Distance, LIV and anchor sites: Here are 5 takeaways from the USGA press conference at The Country Club
BROOKLINE, Mass. — As is tradition, several top officials with the United States Golf Association addressed the media on the Wednesday before the start of the U.S. Open. Stuart Francis, the president of the USGA, Mike Whan, the organization’s CEO and John Bodenhamer, the senior managing director of championships, proudly talked about bringing the country’s national championship back to The Country Club for the first time since 1988.
“This Open almost didn’t happen, and there’s a number of stories behind that,” Bodenhamer said. “Prior to 2013 and the U.S. Amateur here, we didn’t think we could conduct a U.S. Open here. The footprint was small. It was in a residential community. There were just too many hurdles to overcome, but conducting the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club in 2013 changed our perspective. When we came here for the Amateur in 2013, we thought coming back to Brookline was possible.”
Several topics were addressed, along with USGA initiatives and programs, as well as the subject that has dominated the headlines this week, the LIV Golf Series. Here are the five takeaways.
LIV Series and the U.S. Open
Phil Mickelson takes questions during a press conference ahead of the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series event at The Centurion Club north of London. (Photo by Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
There are several high-profile players in the field at this year’s U.S. Open who played last week in the inaugural LIV Series event outside London, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Kevin Na. Others, like Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed have announced they intend to play in LIV Series events.
Last Thursday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended the 17 PGA Tour members who played in the LIV Series event, and before the start of the U.S. Open, Whan said that the USGA had internal meetings and discussions about whether to allow LIV Series players who had qualified to compete.
“We definitely feel a responsibility to this game, and we feel a responsibility to the competitors that play it,” Whan said. “We did sit down and have a long conversation about a week before the U.S. Open [to ask ourselves] did where somebody else plays and what promoter they played it with disqualify them for this event? We decided no on that, with all the awareness that not everyone would agree with that decision.”
However, when asked if he could see a situation going forward where breakaway players are going to find it harder and harder to get into the U.S. Open, Whan had a one-word answer, “Yes.”
Distance
Jon Rahm watches his tee shot on the third hole during the first round of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo: Matt York/Associated Press)
The USGA did not make any announcements about equipment rule changes or new distance-fighting initiatives Wednesday at Brookline, but Whan said that he has spoken recently with PGA Tour players and other industry insiders to ensure that everyone is aware of the processes and protocols that are taking place.
“Before the pandemic, we talked about the distance insight survey and how we were really going to attack distance, but we talked about it in 15 different ways,” Whan said. “In March of this year, we came to the media and to the manufacturers and said, we’re really focused on two potential areas: How we’ll look at testing golf balls, using essentially the same testing method we do today but updating that testing method to really replicate the speeds of today’s game.”
The USGA and R&A also announced in March that they want to look into the effects of a Model Local Rule to reduce the springlike effect of drivers for elite golfers. By making a driver’s face bend less, ball speed can be reduced.
Whan and the USGA have said they expect to make more announcements about ongoing research projects in early 2023, but regardless of what is discovered, it is highly unlikely that any new rules governing equipment for recreational golfers will go into effect in the next few years.
USGA Player Development Program
Champion Rose Zhang and runner up Bailey Davis pose with their medals after the during the final match at the 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md. on Saturday, July 17, 2021. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Several countries have organized, national-level programs to identify promising junior golfers and help them develop their skills and pay for expenses. The USGA is ready to create one for American players.
“We’re going to start a program that’s a U.S. development team,” Whan said. “As a commissioner of the LPGA for 12 years, I was floored by the fact that almost every woman who plays on that tour came out of a country program, unless she came out of America, where she didn’t come out of a country program.”
Whan cited golf’s inclusion in the Olympics as being a driver for national teams around the world, and the USGA intends to gather funding from corporations as well as individuals to get its program for 12 to 17-year-olds up and running.
“We really believe that the USGA’s role is to build a USA Development Program to make sure the pipeline of U.S. golfers here is not about where you grew up, not about how much money your mom or dad makes, not about what country club sponsored you,” Whan said. “It’s about whether or not you have the talent, the interest, and the dedication to be part of a Team USA program.”
15-30-45 Program
Recyclable U.S. Open cups. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Sustainability, and working with golf courses and clubs to help them use fewer fertilizers and chemicals, as well as reduce water usage, has been a priority for the USGA years and the organization announced a new program Wednesday that may not officially have a name yet.
“We’re gently calling it 15-30-45,” Whan said with a smile.
“In the next 15 years what if we committed $30 million to reduce how much water a golf course needs by 45 percent,” he said. “One staff member said to me, ‘Mike, what if we can’t get to 45?’ I said I’d be happy to sit up here and apologize if we only reduce water needs by 30 percent in the next 15 years.”
We did not get any details about this program, but it demonstrates that with everything else swirling around in golf, sustaining natural resources is still important to the USGA.
Anchor sites
A tee marker at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Photo: Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports
The R&A has a rota of golf courses that it uses to host the British Open that includes St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Birkdale and others. Additions to the rota are rare, but sometimes a course is added, like Royal Portrush, which returned to the rota in 2019 and is set to host again in 2025.
Recently, the USGA has announced several courses that will be hosting national championships well into the future, like Pinehurst No. 2 (2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047), Oakmont (2025, 2033, 2042 and 2049) and Pebble Beach (2027, 2032, 2037 and 2044). It has caused many people to wonder if a rota is being created.
“Anchor sites is not the beginning of the USGA Rota,” Whan said. “Anchor sites are about making investments long-term into making greater championships and knowing that those will be the place.”
He also cited the fact that the announced anchor sites are not only hosting U.S. Opens, but also other USGA events. For instance, Pebble Beach will be hosting the U.S. Women’s Open in 2023, then again in 2035, 2040 and 2048. Bandon Dunes is scheduled to host 3 USGA amateur championships over 23 years.
“These are going to be partners of ours, long term.”
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