To Ben Let's review the clubs/courses the USGA plays its Open:EASTPinehurst #2 (a first timer, successful and they will return)Congressional (unfortunately the only mid atlantic site, will return after 2010)Merion (nope, unfortunately)Shinnecock Hills (can you say once every nine years?)Baltusrol (can you say once every 13 years?)Bethpage Black (new and they hope will give Shinnecock members some competition on LI)Oakmont (USGA now desperate for a PA site)Oak Hill (another PGA club and besides, it ain't that good)Winged Foot (can you say Ryder Cup and chop down some damn trees?)The CC (USGA's foot dragging caused another club to go to PGA and Ryder Cup--can you blame them?)MIDWESTOakland Hills (only decent site in midwest)Hazeltine (they are now a PGA club)Olympia Fields (yeah, right)Treedinah #3 (hopefully they'll stay with the PGA and Ryder Cup, USGA and club don't like each other, besides, they need to redo the 17th hole again)SOUTHWEST AND ROCKIESSouthern Hills (we'll see in 2001 if our earth's temperature has cooled in Tulsa during the third week of June)Cherry Hills (not again in our lifetimes)WESTPebble Beach (some would like it here every other year with Shinnecock Hills)Olympic Club (but only if the 18th green is rebuilt for their hole selector)So you can see, there are not that many places that are considered by the USGA as sites for their Open. Other wannabees are: East Lake (after all, Rees Jones renovated it), Atlanta Athletic Club (ditto), RTJ International (well, Jones is part of the club's name), Castle Pines (just think, an Open played using the club founder's scoring system), Inverness (being test driven at an upcoming Senior Open, hopefully the other course designed for the 1979 Open and 1986 PGA on the front nine by can be corrected), Pumpkin Ridge (maybe a 25th anniversary of Tiger's Amateur win?), Riviera (what the owners would give to get the "big sushi"), Colonial (yep, the MasterCard US Open, padnaw), Champions (at least there would be some great Jack Burke stories to tell),Cog Hill (Chicago's overrated Advil Western Open site) and Whistling Straits. The USGA needs not only additional places in the midwest, but everywhere except the east. They don't want to lose another site (albeit potential) to their allies, the PGA.The only place the USGA would like to play is LACC. Maybe its newest member will begin the groundswell during the Ryder Cup from his couch.