18 Public Courses for Majors...

[Richard Hetzel]

I can think of 50 golf courses BETTER than Purgatory, not a bad course, but certainly, not at all anything special besides the length of it.

[Justin Broderson]

I just played RNK for the first time last week.  My first comment walking off the course(after playing very well) was the pros want no part of this at 7500 yards.  I'm not sure about a US Open but I would love to see the pros play the likes of this or Tobacco Road.

[Ron Kern]

I can think of 50 golf courses BETTER than Purgatory, not a bad course, but certainly, not at all anything special besides the length of it.

 

Thanks for reminding me why I only lurk here...  With JakaB gone I had nearly forgotten.

(The article had to bring up the length of 14 from tee that isn't on the plans...)

[R_Paulis]

How about Reserve Vineyards South and Pumpkin Ridge the other course?

Didn't Hanse do a public course on a dump in the Boston area?

How about Florida Sand Belt courses near Orlando?

How about Juniper in Redmond OR?

How about La Purisima?

Rumor in the Lompoc area was that LaP was under consideration as an Open venue about 10 years ago. Word was that LaP's remoteness and lack of accommodations made it undesirable. Ask some GCAers and they might say the course is an odd mixtures of holes with #14and #15 severely lacking. For me, LaP is among the best in all of California. And I would guess it's probably the best, least played, public in the country.

[Doug Ralston]

You must already know why Pete Dye's Stadium will not be a PGA tourney course again. They played it once and cried. It was too hard and the Pros asked never to be made to do that again, ever! Instead, they sent it to all those new guys who might challenge them to be the center of the Q-School group there. One of the reasons I think the Q-School final, when played there, is as exciting as a Major!

Doug

[Mark Smolens]

"And are other major sites only accessible by a single two lane road?"

How big is the road into Erin Hills?

[Steve Pozaric]

Why not?

If the British Open can be held at Turnberry and the European Tour can move their season-ending championship to Dubai, why wouldn't the PGA and USGA consider venues in Hawaii or the desert southwest?

Other possibilities... Pasatiempo?  Quarry at Giants Ridge?

I wouldn't have thought Pasatiempo would have the space needed for spectators, tents, and other infrastructure.

[Tom Huckaby]

re Pasatiempo, Steve is right on - not even close to the infrastructure required, unless they start tearing down houses.
But on top of that... it's way way way too short.  Oh they could keep scores reasonable if they made it massively fast, crazy high rough, silly hard pins... but how stupid would that be?
On top of that.. hard to call it really "public"... semi-private is more correct.

I love Pasatiempo.  But a US Open site, particularly one repesenting public courses?  No way.

[Garland Bayley]

I'm surprised that Kalen hasn't gotten on here to offer up Thanksgiving Point outside SLC.

What about that John Daly par 90 in CA. Every hole can be configured to play as a par 5. The USGA has been playing with different tees on holes to offer up a short par 3 one day and a long one the next, or a short par 4 one day vs. a long one the next, etc. At John Daly's par 90, they could set up almost a different course each day of the competition.

[Kalen Braley]

Garland,

I like Thanksgiving Point, and it can play pretty long, but I have no delusions about it ever hosting a major.  I do think it would make for a nice tour stop though. 

[Garland Bayley]

Garland,

I like Thanksgiving Point, and it can play pretty long, but I have no delusions about it ever hosting a major.  I do think it would make for a nice tour stop though. 

The primary reason it could not be an Open course is that no one could stand JM commentating on it there!
 

[Buck Wolter]

The Harvester in Iowa is close enough to Des  Moines to make sense especially given the success of the Senior Open in DM  a few years ago.

Arcadia is probably too remote but I think it would be a good venue.

[Ray Richard]

Ponkapoag outside Boston includes a Ross 18 and a non-Ross (Sam Mitchell?) 18. The site is case study in political foolishness with a collection of Massachusetts politicians bungling the restoration of the Ross course. Brian Silva recently developed a full-blown restoration scenario. Maybe somehow it can be done, creating a suitable site.

George Wright GC (Ross), about 15 miles away in the City of Boston. is an impossible site to get to, but a layout full of potential.

[Andy Ryall]

I thought the article was a bit far-reaching in some of its suggestions.   I would like to see a more formal rotation with some consideration given to geographical distribution.   The fact that the US Open will not visit a midwestern site between 2003 and at least 2015 is absurd, regardless of the number of courses that have converted to PGA sites (Hazeltine, Oakland Hills, Medinah).