Your proposed future major championship venues?

[Jeff Schley]

We note which courses are "major championship venues" and some of the cache that comes with it is seen as necessary evidence for said venues to get the ego boost they seek. With the Masters being at ANGC forever, what is one course for each major you feel deserves to host a major championship in the future? Keep in mind the PGA is in May with the US Open around Father's Day still in June.


One of my criticisms of announcing major venues 10-25 years in the future (yeah PGA Frisco in 2034, US Open Pinehurst in 2047) is it eliminates the excitement and possibility of including new venues.

PGA Championship - May

• Peachtree - My hesitation is it would be back to back Georgia venues and turf conditions in May? Backup would be Inverness.

US Open - June

• Olympia Fields - As biased as I maybe with a Chicago venue, this would help with geographic diversity of having another Midwest venue. It showed up fabulously to the BMW Championship last year and played tough.

Open - July

• Royal County Down - Used Royal Portrush for a NI venue, used for the Sr. Open 20 years ago.  Is there a chance? Way too difficult for me off the tee which leads me to believe it would confound quite a few golfing blokes as well.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Can’t talk about the US ones.


But for The Open, from venues that have never been used, I’d say Portmarnock is the most likely and that would depend on a huge leap for the R&A to take it outside GB&NI.


Porthcawl has often been talked about but there may have been spacial / infrastructure issues. Maybe they are now resolved. Others will know better.

[Thomas Dai]

Covid and drone usage and technology may well have changed the goalposts on this one. Covid in relation to less spectators on site and drones and technology in relation to camera/TV operations.
Majors and other elite events could if the will is there now be held at courses that have previously been dismissed as the on-course and local infrastructure couldn't cope with the number of spectators and all the other on-site and near on-site aspects plus transport etc facilities that go towards holding a Major or an elite event.
As to locations, be nice to have the mens's PGA as an international event held on an annual basis at different locations around the globe (but not in the US or GB).

Atb

[Anthony Gholz]

Jeff:


Oakland Hills South hands down should get the next US OPEN, meaning if any course can't fulfill their contract put me in coach.  The Hanse restoration brings back a Ross design that hasn't been seen since 1937.


Anthony

[Wayne_Kozun]

As to locations, be nice to have the mens's PGA as an international event held on an annual basis at different locations around the globe (but not in the US or GB).

As a Canadian a big thumbs up to this.  More than two countries should play host to major championships. Unfortunately the most likely way a third country would host a major is if Scotland leaves the UK.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I’d like to see the pros play County Down, but I wonder how it could accommodate all the spectators.

[Michael Whitaker]

I’d like to see the pros play County Down, but I wonder how it could accommodate all the spectators.

It couldn’t. That’s why it will never happen.


But, I’d like to see Portrush as a regular on the rota... maybe a replacement for Trump’s Turnberry. 😉

[Kalen Braley]

I’d like to see the pros play County Down, but I wonder how it could accommodate all the spectators.

Well this past year proved you don't really need spectators...at least not all the time.  I'd love to see it played there as well, even if they had to limit the number of tix.  They could use the USGA model and charge an arm and a leg that year... i'm guessing people would still pay.

[Darragh Garrahy]

Would be great to see R&A bring Open outside the British Isles sometime in the future. They seem open-minded and maybe we will see it in coming decades. The mind boggles at the possibilities..Hirono, R Melb.. wishful, but happy thinking perhaps!

Can’t talk about the US ones.


But for The Open, from venues that have never been used, I’d say Portmarnock is the most likely and that would depend on a huge leap for the R&A to take it outside GB&NI.


Porthcawl has often been talked about but there may have been spacial / infrastructure issues. Maybe they are now resolved. Others will know better.

[Tim Leahy]

I'd like to see Cypress Point or SFCC host a Women's US Open. Some of the classic courses that are too short for Men's tournaments could still hold majors.

[John Emerson]

Kingsbarns is quite capable of hosting?  They hold the Dunhill there.  I’m sure it would hold its own

[Brent Carlson]

Jeff:


Oakland Hills South hands down should get the next US OPEN, meaning if any course can't fulfill their contract put me in coach.  The Hanse restoration brings back a Ross design that hasn't been seen since 1937.


Anthony

100% Agree.  Oakland Hills needs to be 2028 US Open with Merion following in 2030.  Hanse has done terrific work at both clubs.

[Phil Burr]

It seems that the Midwest states of Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota & Wisconsin are not underserved with major golf, having hosted (counting this year) all five Ryder Cups contested post-2000 and no shortage of majors as well (particularly as Oakland Hills is obviously poised to regain a regular place as a US Open host).  How about a venue in yet another midwestern state: Davenport CC?  It's 6750 yards/par 70, so similar to Merion.  It looks like there's room to add length at #2, #8, #9, #10, #11 and #18.  It could be a relatively stern 7000+ for a major and the terrain would lend itself to some really exciting risk/reward play.

[Phil Burr]

How about a US Open at any venue with a good par 3 course?  Instead of a 2-hole aggregate score playoff, send them off for nine holes on the par 3.  After watching Tiger & Phil repeatedly butcher the playoff hole in The Match #1 it could be very entertaining to watch with the stakes being the US Open trophy instead of someone else's $10 million.

[Brent Carlson]

It seems that the Midwest states of Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota & Wisconsin are not underserved with major golf, having hosted (counting this year) all five Ryder Cups contested post-2000 and no shortage of majors as well (particularly as Oakland Hills is obviously poised to regain a regular place as a US Open host).  How about a venue in yet another midwestern state: Davenport CC?  It's 6750 yards/par 70, so similar to Merion.  It looks like there's room to add length at #2, #8, #9, #10, #11 and #18.  It could be a relatively stern 7000+ for a major and the terrain would lend itself to some really exciting risk/reward play.

Phil,


It's a good point that you raise regarding PGA Ryder Cup events, although I don't believe Kentuckians would consider themselves Midwestern.  The greater question is the US Open.  I also think Oakland Hills is poised to host an Open every 10-12 years.  It's a great fit with 36 holes of space and now a Hansified Ross design.  Do any other Midwestern venues make sense?  Chicago is a logical choice provided there is a suitable venue. 

[AChao]

I'd like to see more of these tournaments held on courses that are built in mind with today's technology.  Erin Hills strikes me as one that I'd like to see get another chance.  As uninteresting as I find Torrey Pines South, it makes quite a bit of sense for the top of the game in men's golf.  Courses like Riviera, Pebble Beach, Merion all strike me as still great for people like many of us who drive the ball 275 yards, but not really to test the best players in the world.  Unfortunately, there's a large gap between great architecture and great tests of golf - at least in my opinion now versus the last few decades. 

[V. Kmetz]

In the ideal, I'd be interested in the PGA played in a more international, "World PGA" basis, but I think the limit that can go practically is to the North/South Am "western" hemisphere... economy is not going to give up the US "timezone" TV audience...unless of course the increase in world subsidiary rights well compensates for the lowered US ad rates that come with early morning/night finishes for a sport that already ranks lower.  It wouldn't destroy or hit those rates very much, because golf already has advertising partners, it just wouldn't increase them.


As to venues, just on my own interest/renewal.


PGA: 
Greenbrier? I don't know the long term fate of the tournament they've had there but I like watching golf on it...something in Ohio? It seems that there are far too many interesting courses to not host something there again, without destroying it to do so.  What about a Caribbean course or something like Mid Ocean?...I mean screw it, on site, these events are a rich person's corporate entertainment mall anyway, so what do you care you can't afford to bop out to Bermuda for a 5 day jitney...


US:
I was watching highlights of both the 95 Am and the 2006 USWO, and realized that we lost the USSrO at Newport last year. I don't know how that place handles a big tournament, but I'd like to see elite men's play on it again. It's kind of a shame that two of the highest rank world courses for a century, Pine Valley and Cypress Point rarely are seen.  If the TV eye candy of Sawgrass, PB, Augusta, draws the causal fan to golf, imagine what they'd see when the modern HD drone coverage hit those fabled courses....us too.


Open:
Outside of the impossibility of going to Prestwick, I have to rely on the UK contingent to guide to me as to what I'm missing, and what would make for a lively competition.  As it is, I like watching golf on the current rota and I would like to keep seeing those courses at least in the 5-7 year windows they currently follow.  I pine for more opportunities to see them...***


***Now that the Am. PGA is placed (sensibly, imo) in May, I wish world golf would give way to a GBI heavy segment, starting with the Open, whereby the cream of all golf would play both the off year rota courses and some of the other suggestions we've heard or could hear on this thread.  The fans could really do without that faux FedEx thing...let elite play be congealed in GBI/Europe from  July 10 - Sept 1 and then reconvene for the Am Tour championship in favorable climes for the subsequent month.***

[Phil Burr]

Brent,


Your point about Kentuckians and whether they identify as Midwestern is well taken.  Perhaps I should have said that Chicago is often regarded as the hub of the Midwest, and every post-2000 Ryder Cup has been played within 6 hours drive.


Poor Chicago.  It's a great golf town without a regular tour event, which perhaps explains the call to be included on a major rota. The wow venues from a GCA perspective are Chicago GC and Shoreacres, neither of which are likely to ever stage a major.  I was more excited to watch the inagural US Senior Women's Open a few years ago at Chicago GC than any tournament in recent memory and was sorely disappointed with how badly Fox Sports botched the coverage.


The obvious venues in terms of space are Medinah and Olympia Fields.  Medinah seems like a midwestern version of Torrey Pines.  Big, brawny and very difficult for the average player, but utterly lacking in architectural nuance or charm.  Could TD's #1 course find enough length to stand in for the traditional #3?  That leaves Olympia Fields, which is a very solid course that has stood up well during Furyk's win and last year's DJ-Rahm playoff battle.  I recall a number of other courses hosting significant events (Butler, Kemper Lakes, Cantigny, Rich Harvest, Merit Club, etc.). none of which seemed to leave anyone salivating for a repeat.  Maybe Chicago's best hope is the successful completion of the Jackson Park project.

[Phil Burr]

VK.


I personally LOVE your idea of July-August being focused in Europe.  Banish me across the pond to play golf for 8 weeks?  Sign me up!!  Particularly if it gets rid of that stupid FedEx Cup.  However, I think the Americans would hate it.  Most probably only play 4-5 weeks out of any given 8 week stretch, and unless they're qualified for the Open in the first place I would how many would bother making the trip and having to deal with off weeks in Europe rather than Jupiter or Orlando.

[Richard Fisher]

This is a GCA thread that emerges in various forms every couple of years...complete agreement about the bonkersdom and general unhealthiness of announcing major venues twenty five years in advance!


Here in the UK, just to reiterate (as a member) that Porthcawl won't be hosting the Open, and not just for reasons of spectator accommodation: RPGC will continue to host the Senior Open, and the Ladies Open (the latter now scheduled for RPGC for 2025) but unless and until further land is purchased e.g to the west of the current 5th hole, the whole facility isn't on a large enough scale for the Open itself.


Does Portmarnock now have lady members? Vital now if you aspire to host the Open. And as Ally intimates, the politics of Portmarnock as a venue for 'British' (as opposed to GB&I events like the Walker Cup) championships have always been a bit tricky - see e.g the critical comments of former Tory/Unionist MP Henry Longhurst on the 1949 Amateur Championship at Portmarnock, an event won as it happens by an Ulsterman, Max McCready! Incidentally the Amateur returned to Portmarnock in 2019 and was one by another Irish golfer, James Segrue. Current post-Brexit rows about soft and hard borders between north and south won't make any of this any easier, so my strong hunch is no, the Open won't go the Republic of Ireland, and nor (for different reasons) will RCD in the north host the championship either. Portrush will remain as the sole Irish venue, with significant financial support from the NI Assembly.


I suspect that the toughest challenge for the R&A has in reality been to find an Open venue south of Hoylake that isn't always RStG Sandwich, and in the past century only Princes in 1932 has fitted the bill (Deal would have done but was flooded): between 1949 and the return to the rota of RStG in 1981 there was famously no southern Open venue at all.  The general consensus seems to be that Hoylake has returned to the Open rota at the expense of another very concentrated north-western venue, Lytham, and certainly nothing is scheduled for RLSA as I write. So whatever the enthusiasms of GCA afficionados on this site, please don't expect any huge venue surprises on this side of the pond.


The Ladies Open, the Senior Open, and the Amateur will continue to visit a slightly broader spread of courses, and across the whole panoply of R&A events (which post-merger with the LGU includes all major ladies' championships, as well as junior and senior competitions) there is now quite a wide range of venues, seaside and inland, including wonderful courses like Prestwick. But just not for the Open itself.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Yes I agree, Porthcawl is unlikely to hold the Open championship just because of the lack of room, far more chance of P & K getting the nod. Ashburnham ticks a lot of boxes.


Burnham and Berrow if they build a new clubhouse behind the 1st green, looks a possibility.


The WEST open championship is a bit like finding the way up around Northern Canada.

[jeffwarne]

I'd like to see more of these tournaments held on courses that are built in mind with today's technology.  Erin Hills strikes me as one that I'd like to see get another chance.  As uninteresting as I find Torrey Pines South, it makes quite a bit of sense for the top of the game in men's golf.  Courses like Riviera, Pebble Beach, Merion all strike me as still great for people like many of us who drive the ball 275 yards, but not really to test the best players in the world.  Unfortunately, there's a large gap between great architecture and great tests of golf - at least in my opinion now versus the last few decades.

spot one.
The US Open deserves Torrey Pines.
same with Erin Hills which was perfect for today's scale.


Sad that the solution is so simple and the dog is so often altered to to accommodate the tail.

[Tom_Doak]

Where any GCA poster thinks the championships should go is a lot different from where they would go.  These tournaments are the cash cow for the USGA, R&A, and the PGA, and the idea that the PGA of America is going to take its big dance to Australia or Japan or even Canada is extremely unrealistic.


Likewise the R&A can't risk going back to Portrush if the border becomes an issue again.


The question of which courses are long enough also hinges on whether something is going to happen on equipment regulation or not.  Maybe I should ask Mike Whan if he stops in to visit this week.

[Matthew Rose]

I'd kinda like to see Spyglass get a major, perhaps a PGA. It doesn't get the spotlight much and even during the Crosby you hardly ever see it on TV.

[Dan_Callahan]

The Open at Portrush was the best-run tournament I've ever been to. Despite record numbers os spectators, parking couldn't have been easier, practically no backup to get in, and the setting was exceptional. If and when the Open goes back to Portrush, I'll be buying a four-day pass.