Why Does Attending A Major Need To Be Life Threatening?

The confirmation of Quail Hollow as 2017 PGA Championship host came today with no mention of the potential for the kind of hot and humid weather that scorched the club's greens this summer and which will lead to a green resurfacing project.

Next summer the PGA visits Atlanta in August, about the last place any sane individual wants to be and where they are also reportedly having issues with new greens in the extreme heat. This, just after leaving Whistling Straits where the media opted not to take a harder look at the number of injuries once again caused by the Strait's steep faux dunes. They did, however, note the dragonfly-sized mosquitoes.

And then there's Chambers Bay, recent host to the U.S. Amateur, where heat was not an issue but where several injuries occurred despite attendance for the week that might match one early weekday of the 2015 Open, unless the USGA does the right thing and limits galleries to Merion-sized numbers (right!).

Several stories looked at Chambers and noted the likely issues with injury in 2015 being worse because gallery mobility was worse than expected and due to the likely morning drizzle turning the faux dunes into water slides.

Although the weather for the tournament was generally pleasant and often spectacular, the notion of a steady drizzle – an obvious possibility during the last week in June, when the U.S. Open is held – presents spectator-control problems. More than a few fans in the crowds estimated at 5,000 lost their balance groping for a dunes-level vantage point at Chambers Bay, and that was during dry conditions.

When I try to imagine the typical single-day attendance swelled by another 60,000 at the U.S. Open, I envision something like the golf equivalent of the Woodstock Festival.

More eye-opening were the comments from Chambers super David Wienecke who seemed to be the only official willing to acknowledge the problem.

If Chambers Bay officials have learned anything from this week’s event, it’s that fan movement on the dunes will have to be addressed before the 2015 U.S. Open, course superintendent David Wienecke said.

“It is a real concern,” Wienecke said.

There are about 90 acres of dunes at Chambers Bay and they are one of the reasons the course was so appealing to the United States Golf Association. The dunes and the course’s wide-open design will give the USGA the potential to draw record crowds in 2015.

However, the wispy fescue growing on the dunes has proven to be slippery in dry weather. Wienecke called the slopes of the dunes “ice-like.”

The problem is not a new one. When Chambers Bay first opened, recreational golfers were also slipping on the dry fescue.

“It’s tragic that some people have hurt themselves,” Wienecke said.

It is tragic but as the story noted, the USGA covered their rears with a ticket message.

He also reminds fans that the back of their tickets state that they “are entering the event at their own risk.”

Now I understand that heat and humidity have been as much a part of the PGA as surprise winners on mediocre tracks. And the Open Championship surely deals with its fair share of dunes-driven injuries each year. But you'd also like to think that in the 21st Century we could take more majors to places where fans are not entering the event "at their own risk."