The recent news that the USGA has selected Pinehurst No. 2 as its first anchor site for future U.S. Opens and a new museum was met with widespread joy and acclaim. “In an effort to expand its impact in golf and extend its mission to champion and advance the game, the USGA will establish “Golf House Pinehurst” in North Carolina, to include a new...
This week mighty, venerable Winged Foot Golf Club hosts its sixth U.S. Open, 13th USGA event, and seventh major championship, (it hosted the 1997 PGA). The par-70 layout will play to a bloated 7,477 yards; seven of the twelve par-4s are 467 yards or longer. It also features 4-1/2 to 7-1/2 inch rough, and green speeds around 13 on the stimpometer. In other words, the...
For everyone who relishes U.S. Open week for its sheer bloodthirstiness, welcome to Winged Foot West. It just became your new favorite course. Like will-o-the-wisps feeding off the agonizing cries of their dying victims, everyman golfers will spend this week, pointing at the pros and laughing. Chunks, chili dips, fluffs, fliers, skulls, and walks of shame...
—Of cruel and mighty Winged Foot now to you I sadly sing And all the lost and broken men who felt her deadly sting Who wander now as shadows in her darkness ever more To roam her haunted passageways forsaken and forlorn But chief among the cursed souls that in that valley dwell A phantasm malevolent, most terrible and fell The Ghost of U.S. Opens Past is her...
The USGA just announced that fabled Pinehurst in North Carolina will become the first “U.S. Open Anchor Site” and host the 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047 U.S. Opens, in addition to the already scheduled 2024 event. The decision accelerates the USGA’s strategy to stage its premier golf championship at America’s most iconic venues with greater...
This news broke just as we were prepping for the PGA Championship, and it was expected once the PGA of America announced the same thing. The USGA announced that there will be no spectators at stately old Winged Foot for the 2020 U.S. Open. From the announcement: In partnership with the state of New York, the USGA announced today that due to ongoing health and safety...
There were former major champions, seasoned veterans, and long bombers dominating the leaderboard all week, but it was a kid from Cal who swooped in with a final round 64 to win the 102nd PGA Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park Golf Coursed. 23 year-old Collin Morikawa finished 13-under for the week, good enough for a two stroke win over 2016 U.S. Open...
Usually a truly great golf course builds to a crescendo, with its 18th hole being a grand summation of all that came before. Winged Foot, Oakland Hills, Pinehurst No. 2, Pebble Beach – each of those all-World finishing stretches has one thing in common – stern challenge. Sometimes, however, a course can offer a softer finish. Cypress Point, ending on two...
At 8-under China’s Haotong Li is your surprise leader at the halfway point of the 2020 PGA Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park, but two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka is part of a six man log-jam tied for second just two shots back. Playing in early warm and windless conditions, Li fired a 65, then took a break of less than an hour before...
Roars? What Roars? Silent, Crowdless 2020 PGA Championship Has Players Non-plussed —“Oh, you should see the Coliseum, Spaniard. 50,000 Romans watching every movement of your sword, willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike, and the noise afterwards, it rises up like storm, as if you were the Thunder God himself.” ...
2015 PGA Champion Jason Day and journeyman pro Brendan Todd each fired 5-under 65s in round one of the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park for a one shot lead over a gaggle on nine players that includes two-time defending PGA Champion Brooks Koepka, as well as former major champions Martin Kaymer, Zach Johnson and Justin Rose. Tiger Woods stands three back at 2...
My golf buddy Ector and his wife Marta are in NoCal this week and brought their golf clubs with them from L.A. I played Casa de Campo with Ector, and had a blast. He’s one of those guys that you don’t care what he shoots, because he’s so much fun to play with, (even though he shoots 120). It also helped watching his eyes widen with wonder as I...
Back in 1974 while covering Super Bowl VIII, writer Hunter S. Thompson discovered that all he had to do to make deadline was to take the Super Bowl article he wrote the previous year, change the name of the losing team from “Washington Redskins” to “Minnesota Vikings,” and fax it in to Rolling Stone. The Miami Dolphins slowly strangled both...
California golf conjures up fond reveries of golden sunshine, rhythmic waves lapping peacefully at rocky shorelines, and flagsticks snapping briskly in the breeze, silhouetted nobly against the blazing sunset… …just not at TPC Harding Park. Let’s see: Olympic Club, Meadow Club, California Golf Club of San Francisco, San Francisco Golf Club, Pebble...
DATELINE: A SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER, SOMEWHERE IN U.S.A. So a PGA Championship in August means this is Glory’s Last Shot, right? Not exactly. This season the PGA Championship is actually Glory’s First Shot. The Coronovirus kayoed world professional sports since March, leaving stadiums empty, athletes playing to pre-recorded crowd noise, and many events...