GNN has just posted my Erin Hills preview for the 2017 U.S. Open.
We are at our desk working an hour earlier than our ETA. The rain has stopped and the players are headed out for practice rounds.
We’ll also post the Gary D’Amato interview we did as the second half of our Jay’s Plays Radio Show preview.
Happy U.S. Open week everybody.
2018: Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southampton, N.Y. 2019: Pebble Beach Golf Links, Carmel, CA 2020: Winged Foot Golf Club (West Course), Mamaroneck, N.Y. 2021: Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course), San Diego, Calif. 2022: The Country Club, Brookline, Mass. 2023: Los Angeles (Calif.) Country Club (North Course) 2024: Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Village of...
ERIN, WI – Dana Fry, who along with Mike Hurdzan and lawyer-turned-writer-turned-golf architect Ron Whitten, designed 11-year old Erin Hills, site of the 117th U.S. Open, recently said in an interview that, “it’s unprecedented for the USGA to host the tournament at a venue this new.” He’s close to being correct. It’s actually only...
The USGA has released its list of 2017 U.S. Open Sectional qualifying sites. The list is headlined by a foreign course this year – Walton Heath, the great English heathland course designed by Herbert Fowler.Other highlights include Canoe Brook, Woodmont, (of Barack Obama fame), and Jupiter Hills. Woodmont, by the way, is making its 30th consecutive appearance...
SPRINGFIELD, NJ – —“I didn’t win despite my handicap, but because of it – just as Hogan came back from that automobile accident, and Babe Zaharias came back from a cancer operation. — Ed Furgol after winning The 1954 U.S. Open at Baltusrol At precisely 9 o’clock the sun went down with a last vermillion flash behind old Baltus...
PITTSBURGH, PA – —The noise afterwards, It rises up like a storm, As if you were the Thunder God himself. Proximo to Maximus the Gladiator— Like a scene from Gladiator, the roar of adulation rang from Erie to Allentown and from Scranton to Akron. No mere coliseum could match it. Conquering heroes were returning home, and this is Pittsburgh. When you...
OAKMONT, PA – “It’s the hardest golf course I’ve ever played,” said pretty much every golfer in the field this week at the 2016 U.S. Open. Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Andrew Sullivan, Phil Mickelson: the list was endless. Mighty Oakmont, Henry Fownes’s knuckle-dragging, slavering-jawed, razor-sharp taloned grassy guillotine is...
With today’s announcement that Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills will host the 2025 and 2026 U.S. Opens respectively, that fills up all spots available for the next ten years. Here is a list of all future U.S. Open venues through 2026. 2017 – Erin Hills Golf Club, Erin, WI 2018 – Shinnecock Hills Country Club, Southampton, NY 2019 – Pebble Beach...
OAKMONT, PA – We’ve had our ledes written for 17 years, but still haven’t been able to use them. “Phinally Phil!” “Phillin’ Groovy!” “Mickel-slam!” – they all lay useless in a seldom used Microsoft Word file I call “The Well of Lost Plots,” where bits of articles that end up on the cutting...
—Friends to Jay: “Who’s going to win the U.S. Open this year?” Jay to Friends: “Oakmont, that’s who.”— Of all the major championship venues I’ve seen in my career as a sports writer – and I’ve see everything from Augusta to Pebble and back – Oakmont is my favorite. Cresting the hill of the second...
The USGA announced last week that San Francisco’s hallowed The Olympic Club Lake Course will host its first U.S. Women’s Open in 2021. Site of 11 previous USGA championships, including five U.S. Opens in the last 60 years, The Olympic Club’s devastating combination of length, trees and reverse camber should provide one of the sternest tests the...