of media passes in half. You get a good place by a hole, then ten thousand media people walk by with Tiger and ruin your view.

[Cecil B.]

That inside-the-rope business has got to stop. Far too many people in there.

Reggie who?