"I know the USGA wants to go to middle America in 2017"

Teddy Greenstein looks at Cog Hill's chances of luring the U.S. Open and I thought this statement by Mike Davis had to be well received in Tulsa and that little town near Erin Hills.

"I know the USGA wants to go to middle America in 2017," Davis said, adding Cog Hill is one of eight potential venues. "Most are in the upper Midwest."

The exception is Southern Hills, in Tulsa, Okla., which hosted last month's U.S. Amateur. But the favorite is Erin Hills, a 3-year-old facility 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee that already has hosted the 2008 Women's Amateur Public Links and has been awarded the 2011 U.S. Amateur.

This also intrigued me...

The biggest negative, Davis said, is that Cog Hill hosts a PGA Tour event. Davis called that "a big concern" and said Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines work around that because the venues play differently in February than in June.

Davis went so far as to say that had the USGA known that Congressional Country Club would begin hosting an annual Tour event (Tiger Woods' AT & T National), it might not have awarded the Washington D.C.-area course the 2011 U.S. Open.

 Hey, it's not too late to hold it against them.

Update on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 08:09 PM by Geoff

I do think it's refreshing that Tiger suggested that the Olympic golf, should it come to Chicago, be played on a public course, as Steve Elling writes. Of course, I'm for anything that means we don't have to watch another big event at Medinah.

Comments

[David Stamm]

Uh, what's wrong with Olympia Fields?

[OWGR Fan]

The USGA did Olympia Fields. And it went over about as well as any directive the ex LPGA commish Carolyn Bivens put out.

[JPB]

I don't think it was so much Olympia Fields as it was Cook county. Apparently county officials were next to impossible to deal with. I don't see Cog Hill getting an Open, much as the Jemsek family deserves one. I would be stunned if Erin Hills didn't get 2017.

[Seitz]

In defense of Dubs, I also plays much differently in February than it does in June. September is another story, though.

[Seitz]

Or rather "it" also plays..... Damn iPhone.

[David Stamm]

OWGR, I understand, but I was under the impression that the scoring was the issue, which was unfair because of the rain the course had to absorb, which made it play soft.