2020 U.S. Open Flyover: Eighth Hole At Winged Foot

Originally 413 yards in A.W. Tillinghast’s 1922 plan, the 8th is up to 490 yards for the 2020 U.S. Open. A distinctive left-to-right shape and overhanging trees forces an obvious shot shape. We might even see more than 8-iron hit into a par-4!

Another fantastic green complex restoration is on display, highlighted by the mid-right area jutting out into the bunkers and supported by slope. It’s not pinnable, but just adds one more fun feature that gives a player something to work a ball off of, but also a more pronounced penalty should they miss right.

No. 8 at Winged Foot is a dogleg-right, 490-yard par 4. The angle of the fairway will require precision in choosing and executing the line of play.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/odK0S9H0kX

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) September 3, 2020

"How the PGA Tour resumed its season, navigated a pandemic and played its way to the Tour Championship"

There’s a lot of sound recap info from Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com explaining how the PGA Tour has made it to the 2020 Tour Championship in a pandemic. With a large, often unwieldy band of egomaniacs to coral, it’s hard to imagine a better outcome for pro golf’s return after June’s inevitable rocky restart.

Yet in reading the piece, it’s also quite easy to imagine how the PGA Tour needs to remain vigilant both with safety practices, scheduling and welcoming back fans. The early wake up call is a good reminder of how things evolved:

Having a plan helped. And while it wasn’t without its holes, continued adjustments made a difference. One such change included an update during the Travelers that a player would not be eligible for the tour’s $100,000 stipend if he tested positive after not following the outlined safety protocols. Monahan emphasized that the onus was on everyone involved and said, “We need you to do your part.”

It was a wake-up call, indeed. And, for the most part, the players, caddies and all involved got the message.

As Wacker notes, the lack of a positive test in some time might also be a result of players taking the at-home tests before boarding a plane.

While some unidentified players, according to multiple sources, have tested positive at home in recent weeks and as a result did no play again until returning a negative result, no one has tested positive on site at a tournament in nearly a month. The tour hasn’t canceled any more tournaments, and earlier this week, Monahan unveiled a robust 50-tournament schedule for its 2020-’21 season that will begin next week in California.

Could this explain the epidemic of back injury WD’s in recent weeks? We’ll never know but ultimately, if players isolated and did not infect others on planes, airports, hotels or on the PGA Tour, then the system worked. Perfect, it is not. But six months into the pandemic, imperfect is more than acceptable compared to the alternative.

2020 U.S. Open Flyover: Seventh Hole At Winged Foot

The 162-yard par-3 seventh at Winged Foot is the shortest of the one-shotters and if the green is hit in regulation, a solid birdie chance.

But this Tillinghast original is not “right in front of you”, with the elevated green likely making club selection of a nine iron or wedge to tricky for today’s under-par living Adonis’s.

The USGA flyover thanks to Deloitte:

The 162-yard, par-3 7th is Winged Foot’s shortest hole. Its challenging greenside bunkers sit 7 feet below the putting surface.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/lr6ZOg0d61

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) September 2, 2020

Kisner: "Without the fans, the tournaments aren't the same. The revenues aren't the same."

Well he’s certainly not wrong.

Kevin Kisner, as quoted by Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com on the eve of the $45 million Tour Championship.

“We need the fans back. Without the fans, the tournaments aren't the same. The revenues aren't the same,” said Kevin Kisner, one of four player directors on the Tour’s policy board. “We need them back.”

As a player director he’s privy to more numbers than the rest of us, so there is no reason to doubt him. Still, the Tour’s commissioner outlined a robust charitable outlay vision yesterday while holding firm on purses while others cut back. It’s hard to imagine ticket sales will aid as much as taking a million off a purse here and there. But it’s nice to see Kisner misses fans, as do most players and TV audiences.

"Project Woodpecker": North Carolina Politicians, USGA Joining Forces To Move Testing, Museum Operations Into Pinehurst?

One identifying characteristic of woodpeckers: they repeatedly slam their heads against a hard surface, often with little discernible progress.

Given how this mirrors the USGA’s approach to distance gains in the game over the last 20 years, maybe it’s fitting that North Carolina’s “Project Woodpecker” is rolling out the red carpet for a United States Golf Association move.

As Richard Craver reported for the Winston Salem Journal, the North Carolina state Senate—and subsequently the state House on Thursday—approved a bill offering up to $42.4 million in performance-based incentives to an unidentified group.

The nonprofit would have to create at least 35 new jobs and have an overall workforce of 50. The average annual salary could be $80,000. The project is projected to produce an $800 million economic benefit over 10 years.

Bill sponsors said during Wednesday's Senate Commerce and Insurance Committee that an announcement on the project could be made as soon as next week.

The Pilot of Southern Pines reported Friday that Pinehurst and Moore County elected officials will discuss in separate hearings Tuesday a $25 million business development project in Pinehurst that is expected to generate 50 jobs.

Both groups will vote on providing performance-based incentives to an unidentified organization that intends to build a new facility within Pinehurst’s village limits.

The Pilot said local officials have been tight-lipped about “Project Woodpecker” since early March.

The most recent version of House Bill 807 provides an obvious clue about the sports organization in question:

According to the bill, the group "is responsible for staging and holding championship events and agrees to hold championship events in the state with an aggregate economic benefit of $500 million."

The events must include one men's major professional championship event every five to seven years, with an economic benefit of $90 million per event, and at least one women's major professional championship event every 10 years.

There's also a commitment to conduct at least 13 additional championship events at state venues.

And here I thought venue selection was all about the architecture.

The business would have to invest at least $5 million in the project by Dec. 31, 2023. It would be required to have built at least two buildings of at least 30,000-square-foot of space.

The project would include an equipment training center for research, a museum and visitor center, and business departments. It must provide services for at least 10 continuous years.

Obviously this is surprising news given the incredible investment the USGA has made in its Far Hills campus in recent years. And the bill seems even more shocking when coupled with last 2019’s news of a very significant staff reduction through buyouts and early retirements to “evolve its organizational structure in an effort to drive greater impact and sustain a strong financial future.”

Or, maybe we now know: to clear out employees for new hires mandated by a new North Carolina law.

If the bill is indeed centered around the USGA, they will join other recent moves by the PGA of America, the PGA Tour and NBC’s Golf Channel to capitalize on tax breaks, government incentives and, sadly, to cull experienced staff.

In this case, the bill has been in the works for some time. To say it’s changed a bit, well, you tell me:

“expand groups of professionals qualified for appointment as medical examiners to include retired physicians, certified medicolegal death investigators, and pathologists assistants; defining when a body is claimed for the purpose of determining the method of disposal after the completion of a death investigation; and protecting the confidentiality of certain information and records obtained by the chief medical examiner concerning death investigations.”

Yes I know, hard to see the sports component there. But as Craver’s Journal story notes, the bill was “gutted and replaced”—YOU DON”T SAY! The updated language approved by North Carolina’s state senate and house on September 2nd and 3rd.

”An act to provide economic incentives for the purpose of bringing a sports championship employer to the state, increasing the number of jobs and research opportunities in the state, and increasing the number of jobs and research opportunities in the state, and increasing the number of championship-level events occurring in the state.”

Oh yeah, I see the overlap there. Both graph’s start with capital letters and end with a period.

Now, I know this is going to come as a shocker, fat cats wanted to make sure to have their very own USGA hospitality tent. From the bill, screen captured because I know you won’t hit the link or believe they’d be so transparent:

At least the fat cats are responsible for their bar tab.

With the bill’s language crafted pre-COVID, there is currently no mention of extra ventilation, temperature checks or even who will pay for those 2024 U.S. Open rapid saliva tests.

Until this is announced, the move or partial move remains all rather confusing when juxtaposed with recent USGA buyouts, a big Golf House restoration and last year’s expansion, healthy executive compensation, and now a southern operation required to hire 35 people along with a $5 million minimum commitment from the USGA’s significant coffers.

There may be a totally reasonable explanation and logic behind the move, we’ll have to see. Maybe more consistent exposure to pines will open up breathing channels and encourage the USGA to stop procrastinating and actually protect the game? It’s a theory, that’s all I’ve got since I reached out to a USGA spokesman this morning regarding the bill and have yet to receive a reply.

Monahan "Certain our tournaments and our players played a role in inspiring participation during the last few months"

I know the bubble’s thick down there in PVB—is it Norman Foster designed?—but this quote still gave me a hearty chuckle.

From Commissioner Jay Monahan’s state of the Tour press conference at East Lake:

Given that golf lends itself naturally to social distancing, recreational play has seen a surge in recent months. As one of the few professional sports competing earlier this summer, I'm certain our tournaments and our players played a role in inspiring participation during the last few months, and we look forward to building on all this momentum as we head into the end of the year and into 2021.

Recreational play was strong during the COVID-19 quarantine(ish) before the Tour restarted in June and was robust from the outset thanks to golf’s outdoor setting, safety and most of all, a huge increase in free time for active participants or wannabe players. Only in Cult Ponte Vedra could they believe they inspired the robust increase in play.

2020 U.S. Open Flyover: Sixth Hole At Winged Foot

The shortest par-4 at Winged Foot West is a dandy and often listed with the best short four’s in the land.

Long known as the place Ben Hogan used 5-iron off the tee for the best approach distance, the sixth had seen a left greenside bunker added to guard the creek (oy!) and huge build-up on the rightside bunker. That’s been taken down and the green shape fully recaptured.

On this flyover the 321-yarder doesn’t not look particularly appetizing to drive with rough and water looming left of the green, but with such a narrow fairway and today’s players traveling with flexibility-inducing foam rollers, they may just bomb and gouge their way to the hole despite the baggage coming with such an approach. The rough may render the creek’s role fairly meaningless, so we’ll just have to wait for tournament week to see what today’s Hogan’s are thinking.

No. 6 is Winged Foot's shortest par 4 at just 321 yards, but it also has the narrowest fairway. Aggressive players might attempt to reach the green from the tee.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/Ov124AQdMe

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) September 1, 2020

2020-21 PGA Tour Schedule Features Six Majors, Olympics, 50 Events

Other than the forthcoming Asia swing moving to the western United States, there are not many major changes to the PGA Tour schedule in the name of minimizing travel. The various “swings” remain in tact, with some maneuvering in Florida that will not help the Honda Classic much.

There are just 10 days between the end of The Open and the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games, should they go forward.

As for other changes and venues to look forward to, Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com notes:

Other notable changes include the Bermuda Championship, scheduled for Nov. 26-29 in the week after the Zozo, being elevated to full FedEx Cup point status after the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, originally slated for the same week, was officially canceled earlier this week. Likewise, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship also will be played with full points available.

Meanwhile, as previously reported, the tour’s Florida swing has been reconfigured with the Honda Classic moving to the week after the Players Championship, March 18-21, while the Valspar Championship moves to the first week of May, after the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Five new venues will also be featured in the 2020-21 season: Shadow Creek and Sherwood; Memorial Park (Houston Open); TPC Craig Ranch (AT&T Byron Nelson) and Caves Valley Golf Club, outside Baltimore (BMW Championship).

The full schedule can be viewed here:

Monahan Pledges Tour Events Will Raise $100 Million Over Next Ten Years To Help Social Injustice Causes

Reading Jay Monahan’s State of the PGA Tour press conference, it’s tempting to pull out a calculator to comprehend some of the dollar figures bandied about. Particularly given recent news of the PGA Tour letting go or retiring 50 lower-pay staffers not on the executive, Dr.-Conformity-in-Atlanta track to a Ponte Vedra Boulevard (ocean side) residency.

Virtually all of the money mentioned by the Commissioner will be on tournaments to raise, an interesting task with so much uncertainty about pro-ams and spectators. Monahan sounded a very cautious note on that front, which was a refreshing take given some other major sports pushing to get people in seats despite being way less conducive to a safe situation than golf spectating.

When we feel like it's safe to return fans out here, that's when fans will return. We owe that to them, to make sure that we feel like -- and we're supported locally in every market we play in, that that is supported by the local government authorities.

Now to the money.

Monahan said in the press session today at East Lake that the Tour has raised $35 million this summer for COVID-19 related charities.

Now tournaments are going to be instructed to add another component to their fundraising:

And so since we've started, you know, kind of redoubled those efforts and really thought through the recent incidents and how we can make a bigger impact, we worked very closely with our Tournament Advisory Council led by Steve Wilmot, and all of our tournaments are going to be identifying racial and social injustice causes in their local markets going forward.

Because, again, they know their markets better than anybody else. They're going to know the organizations that can make a big impact, and they're going to make that part of their charitable program and charitable platform, so that in every community you look at on the PGA TOUR, every tournament is committed to doing so, particularly once we return to tournament golf as normal.

And I think it's a big statement that with the number of tournaments we have they all quickly have responded and said that they are excited for this opportunity, excited for this challenge. And I think as you look out over the next 10 years, I think that we would project it to generate at least $100 million for those causes over the next 10 years, and that's something that we're going to hold ourselves accountable to.

The money is one thing, but being engaged in the community and being part of the solution through the tournament host organizations is something that you're going to see us make a lot of progress on.

This prompted a follow up question about finances and purses. It’s a long stall of an answer with a surprise ending twist.

Q. Following up on the question about the finances thing, I think people would have understood even this year if purses were decreased in light of other sports and athletes having taken a little bit of a hit. How were you able to maintain purses at this level? And we get to this closing event, which is played for so much money, how sensitive are you to playing for that kind of money in this kind of environment?

JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, I think -- listen, what I'm most sensitive to is are we being the great partner that we have always been in the markets where we play, and are we accomplishing in this really challenging environment all that our sponsors and our community partners want us to accomplish. I think our players have done a remarkable job of that since we returned.

You go back to when we were trying to stand the TOUR back up and reset the schedule, and going back to your earlier question, at that point in time we set out a schedule, but we also weren't sure how long we could sustain that schedule, and we're still not sure of that going forward.

But I think that when you're an organization that generates the amount of money that we have generated and will continue to generate for the communities where we play and we continue to just do our job as a great community partner, I'm proud of the fact that the purses that we play for continue to attract the best players in the world that are allowing us to continue to do that work.

I step back and say, you know, this week, $3½ million for the East Lake Foundation. I was on the phone with Mr. Cousins and Ron Price numerous times over the last several weeks and that was really important to him, and we've done that, and hopefully we'll exceed it.

You go back through our tournaments, I think the response that we've had -- of all the uncertainty, what we could do in the communities was one of our biggest concerns, and we've done a really good job of that.

To answer your question directly, you know, to be the No. 1 Tour in the world, to get players to play here and to play the schedule that we play and to be able to generate the dollars we have, it's a competitive marketplace, and we feel like it's really important for us to be able to present the best possible opportunities.

As the only other “major” circuit on the planet has resumed with severely reduced purses at the moment, I’m not clear what the competition is?

Since the pandemic forced increased testing and safety expenses—with the Tour succeeding against the odds—coupled with Tour job cuts and sponsors paying for diminished perks, why do the market forces require everyone to take a hit but the players?

Surely playing for $6.5 million instead of $7.5 million would not be noticed by fans, but appreciated by sponsors, partners and local charities?

Molinari Tweets: " I am the only one who has not returned. I am well aware of it."

We learned at least two very key things when Francesco Molinari took to Twitter confirming he’s still alive and well during this pandemic.

A) The 2018 Open Champion is fine, not changing equipment and is just moving to California and reorganizing his life.

B) Twitter has a handy translate function if you wait long enough.

Joel Beall at GolfDigest.com with the full translation and interpretation from someone who was arguably one of the world’s three best players just 18 months ago, the man who played a flawless Open final round in front of Tiger Woods, and who was a 2018 Ryder Cup star. He recently WD’d from the rescheduled U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

“It will be hard to get back to the levels of 2018 no doubt, you don’t think it was easy the first time. I am the only one who has not returned. I am well aware of it, but it is not the first time that I have made different or unpopular choices (see Rio 2016).”

Molinari, who is exempt into the Masters in November thanks to his claret jug victory at Carnoustie, thanked fans who have patiently awaited his return. Though he hasn’t decided when, Molinari promised he will eventually be playing competitively again.

“I’ll be back in a while, I won’t tell you the exact time because I simply haven’t decided it yet and it will depend on the schedule/preparation,” Molinari wrote.

2020 U.S. Open Flyover: Fifth Hole At Winged Foot

Having had wedges and short irons into the first few par-4’s, 2020 U.S. Open invitees now confront a dilemma at the fifth: bomb it over the trees and try to carry is 320, or hit a right-to-left tee shot to a semi-blind fairway skirting Tillinghast bunkers?

Yes, we know how that movie turns out.

Another simple and beautiful holes with the cross bunker short of the Hanse Design-restored green providing just another example of Winged Foot’s artistry and distinctiveness. The USGA’s flyover for this year’s tournament, brought to us by Deloitte:

No. 5 at Winged Foot is a 502-yard par 4 that played as a par 5 in 2006. The drive zone is not entirely visible from the tee and recovery shots from the greenside bunkers are particularly challenging.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/WRQszv9Vef

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) August 31, 2020

Blair Ditch Project: Buck Club To Be Built Near Aiken

Golf Architecture’s Adam Lawrence confirms what his Instagram followers have known for some time: Zac Blair’s Buck Club dream will be realized near Aiken, South Carolina.

The PGA Tour member and well known architecture aficionado had dreamed of his native Utah but the collaboration with King-Collins Design will be in on a sandy 407 acres currently occupied by a tree farm.

The site has around 60-70 feet of elevation change, and Collins said the Coore & Crenshaw restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 had provided a lot of inspiration for the design thinking on the Buck Club.

Blair’s original plan, to build the course in his home state of Utah had to be abandoned, as land and construction costs made it impractical to complete the project. The player-developer is currently raising funds to support the development, and Collins confirmed there is no rush to break ground.

“We will leave the construction schedule to Zac – it will go ahead when he is ready,” he concluded.

Nothing against Utah, but greater Aiken puts this on a greater golf radar for what is such a neat thing: an active PGA Tour pro who loves courses and plays because he loves the game.

View this post on Instagram

Another successful visit to the tree farm! #TBC

A post shared by Zac Blair (@zachary_blair) on Sep 1, 2020 at 10:32am PDT

Ranking For The Wee Ones: Golf Magazine Lists Best Par-3 Courses, Nine-Holers And Under-6000 Yarders

Welshpool

Rankings have become redundant, or worse, the last profit centers for some publications. The sheen is all but gone from most listings, though Golf is sticking to a small panel of experts and now, three lists that will only hopefully inspire more non-18-hole, non-elitist recognition of what matters: fun places to play.

Ran Morrissett sets up this new “top 100” this way:

The earliest tracks were 5-, 6-, 7-, 9- and 12-hole affairs. The locals looked for land that drained well, with interesting natural obstacles. If the property only supported six holes, so be it. The sport wasn’t meant to soak up half the day. Work beckoned. The Industrial Age eventually created the chance for more of the population to pursue leisure activities, and golf expanded. Move the clock forward 150-odd years and courses of all shapes and sizes now exist.

The top 50 nine-hole courses features so many nifty places you’d love to play, leading off with Tom Dunn’s Royal Worlington and Newmarket, dating to 1895. While I love everything about the Winter Park 9, seeing it next to Musselburgh was a bit strange. The Cradle of Golf it is not. But we’ll let that slide for the overall grandeur of this stellar list.

Golf also put together 25 “exemplary” sub-6000 yard courses listed from shortest to longest. This highlights a class of course totally underappreciated by rankings and hopefully bolsters travel itineraries with some of the most enjoyable rounds you’ll ever play. Places like Shiskin, Kilspindie and Welshpool (above) get much-needed attention, as do so many other “gems”. The only bummer: just six reside in the United States, but that’s more of a statement about us than architects or developers.

The final and most exciting list of all highlights the world’s 25 best par-3’s in alphabetical order. It’s easy to imagine this growing to 50 or 100 in a few years given not making this iteration, including Turnberry’s revamped pitch and putt, the Spieth Lower 40 in Texas and some of Tiger Woods’s efforts.

I loved this summation of the renewed interest in par-3’s:

“The growing popularity of par-3 courses is a wonderful anomaly in a game often obsessed with distance,” says Adam Messix, a head PGA professional in Cashiers, N.C. “From one perspective, par-3 courses are a test of precision. More important, I think, they’re a joy to play for golfers of every caliber. Par-3 courses lack the formality you see at quote-unquote real courses, where you have to follow golf’s various conventions, like four players maximum to a group. They’re all about fun, families, friends and inclusiveness. Their ability to include all players make them the ideal place to enjoy the game no matter one’s age or ability.”

Naturally it was a treat to see our Horse Course effort at the Prairie Club make the cut alongside some of the planet’s neatest one-shotter classics.

2020 BMW Ratings Up 10% Without NFL Preseason, LPGA Sunday Finish Fails To Rate

Showbuzzdaily.com

Buoyed by a strong finish spilling into the prime time window, the 2020 BMW championship was up 10% from 2019’s playing, drawing a 2.3 and 3.4 million average viewers on NBC. Jon Rahm defeated Dustin Johnson after both made unbelievable 18th green putts, one in regulation (Johnson) and the latter in the sudden death (Rahm).

The 2020 BMW was played a week later than last year and without NFL preseason competition.

The 2.23 final round rating almost won the sports weekend, falling just short of NASCAR’s Saturday race but easily outdrawing several NBA playoff games on cable.

The 2020 BMW weekend lead-in coverage on Golf Channel was essentially flat from last year (.54/.73 in 2019 vs. .64/.68 in 2020).

Meanwhile, the LPGA Tour remained in a traditional weekend finish slow and attempted to go against the PGA Tour and many other sports. Both weekend rounds of the Walmart NW Arkansas on Golf Channel aired from 5-7 pm ET and failed to land in the top 150 cable shows.

To beat the drum for the 913th time: why try to compete with so many viewing options, particularly when fan-free events should free up Monday or Tuesday finishes?

2020 U.S. Open Flyover: Fourth Hole At Winged Foot

Winged Foot’s 467-yard 4th features fairway bunkers 300 off the tee that will only come into play for those who have elected not to hit the gym regularly. With a nice right to left bend that’ll fit the eye of most, the 4th ought to be a drive and short-iron. The extraordinary green complex has seen a huge restoration effort mirroring A.W. Tillinghast’s original.

Here is the flyover from the U.S. Open Twitter account, which is currently flooded with a lot of retweeted drivel and sad attempts to seem young and cool. You’ll thank me some day for this embed and sparing you of the unraveling U.S. Open social media account:

No. 4 at Winged Foot is a slight dogleg left measuring 467 yards, with bookend bunkers in the drive zone. The approach plays slightly downhill to a squared-off green that was expanded during the 2016 restoration by Gil Hanse.

In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/jq0WQtQlPt

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) August 30, 2020