[Marty Bonnar]

We were at Carnoustie yesterday to watch some of the Senior Open Pro-Am. Quite good fun, if a little of a corporate hackfest for the most part. Getting to see (and hear!) Tom Watson, Bob Charles, Mark Calcavecchia et al up close and personal is way better than the hectic hassles of the Open!

Anyheys, driving back out of Carny on such a quiet, low visitor number sort of a day, it was a pleasure to get out onto the road in a couple of minutes and have no traffic back through Dundee apart form the normal city stuff.

St Andrews is a nightmare on Championship days and Muirfield can be an absolute bitch to get away from due to Gullane High Street.

These are all functions of the stupid out of the way locations of our old Links courses. Who decided to put them there, anyway!? That one was a joke, but seriously, which is the worst LOGISTIC nightmare of a major site?

FBD.

[Mike Benham]

Turnberry is no picnic in the park, in fact, wasn't the hosting of last Open delayed by many years waiting for improvements to the roads?

[Ted Cahill]

Pebble Beach is no picnic either- shuttle busses in and out of the Del Monte forest on small roads not intended to handle such traffic.  That being said- I loved attending this year- and will return in 2019.

[Brian_Ewen]

Everytime we go to Carnoustie, all cars are left at home, and we take the train.

Its so handy getting dropped off right at the course.

[Anthony Gray]

  Chambers Bay is going to have some issues I'm sure.

  Anthony

[Jim Franklin]

Merion?

[Garland Bayley]

  Chambers Bay is going to have some issues I'm sure.

  Anthony

Not sure Anthony remembers that there will be a rail station course side.

[David_Tepper]

Marty -

Isn't access to Royal St. George's held hostage by a homeowners group that "owns" one of the roads to the course?

Almost all of the traditional U.S. Open venues (Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Merion, Pebble Beach, etc.) sit in quiet, up-market residential neighborhoods that are in no way are logistically equipped to deal with crowds of 20,000 or more each day of the tournament. Bus shuttle rides of 15-30 minutes are required to get the spectators in & out of parking areas each day  

I imagine the situation is not much different for some of the British Open venues such as Lytham St. Anne's and Hoylake. At least Lytham St. Anne's has a real stop right next to the course.      

DT

[Niall C]

Turnberry has long had the reputation of being a logistical nightmare but not sure its any worse than Muirfield especially for us west coasters.

The best in Scotland has to be Troon which has excellent transport links.

Niall

[Phil_the_Author]

Shinnecock...

[Bill_McBride]

Marty -

Isn't access to Royal St. George's held hostage by a homeowners group that "owns" one of the roads to the course?

It cost us 3 quid ($5) to take that road from the clubhouse at Deal.  I think it's over half an hour longer to drive around!  Highway robbery!

[Richard Choi]

Chambers may have problems, but logistics won't be one of them.

There is ample space for parking, shuttles, and grandstands. There are additional rooms for corporate tents and it is nearby a major metro area.

I fail to see how logistics would be poor.

[David Lott]

Merion--too many wasps.

[Lenny Polakoff]

Shinnecock has to be right up there

[Jay Flemma]

Pebble, then Torrey.

Pebble = logistical nightmare...a mile walk from media center to 1st tee...further to 10th tee, same walk to get to the flash area to interview players...long ride t/f course from where we parked....although torrey was MUCH longer.  The canyon creates logjams in other areas so people were clogged up...

[Sean Leary]

Choi,

Have you ever driven to Chambers Bay? Or do you take a helicopter?



Traffic is going to be a disaster there.

[Matthew Petersen]

Pebble, then Torrey.

Pebble = logistical nightmare...a mile walk from media center to 1st tee...further to 10th tee, same walk to get to the flash area to interview players...long ride t/f course from where we parked....although torrey was MUCH longer.  The canyon creates logjams in other areas so people were clogged up...

Torrey definitely had issues. Public parking for the event was at the football stadium which was a good half hour bus ride away. Also, the course is not one that flows well for spectators. The public entrance was at the far end of the course, oyt by 12 tee which nearly the furthest point from the clubhouse.

[Richard Choi]

I don't think the traffic is going to be that bad.

They will most likely have people park at Tacoma Dome and shuttle people from there. Tacoma Dome is right off the I-5 and is going to be as accessible as any venue. They will also have Sounder trains running from Seattle to the site which will alleviate a lot of pressure.

It will be much more accessible than Sahalee, I think.

[Mike Wagner]

Best idea I heard for Chambers was to rebuild the dock area so a Princess Cruiseliner could park right there....hotel and transportation for thousands!

[James Boon]

Best idea I heard for Chambers was to rebuild the dock area so a Princess Cruiseliner could park right there....hotel and transportation for thousands!

Mike,

I made a similar suggestion some months ago when people were discussing possible future Open venues, and the obstacle evryone put up was infrastructure. At the time, the England cricket team were playing the Windies on one of the smaller Caribbean islands and most people had to stay in the various cruise ships anchored off shore. Though I'm not sure if it would work well in the high winds of the Scottish or English coast? 

A lot of the Open venues would have historically been easily accessed via railways I suspect, but as many would have been on smaller branch lines that are now closed (St. Andrews for instance) or accessed from smaller halts that no longer exist it, is the jams in the car for pretty much everyone.

One thing this thread does throw up though is that it proves most Open and also Major venues don't have great infrastructure and are logistical nightmares. So the next time someone says you couldn't host a Major at so and so because there isn't the infrastructure, it seems clear to me that if the R&A or USGA REALLY wanted to host a major somewhere, they would get it to work.

Cheers,

James

[Mark Chaplin]

Bill - The Sandwich Bay residents commit robbery on a daily basis, it's only about 10 minutes longer to take the main road and I always recommend people do go around. I think it's now £7 a day.

Royal St Georges were off the rota for years until a bypass was built, the club own the surrounding farms in order to use them for championship parking. Sensible spectators take the train and short shuttle bus journey.

[Mark Pearce]

I don't think Hoylake is too bad.  Pretty good major roads and a railway station in town.  Muirfield isn't great.  No rail access and a handful of narrow roads.

[Adam Lawrence]

My father in law moors his yacht (think floating caravan rather than mobile gin palace) just round the coast from Sandwich - I'm seriously thinking of asking him to anchor off the beach next July and crashing aboard!

[Martin Toal]

Merion--too many wasps.

Wasps?

Do you mean the nasty venomous type or the flying insects?

[Jamie Barber]

Royal St Georges were off the rota for years until a bypass was built, the club own the surrounding farms in order to use them for championship parking. Sensible spectators take the train and short shuttle bus journey.

Next year might be better as they are currently extending the dual carriageway though Thanet. That means a decent road all the way from London via either M2 or M20 (well apart from that last bit past Eastry).

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