Too small a footprint to make enough money for the business hawks, too short of yardage for the technology hawks, the USGA's flaws and/or strengths will be exposed at Merion in 2013, the classic, historical US Open/USGA course. Will it be a turning point?
PS. Jim Kennedy, even the President of Haverford College says "leave it to the professionals".
Winged Foot 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/sports/golf/11course.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=printJune 11, 2007
Building a Mini Metropolis Known as the U.S. Open
By BILL PENNINGTON of The NY Times
When the United States Open begins this week at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh, a challenging, manicured golf course will be only part of the scene.
More striking will be the transformation of the grounds into a temporary metropolis of corporate tents, merchandise vendors, provisional roads, grandstands, concessions, hospitality centers, news media facilities, security outposts and every conceivable public service from baggage claim to bug-bite care. Supervised by a staff numbering in the thousands, the United States Open is far more than a golf tournament; it is an extravagant American sporting spectacle rising out of a lush field like a mirage.
Authentic as it may be, the once-a-year manifestation of the Open obscures an unseen, sophisticated operation that precedes the first golf shot in competition by seven to eight years.
About 300 miles east of Oakmont, in the Philadelphia suburbs, is Merion Golf Club, the host of the 2013 Open. At Merion, and in the adjacent streets, towns and even at the local college, everyone already knows exactly how the tournament is going to transform a sleepy suburb into a small city for a week. Maps and overlays have been drawn, train and traffic schedules rethought, neighborhood schematics readied and many millions of dollars allocated from the budget of the United States Golf Association, sponsor of the Open.
A typical United States Open is estimated to net more than $25 million for the association, so cost is hardly an obstacle if it keeps the project moving along. For example, Merion, which was host to its first U.S.G.A. championship in 1904, is wedged into tight quarters and will have to rely on the benevolence of its closest neighbors, most significantly Haverford College.
Beginning in 2012, the college has agreed to give up the use of three of its athletic fields, including the varsity softball field, so the U.S.G.A. will have time to erect the platforms, roads, colossal tents and utility services for the cynosure of the event to many visitors: the five-acre corporate tent village.
The college will receive an undisclosed moderate fee from the U.S.G.A. for its cooperation, as well as some passes, a hospitality tent and a promise to restore the fields to their original condition. Still, that left the softball team without a field for one season.
No worries. The U.S.G.A. found a simple municipal field a short walk from the campus and agreed to pay for its renovation to meet the standards of Haverford’s flourishing softball program.
“You learn quickly that the U.S.G.A. doesn’t mess around; they are a well-oiled machine,” said Ron Tola, Haverford College’s director of facilities management. “I was awe-struck by the advance planning. Then again, when you go to an Open, and you walk into one of those giant buildings that they call corporate tents, you realize what you’re dealing with.
“There’s black walnut furniture in those tents and every other amenity. My wife would say, ‘Give me this for my living room, and I’ll be happy.’ They call it a corporate village; it’s really a city.”
The core U.S.G.A. advance staff will usually visit a potential host site seven to eight years before play is to begin. At Merion in the past year, the U.S.G.A. has met with local public transportation officials to review how the nearby rail lines could deliver many of the 25,000 spectators expected daily.
Officials have begun devising a strategy for parking about 15,000 cars in outlying areas. (The Villanova University campus several miles away is one option.)
The U.S.G.A. has met with Haverford township officials and begun to rally a force of more than 5,000 volunteers. And it has asked about 20 families living in homes abutting the course to allow corporate tents to sprout in their yards. The homeowners could be paid enough to cover their mortgages for two or three months.
The Open is primarily about identifying a national champion, but it is also a perfect merger of powerful entities: golf culture and corporate America.
Because of that, and other reasons like golf’s popularity in the Tiger Woods era, the Open has become a cash machine for the U.S.G.A. The association does not reveal its finances, but recent federal tax records show it reported about $40 million in annual profits from its 16 championships. (The U.S.G.A. also puts on men’s, women’s and junior amateur championships as well as the United States Women’s Open.) The bulk of that profit, perhaps as much as 75 percent, comes from the United States Open.
A 2004 article in Golf Digest estimated that the 55 to 70 corporate tents at a typical Open rented for about $150,000 each. The massive merchandise tent, as big as a football field, brought in $7 million in revenue, according to the magazine. Television kicked in as much as another $20 million and ticket sales another $10.5 million. Those numbers have remained steady.
Mike Butz, the deputy executive director of the U.S.G.A., did not discuss the financial details of the Open but acknowledged that the revenue had to be high to cover the expenses.
“I think the only other sports event that compares in terms of advance planning is the Olympics,” Butz said.
“The Olympics is obviously bigger, but each of their venues is like putting on a U.S. Open. And probably like a successful Olympics, it only works if the community hosting things buys into it completely.”
In the late 1990s, the U.S.G.A. told Merion it would probably not be the site of another Open. The modern version of the event, some said, had grown too big for the old, traditional courses like Merion, which held its last Open in 1981.
“I think the club and the community around us took that as a challenge,” said Rick Ill, the president of Merion Golf Club. “We lengthened some holes, and that solved one part of things, but the incredible community collaboration is truly what made this happen. It couldn’t have happened, for sure, without Haverford College giving up its three fields.”
Greg Kannerstein, the dean of the college, remembers being shocked that the availability of Haverford’s grassy fields could be the deal-breaker.
“I had no idea they needed so much space,” Kannerstein said. “But we all felt kind of badly that Merion wouldn’t be part of the Open rotation, and we knew we wanted to help.”
Haverford’s incoming president, Dr. Stephen Emerson, had one complaint about the arrangement.
“I do wish they had included golf lessons targeted specifically for the college president,” Emerson said. “Then again, had they seen what a project they would be taking on, the whole thing might have fallen through. Maybe it’s best to leave things in the hands of the professionals.”
A U.S.G.A. task force will descend on the campus and community in about five years, even living in campus housing while working. The temporary city will rise in the fields like a mirage. Then, after a boisterous week, it will begin to disappear.
Somewhere, the 2020 United States Open will have taken seed.