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Speaker 1: Today's episode is with USGA's senior Managing Director of Championships,
Speaker 1: John Bowdenhammer. John joins to talk about his background as
Speaker 1: a player, US Open setups, and how the USGA is
Speaker 1: dealing with the coronavirus and their championships. Before we get
Speaker 1: to John, a quick reminder to sign up for our newsletter.
Speaker 1: Our team with Will Knights and Garrett Morrison have been
Speaker 1: cranking this out three days a week with some really
Speaker 1: interesting stories.
Speaker 2: You can sign up for it.
Speaker 1: It's completely free at the fridaygg dot com and it
Speaker 1: will make your mornings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Now,
Speaker 1: without further ado, here's John Bodenhammer.
Speaker 2: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in.
Speaker 3: A brid egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida,
Speaker 3: egg Frida eggg Frida egg bride egg Lie.
Speaker 1: I'm about ready to run off the golf course. I
Speaker 1: saw some quotes in an interview you did with Brendan
Speaker 1: Porath last year about moving out of the Northwest. What
Speaker 1: was your you know, what was your favorite part about
Speaker 1: living up there.
Speaker 3: The summers, especially after July fourth through September and October.
Speaker 3: If you play golf, it's a magnusum part of the
Speaker 3: world to play golf. Beautiful golf courses, the mountains, the
Speaker 3: evergreen trees, it's just beautiful in the summer and earlycall.
Speaker 2: How's the transition been moving over to New Jersey.
Speaker 3: You know, it's been great. I actually, as a young boy,
Speaker 3: we would venture back here most summers and spend a
Speaker 3: few weeks in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. I
Speaker 3: had lots of relatives back here. My mom was from
Speaker 3: back here, grew up in Pennsylvania, went to school in Philadelphia,
Speaker 3: and so I knew the area quite well, and it
Speaker 3: wasn't a big surprise. It was certainly a cultural change.
Speaker 3: I spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest,
Speaker 3: Washington and Oregon and went to school in Utah, and
Speaker 3: so it was a big change.
Speaker 4: Anytime you changed.
Speaker 3: Careers after twenty two years in one job and moved
Speaker 3: to another, you have a lot to learn. But it
Speaker 3: has been a magnificent ride. I love the USJA always have,
Speaker 3: and it's a great honor to.
Speaker 4: Work with them.
Speaker 1: You had a very good amateur college career. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: won a national title at BYU and played with some
Speaker 1: great players. Talked to us a little bit about that experience,
Speaker 1: and then you tried to play professionally.
Speaker 3: Yes, boy, you've done your homework. That's many years ago.
Speaker 3: But I grew up playing competitive golf. From the time
Speaker 3: I was eleven twelve years old, I started the game,
Speaker 3: and by the time I was thirteen and fourteen, I
Speaker 3: was playing in everything that I could tee it up in,
Speaker 3: and as a junior, I had the great fortune of
Speaker 3: winning the Washington State Juniors at Northwest Junior and some
Speaker 3: other things and had some good success and was greatly
Speaker 3: benefited by coach Carl Tucker at Brigham Young University who
Speaker 3: offered me a college golf scholarship to play at the
Speaker 3: YU and the early nineteen eighties, and boy, we had
Speaker 3: some great teams, people like Bobby Clampett and Dick Socle
Speaker 3: and Rick Fair and goodness East Clearwater.
Speaker 5: Help. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He was probably my best friend on the tour on
Speaker 3: the team and went on to be Rookie of the
Speaker 3: Year on the tour and went a few times. I
Speaker 3: still stay in touch with Keith and all the guys.
Speaker 3: There are so many other names I could share with
Speaker 3: you that were on and off the tour. But it
Speaker 3: was a great experience. The guys were really close knit.
Speaker 3: There were fourteen of us on the team. It was
Speaker 3: a beautiful place to play. We traveled a lot, we
Speaker 3: played in all the big events and win a national
Speaker 3: championship in nineteen eighty one. It was it was a
Speaker 3: great experience. And you know, Coach Ducker was an incredible man.
Speaker 3: He was a great mentor to me. I learned a
Speaker 3: great deal from him, both on and off the golf course,
Speaker 3: how to treat people, how to dress, how to make
Speaker 3: first impressions, how to make sure you graduate with a degree,
Speaker 3: and some of the most important lessons in my life
Speaker 3: came from him, and I'll always be.
Speaker 5: Grateful for it.
Speaker 1: And recently I've become fascinated with the life and career
Speaker 1: of Bobby Clampett.
Speaker 2: What was it like being his teammate?
Speaker 3: Well, I played one year with Bobby, Bobby was you know?
Speaker 5: It's truly a fantastic question.
Speaker 3: Because today a lot, especially a lot of the young
Speaker 3: kids that play competitively, whether as amateurs now in college
Speaker 3: or on the tour, really that's a name that maybe
Speaker 3: a few have heard of, maybe associate him more with
Speaker 3: his announcing career's broadcast career with CBS.
Speaker 5: But he was the.
Speaker 3: Dominant college player while he was at BYU. And when
Speaker 3: I say that, he won multiple Fred Haskins Awards, which
Speaker 3: at that time was the heisman of college golf. He
Speaker 3: didn't just win events. He won going away. I remember
Speaker 3: his junior year in California and in Arizona. I think
Speaker 3: in three or four consecutive weeks he won by seven
Speaker 3: to twelve or fifteen shots against the best players in
Speaker 3: college golf.
Speaker 5: He was just exceptionally dominant.
Speaker 3: He played under the golfing machine methodology and hit it
Speaker 3: quite long, but boy could he put and he could
Speaker 3: shoot some low, low numbers, and he just had no fear.
Speaker 3: And it really was and he remains a great friend.
Speaker 3: But only played one year with him, And you know,
Speaker 3: it was his junior year that we were particularly to
Speaker 3: win the national championship and didn't. And then he departed,
Speaker 3: and I think guys like Dick Zogel and Rich Fair
Speaker 3: and Keith Clarewater and others really blossomed and we were
Speaker 3: able to win it, which was a right thrill for everybody.
Speaker 3: But Bobby was, you know, he just everybody thought he
Speaker 3: was a can't miss and I think I think he
Speaker 3: just had such a great game. And we all still
Speaker 3: talk about that when we get together.
Speaker 1: That's the cruel thing about golf is that it can
Speaker 1: go as quick as it comes. And there are certain
Speaker 1: guys like Crunshaw and Sevy, for example. A lot of
Speaker 1: people say they played their best golf at age sixteen
Speaker 1: to twenty, you know, and Clampett was definitely in that
Speaker 1: same bucket where you know, the he was one of
Speaker 1: the probably best players in the world at age twenty,
Speaker 1: you know, And it's just an odd game that way.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a couple of things I could share
Speaker 3: with you. You know, you remember how creative he was
Speaker 3: hitting golf ball, one of the first hick golf balls
Speaker 3: off of his knees, and he could hit it two
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty two hundred and seventy yards And those
Speaker 3: are the days of Persimin and Ballada. A lot of
Speaker 3: the young kids have never experience that like some of
Speaker 3: us did growing up in that area. But he did
Speaker 3: a lot of amazing things. And you know, I can
Speaker 3: remember one year he was on his way to the Masters.
Speaker 3: He had been I can't remember how he became exempt,
Speaker 3: but he had an invitation. Might have been because he's
Speaker 3: low amter and the US Open, which he led the
Speaker 3: US Open at Cherry Hills, I believe through twenty seven
Speaker 3: holes as an amateur nineteen years old. But I remember
Speaker 3: that it was a year or two later, was going
Speaker 3: to the Masters, and like I was having a conversation
Speaker 3: with coach Tucker and he said, you know, John, Bobby's
Speaker 3: going to a guest of this week and he really
Speaker 3: really believes he can win. And I believe the first
Speaker 3: couple of days, yeah, he was even or one under
Speaker 3: par and was within range and didn't. But it was
Speaker 3: just a mindset had. He had absolutely no fear. He
Speaker 3: believed in himself more than anybody I've ever known and
Speaker 3: I at that time, and he did some remarkable things.
Speaker 3: I think more than anything, Bobby was a perfection. This
Speaker 3: pretty good with his golf swing. He constantly strove to
Speaker 3: get better and that might have been something that was
Speaker 3: his biggest achilles heel because he was never satisfied. All
Speaker 3: of us would watch him play and just kind of
Speaker 3: you know, wow, it was the wow factor behind it,
Speaker 3: but he was never satisfied. And I remember when he
Speaker 3: went on tour. Peter Jacobson later told me he thought
Speaker 3: he had the best swing on tour. All he had
Speaker 3: to do was let it go to work. But he
Speaker 3: kept changing it and tinkering with it.
Speaker 5: But that was Bobby.
Speaker 3: He was a very bright guy, graduated with a degree
Speaker 3: in three years for BYU, which is a great school.
Speaker 3: But he's a He's not. He was not only a
Speaker 3: great player, he was a great human being. He'd be
Speaker 3: fun to be around and chuckle with him, but he
Speaker 3: had a hard goal, still does and he remains a
Speaker 3: good friend.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the hitting the ball from his knees.
Speaker 1: I read an old article that that cited he was
Speaker 1: doing that at the US Open at Invernet.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: In fact, I remember that I was not at BYU.
Speaker 3: I think I was a year before I went to BYU,
Speaker 3: if I'm not mistake, and I was still playing junior golf,
Speaker 3: and I remember I remember reading about that and they
Speaker 3: Bobby had missed the cut at Inverness Club that year.
Speaker 3: In Toledo and the USJA, he was a great favorite
Speaker 3: of the USJA phenom and they asked him to be
Speaker 3: a playing marker because they had an odd number of
Speaker 3: players and made the cut. I can't remember who he
Speaker 3: played with in the very first year about but you know,
Speaker 3: Bobby Score wasn't counting. He wasn't in the championship any longer,
Speaker 3: and so he began to put on an exhibition. He
Speaker 3: began to try and hit different shots, big big fades
Speaker 3: or hooks, or just different low shots and putting greens,
Speaker 3: as I recall reading. But then he began to hit
Speaker 3: drives off of his knees, and the crowds were mesmerized
Speaker 3: by it, and he had never seen that, and I
Speaker 3: mean drive it straight down the middle two undred and sixty,
Speaker 3: two hundred and seventy yards from his knees.
Speaker 5: Nobody could believe it.
Speaker 3: But I think the powers would be at that time,
Speaker 3: they were still wearing the blue blazers out there, and
Speaker 3: I'm one of those now didn't take too kindly to that.
Speaker 3: And so on the tenth toll they asked Bobby to depart,
Speaker 3: and he did, and I think he felt very badly
Speaker 3: about that. I think he was just trying to be
Speaker 3: a bit entertaining, and I think they felt it was
Speaker 3: maybe a distraction, but.
Speaker 4: He was that way.
Speaker 3: He just he was very creative and didn't have any fear.
Speaker 3: It was fun to be around.
Speaker 2: That whole US Open had a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1: They had the Impostor, the great Impostor snuck in right,
Speaker 1: played the practice round the Hinkle Tree. That was Yeah, incredibly,
Speaker 1: It's kind of an incredible US Open to go back
Speaker 1: and read about.
Speaker 3: We had a great US junior there this year with
Speaker 3: Preston Summer.
Speaker 5: He's winning. We still love IMPNUS Club. It's one of
Speaker 5: America's great clubs.
Speaker 1: Oh god, that that in that restoration renovation work that
Speaker 1: they recently did is fantastic. Some of those the new
Speaker 1: holes are our tremendous golf holes out there.
Speaker 3: They really are. Andrew Green did a magnificent job there. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's fantastic.
Speaker 5: We love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a cool place. And if you're not on
Speaker 1: your game, you're going to have a long.
Speaker 2: Day out there.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: And your personal estimation, how does big a former player
Speaker 1: help you when you do these setups for championships?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it does. I think I have you know,
Speaker 3: I never played on tour. I did play at a
Speaker 3: high level of amateur golf, won a state amateur, won
Speaker 3: a couple of state opens, played into US Amateurs, and
Speaker 3: played in a lot of USJ qualifying and several NCAA championships,
Speaker 3: and so, you know, I understand it to that level.
Speaker 3: I've never played in a tour event. I did get
Speaker 3: to the second stage of tour school qualifying a couple
Speaker 3: of times, but never got out on tour. But I
Speaker 3: was around a lot of really good players who did
Speaker 3: get out into a multiple tour winners. Johnny Miller used
Speaker 3: to come out and play with his Billy Casper, and
Speaker 3: I used to pick their brains. Mike Reid is a
Speaker 3: close personal friend, played a lot of golf off with
Speaker 3: those guys and would continuously talk strategy with.
Speaker 5: Them about how you know, they would they would.
Speaker 3: Play and what they would play around with their games.
Speaker 3: You know, Billy Caster was probably the greatest wedge player
Speaker 3: ever saw, and what he would think about and how
Speaker 3: he would set up his t shots so that he
Speaker 3: could really have a wedge in his hand and make
Speaker 3: a dance around the hole. And then of course he
Speaker 3: was a great putter, where Johnny Miller was maybe the
Speaker 3: greatest iron player that I've ever seen. Next Keith clare
Speaker 3: Water too, and they would play around that and really
Speaker 3: hit the ball close to the hole and and and
Speaker 3: really score that way. I think being around that and
Speaker 3: I was I've always been one to be to be
Speaker 3: curious about what the great players or even just good
Speaker 3: players think about as a strategize around a golf course.
Speaker 3: And it was benefited by a lot of that, and
Speaker 3: growing up and in college and afterwards, and I think
Speaker 3: going to the USJ, and even before going to the
Speaker 3: USJ with Pacific Northwest and Washington Stakeoff associations, I loved
Speaker 3: course set up the most. I would always be involved
Speaker 3: in that or win the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship. We
Speaker 3: ran as well at some great GoF courses and thinking
Speaker 3: about how players would approach a whole and approach putting
Speaker 3: green and approach shot. And then when I came to
Speaker 3: the USJA, it was one of the great lorest to
Speaker 3: come to the USA to be able to work with
Speaker 3: Mike Davis, who in two thousand and six don that
Speaker 3: mantle for US and succeeded Tom Meeks with course set up.
Speaker 3: And in those days Mike's graduated rough and some of
Speaker 3: what he did with herman past conditions was pretty revolutionary
Speaker 3: for the USGA and the US Open, and coming and
Speaker 3: beginning to work with him in twenty eleven was a
Speaker 3: great joint. I've learned a lot there as well. In
Speaker 3: some of our great US Open courses.
Speaker 1: Mike Davis did a lot of things, and one of
Speaker 1: the big things was introducing that day to day variety
Speaker 1: and setups where all of a sudden it wasn't just
Speaker 1: you know, automatic, We're going to put the tea here
Speaker 1: every single day, and it came with Obviously there's beend
Speaker 1: mixed feedback from players about it. I'm curious, how do
Speaker 1: you guys approach providing that variety without doing too much
Speaker 1: to get, you know, to push it over the edge.
Speaker 3: Sure, well, Mike, you're right, Mike, I think is just
Speaker 3: really us He's a brilliant thinkers as it pertains to
Speaker 3: really pushing things hard on a golf course and really
Speaker 3: developing an ultimate test.
Speaker 5: And you know, I think part of what we.
Speaker 3: Think of the US Open is that it is it
Speaker 3: is unique to major championships, any championship in the world,
Speaker 3: and that the way we think about set up, it's
Speaker 3: not just where the team the teas are on the
Speaker 3: teeing area or the holes are on the putting greens.
Speaker 3: It's about fairway with it's about angles, it's about weather,
Speaker 3: it's about firm and fast and really it's also not
Speaker 3: just about being able to to to really.
Speaker 5: Control your shot making.
Speaker 3: But it's about the ability to control it once it
Speaker 3: lands on the ground and it runs out a little bit,
Speaker 3: and and and and really premium on driving accuracy and
Speaker 3: and I think risk reward. But even above that is
Speaker 3: the mental side of the game. And I think the
Speaker 3: ability or the the opportunities to present something to players
Speaker 3: that might be a little unexpected. You'll find those that
Speaker 3: will say, wow, Okay, let's see this is an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe others are going to think this, think about
Speaker 3: this a little negatively. I'm gonna think positively and take
Speaker 3: advantage of it. Or I don't have this yardage, what
Speaker 3: what do I do? Or I didn't think about this angle?
Speaker 3: What am I going to do? We think that enhances
Speaker 3: the tests that the US Open provides. It's not just
Speaker 3: about length, it's not.
Speaker 5: Just about whole locations.
Speaker 3: It's about curving your ball left and right, up and down,
Speaker 3: and what happens to it when it's on the ground.
Speaker 3: And also the mental approach. Just you know, after you've
Speaker 3: made a couple of bog he's gathering yourself and making
Speaker 3: a couple of pars. Maybe not a birdie right away,
Speaker 3: not shooting at a at a flag stick or a
Speaker 3: whole location, but also maybe when you get that unexpected
Speaker 3: forward t it you manage it properly, and your emotions
Speaker 3: are a big part of that.
Speaker 5: We think that's that's an important part of the test.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 1: I think you know, they and a lot of golf
Speaker 1: what we see it kind of has been reduced sometimes
Speaker 1: to an execution test, and it's so much more of
Speaker 1: a game, difficult of a game when when you have
Speaker 1: to think and the element of doubt comes in. I
Speaker 1: think like one of the great examples of the change
Speaker 1: tee was Jim Furi US Open years ago when they
Speaker 1: switched the te and they didn't know what the number
Speaker 1: was and he hit one of the worst shots of
Speaker 1: his tournament and one of the shots that cost him
Speaker 1: the championship.
Speaker 5: It did. I was there.
Speaker 3: It was two thousand and twelve at the Olympic Club
Speaker 3: and Jim was leading. Being area was quite a bit
Speaker 3: upfront again risk reward. I think some of the longer hitters.
Speaker 3: Could you know, if they if they hit a sweeping
Speaker 3: hook around the corner, could knock it on into and
Speaker 3: that's six hundred plus yard Part five. And you know,
Speaker 3: really given out, given players an opportunity to take a
Speaker 3: little bit of a risk if they wanted to, They
Speaker 3: didn't have to, could have laid back a little bit
Speaker 3: and maybe knock it on into and make up birdie
Speaker 3: late and late in the game and change the outcome
Speaker 3: of the championship perhaps or even make an eagle. And
Speaker 3: I think Jim was trying to hit that shot and
Speaker 3: just didn't. And I'll tell you what I know Jim
Speaker 3: Ferrick a little bit. I've had a numerous conversations with him.
Speaker 3: He's a pass champion of the US Open, and really
Speaker 3: admire his thinking. He is one of the steeliest competitors.
Speaker 3: He's a prototype US Open champion. He drives it in
Speaker 3: the fairway, he never gives up. He's an ultimate grinder.
Speaker 3: Refereed his group numerous times at the British Open. I'd
Speaker 3: have great admiration for Jim that I think it was
Speaker 3: just Jim taking a risk to knock it around the
Speaker 3: corner and unfortunately just didn't execute. It wasn't wasn't anything
Speaker 3: more than that. But but that's that's why we do
Speaker 3: what we do. We think that with the US Open
Speaker 3: doing those things, it's it's not an attempt to see
Speaker 3: players make bogey or double bogey. It's an attempt that
Speaker 3: when they do succeed, and those players that do hit
Speaker 3: it around the corner and knock it on and make
Speaker 3: eathl or birdy and do something like that, they've done
Speaker 3: something very special. They've achieved something. That is when when
Speaker 3: they when they hoist that trophy, they'd known they've done
Speaker 3: something amazing. It's like Tom Tom Watson says often. You know,
Speaker 3: my my dad said, boy, if you can win the
Speaker 3: National Open, you've really achieved something because you've wanted on
Speaker 3: the toughest tests.
Speaker 4: Of the year.
Speaker 3: I can remember quote Jeff Ogilvie, Uh I think it
Speaker 3: was might have been after his win at Wingfoot A
Speaker 3: couple of years later, he was asked in the media
Speaker 3: center after his round, how did you have fun shooting
Speaker 3: your sixty seven today? And Jets a real cerebral guy,
Speaker 3: and he thought for a minute and he said, I
Speaker 3: don't know if I would really describe what I did
Speaker 3: today as being fun because it's a grind. At the
Speaker 3: US Open, it's hard, but I've got I've got a
Speaker 3: great deal of satisfaction out of my round today. I
Speaker 3: really feel like I earned that great score and it's
Speaker 3: truly gratifying.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 3: I think that's really what we're trying to create. It's
Speaker 3: something that when the guys do win, they've done something.
Speaker 5: That is so special.
Speaker 3: And you talk to those, the Curtis Strangers and the
Speaker 3: hailerwins and the Tigers and Urniels, those that win, you
Speaker 3: hear that a lot.
Speaker 5: You hear that a lot.
Speaker 3: They want it hard, they want it fair, and that's
Speaker 3: what we endeavor to do.
Speaker 1: It evokes a different you know, I played in a
Speaker 1: USGA Championship a few years ago and just the intensity
Speaker 1: and the folk that was required walking off the golf
Speaker 1: course after around it, it was a exhaustion mentally that
Speaker 1: I had never really felt as a golfer. And it's
Speaker 1: just a different it's a hard hard to describe the
Speaker 1: feeling where you know, if you lose your focus or
Speaker 1: lose you know, your control for a second, it can
Speaker 1: get turned around so quickly. And that's the thing that
Speaker 1: makes it so unique is that it's if you make
Speaker 1: a mistake, you better do your best to If you
Speaker 1: go on tilt and keep making compounding the mistake, that's
Speaker 1: where you can derail your whole championship.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: And I think the mental part of that is so
Speaker 3: important because you know, and Jack Nicholas used to used
Speaker 3: to speak about that.
Speaker 5: He's got some amazing quotes.
Speaker 3: You know, playing in the afternoon, he'd walk into the
Speaker 3: locker room and hear guys grousing about a whole location
Speaker 3: or the heights of the roughs, and he's told us this,
Speaker 3: and I think he's been quoted many times in the
Speaker 3: media saying it. He'd walk by the guys and he'd say, well,
Speaker 3: I got him beat, I got him beat. I got
Speaker 3: him beat, because they you know, some players just can
Speaker 3: can deal with that and some can't. And and we
Speaker 3: think that's the mark of a great champion, someone that
Speaker 3: can overcome adversity because you are going to make mistakes.
Speaker 3: You're going to make bogies at the US Open, and
Speaker 3: the trick is really the key is not to make
Speaker 3: to make a few of them, but also not make
Speaker 3: the big hole, because it's really hard to come back
Speaker 3: from that big hole, the double or the triple is what.
Speaker 5: You want to avoid.
Speaker 4: But it's just about hanging in there. You know.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like it's like running a marathon. It's
Speaker 3: like the decathlon. It's like training to be a Navy seal.
Speaker 3: It's a test that once it's it's a grind. It
Speaker 3: must be fair. But when you get to the mountaintop
Speaker 3: after that climb, you know that you've done something and
Speaker 3: achieve something unlike anything else, and we take great pride
Speaker 3: in that has to be fair. And I think it's
Speaker 3: our DNA across all of our championships, not just the
Speaker 3: US Open.
Speaker 1: Something you alluded to with that Jack Nicholas story is
Speaker 1: the emotional aspect that players have when you're you're playing
Speaker 1: tournament golf, and you know a lot of times you'll
Speaker 1: you'll say something or you'll think something when you're in
Speaker 1: the moment, and then you know, when you get the
Speaker 1: opportunity of thinking back a month later, you might realize
Speaker 1: that you made a mistake. How do you how do
Speaker 1: you guys balance feedback knowing that you know a lot
Speaker 1: of times coming from it's an emotional response.
Speaker 3: It is you know, we hear well well and you know,
Speaker 3: for a lot of years we hear from the players,
Speaker 3: but I think in today's day and age, with social
Speaker 3: media and and agents and coaches and and just you know,
Speaker 3: players in the interaction that we have with them now,
Speaker 3: I think one of the best things we've done in
Speaker 3: a long time is to have hired Jason Gore as
Speaker 3: our senior director of player Relations. Jason's are respected to
Speaker 3: her player, a seven time winner and just a tremendous
Speaker 3: guy with tremendous integrity, a great sense of humor, a
Speaker 3: great ball striker, and as respect to the guys, and
Speaker 3: I think they feel they can go to him and
Speaker 3: share with him candid feedback but also you know, candid
Speaker 3: feedback if they don't like something, but also some great
Speaker 3: ideas that we have that have been shared with Jason
Speaker 3: at about many topics, and we listen, and we you know,
Speaker 3: we've we've always listened, uh, but we've never had the
Speaker 3: avenue to either seek that feedback and obtain it and
Speaker 3: bring it into Golf House or really I think more importantly,
Speaker 3: we've never had that avenue to explain the why behind
Speaker 3: some of our decisions. And I think that's left misperception.
Speaker 3: I think it's left some hard feelings. I think those
Speaker 3: there are a number that we are close to always
Speaker 3: have been, Tiger Jack and Tom Watson, Taylorwin, you know,
Speaker 3: some of those guys they know us. But now we're
Speaker 3: able to stay in touch with with anybody who's willing
Speaker 3: to talk. And Jason's done a great job with that
Speaker 3: and it's benefited us and we'll continue to do so.
Speaker 1: I've heard from the people I know that on tour
Speaker 1: that Jason that you know, he's a great guy to
Speaker 1: talk to and has given them a way to find,
Speaker 1: you know, to get information. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing is I think a lot of people generally
Speaker 1: they complain when they feel like they have it, aren't
Speaker 1: being heard or don't have an outlet to complain, and
Speaker 1: then when you talk back to when you communicate back,
Speaker 1: they're the nicest people in the world. Like I see
Speaker 1: it with what I do is, you know, sometimes people
Speaker 1: have complaints and then when you respond to them and
Speaker 1: you communicate, then they turned into the nicest people of
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 4: Well that's right.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're fans of the greatest players in
Speaker 3: the world, fans of the greatest amateurs in the world,
Speaker 3: and you know, we want to hear from them, We
Speaker 3: want to share with them what about our decisions and
Speaker 3: and you know they all want the best for the game,
Speaker 3: and you know that dialogue is really important because we
Speaker 3: care about them and we want to share with them
Speaker 3: what we're doing. And you know, I think it's an
Speaker 3: important relationship, not just that with the tour players, but
Speaker 3: with the amateurs as well. You know, are amateur championships.
Speaker 3: Every one of them is a major to somebody, and
Speaker 3: whether you're a mid amateur or a senior amateur, or
Speaker 3: a women's midamateur or a junior, it's they're the most
Speaker 3: important championships you play in each year as an amateur,
Speaker 3: and we want to hear from them. And we think
Speaker 3: a lot about these days, the player journey. That's a
Speaker 3: strategy that's front and center in my mind. And taking
Speaker 3: on my responsibilities and overseeing all of our championships that
Speaker 3: Mike Davis asked me to do a few years ago,
Speaker 3: I really take that seriously. Where you know, Nick Price,
Speaker 3: who's on our board in our Championship committee, former number
Speaker 3: one player, said something that really fueled my thinking a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago at a Championship committee meeting he said,
Speaker 3: and you can apply this to any championship. John, It's
Speaker 3: really important. Where the guys win their major, win their
Speaker 3: US Open. It's really important, and that's fueled. It's just
Speaker 3: so simple, but it's right in front of you, but
Speaker 3: it fuels our thinking that, you know, where do the
Speaker 3: players want to win their US Open, their US Women's Open,
Speaker 3: their US Amateur, their US Junior Amateur, and so on,
Speaker 3: and so one of the things that we strive to
Speaker 3: do is go to our nation's greatest golf courses. And
Speaker 3: we'll continue to do that. We're thinking about that a
Speaker 3: little bit differently as we go forward, but it's that
Speaker 3: sort of feedback and guidance. And then you think about
Speaker 3: the journey. You think about someone like Jordan Speith winning
Speaker 3: two US Juniors and then going on and almost winning
Speaker 3: the US Amateur. Aaron Hills the following year, got to
Speaker 3: the quarterfinals, played on a Walker Cup team, and then
Speaker 3: goes on a year later and wins whin's the US Open.
Speaker 3: That's the ultimate player journey. That's what we're trying to
Speaker 3: create as we think about these young kids starting out
Speaker 3: and all the way up through the US Open and
Speaker 3: with amateurs even into the mid and senior ranks.
Speaker 5: It's pretty inspiring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's that's so spot on and I
Speaker 1: you know, always contend with especially like state associations. It's
Speaker 1: so important to have your big state championships at great
Speaker 1: venues because that's what inspires the the the youngest of
Speaker 1: the generation playing in them if they're you know, in
Speaker 1: a perfect example of the US Junior getting great venues,
Speaker 1: you know, for US Junior helps those juniors become better
Speaker 1: players when they move up to the US am and
Speaker 1: hopefully eventually the US Open. It prepares them for you know,
Speaker 1: their future golf in championship golf experience.
Speaker 5: It does.
Speaker 3: And I think playing on that grand stage where so
Speaker 3: much history oftentimes is made prior to you stepping there,
Speaker 3: you know, the Inverness Club where Preston Summer Hayes won
Speaker 3: the Junior Ammeter this year. You think about the Opens
Speaker 3: and the Senior Opens and US Amateurs that have been there,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's a great legacy. And to be
Speaker 3: on that stage with the US Open setup, with the
Speaker 3: narrowness of the fairways where you've got to drive the
Speaker 3: ball in the fairway and the heights of the rough
Speaker 3: where you're penalized much of the time if you don't
Speaker 3: drive it in the fairway, and then you get on
Speaker 3: the putting green and you have to really think about it.
Speaker 3: And it does prepare them for what's coming later in life.
Speaker 3: And it's certainly with USA events, but otherwise, and we
Speaker 3: think that's important. We think our championships inspire each demographic
Speaker 3: and in the future generations, and we take great pride
Speaker 3: in that, and going to the very best sites is critical.
Speaker 1: Narrowing, with narrowing of fairways, how do you, guys, balance
Speaker 1: where you're still when you narrow fairways, you're still rewarding
Speaker 1: the accurate player versus the power player.
Speaker 3: Boy, it's a question we talk about every day at
Speaker 3: Golf House, those of us that work on the US
Speaker 3: Open course setup and people like Jeff Hall and myself
Speaker 3: and then Kimball and all of our championship directors, Darren
Speaker 3: Bavard or Agronomous. You know, every course is different. Pebble
Speaker 3: Beach is different than Wingfoot this year and will be
Speaker 3: different than Tory Pines next year, and the country Club
Speaker 3: in twenty two and Los Angeles Country Club in twenty three.
Speaker 3: The weather is different, the grasses are different, the topography
Speaker 3: is different, so there's no set with the US Open fairway,
Speaker 3: But it really is more about what the whole provides
Speaker 3: and letting it be what the architect intendants be. And
Speaker 3: I'll give you an example of that at Pebble Beach
Speaker 3: last year we had one of our widest fairways in
Speaker 3: US Open history on number ten. I think it was
Speaker 3: fifty four yards wide, I'm not mistaken. But the topography
Speaker 3: on that was I don't remember what the slope was,
Speaker 3: but it was, you know, probably eight nine percent and
Speaker 3: so or seventy eight percent. I would imagine that in
Speaker 3: firm and fast. It wasn't as firm as fast as
Speaker 3: maybe we could have had it. But you know that
Speaker 3: you drive ball on the left side of that fairway,
Speaker 3: it's probably running twenty thirty forty yards down towards the ocean,
Speaker 3: and you need that with whereas you go to a
Speaker 3: place like wing Foot and you've got a whole whole goodness,
Speaker 3: you could you can you can take just about any
Speaker 3: hole at Wingfoot that you'll see, and there isn't that
Speaker 3: topography necessarily and there's probably not going to be wind
Speaker 3: and or at least much of it, and it's just different,
Speaker 3: and it's it will be a narrower you'll see fairways
Speaker 3: in the twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven yard range.
Speaker 3: You know a hole that's maybe three seventy that a
Speaker 3: guy might be tempted to drive it from a forward
Speaker 3: te as opposed to a five hundred yard part four.
Speaker 3: You know, the five hundred yard part four, it needs
Speaker 3: to be a little bit wider and a little bit
Speaker 3: more room to hit. It's a little harder to hit
Speaker 3: where you can take that four or five iron out
Speaker 3: on that three hundred and seven yard part four and
Speaker 3: still have an a nine iron wedge in.
Speaker 4: So it's strategic.
Speaker 3: And then we you know, I think we try to
Speaker 3: create angles too. We'll look back at old aerials at
Speaker 3: what an aw tilling hast intended with wing foot and
Speaker 3: kil Han's a great restoration he did a few years
Speaker 3: ago in the West courses allowed us to do that,
Speaker 3: but we really try to take what the architect intended.
Speaker 3: We tried to go with that and create shot values
Speaker 3: that he thought created the great test and the width
Speaker 3: is part of that. We think there should be a
Speaker 3: premium on driving your ball in the fairway for a
Speaker 3: US Open and then playing it onto the green from
Speaker 3: the fairway and being able to control your ball, and
Speaker 3: the best players could do that.
Speaker 1: Obviously, par fives are quite different than what par fives
Speaker 1: were even twenty twenty years ago, where you know, almost
Speaker 1: everybody in the field's getting home into if they hit
Speaker 1: a good drive or close to home, and two, there's
Speaker 1: very rare we'd come across true three shot par fives.
Speaker 1: With that in mind, do you ever envision a a
Speaker 1: par at a championship venue going below seventy?
Speaker 4: Ah?
Speaker 3: Goodness, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, we've played the
Speaker 3: US Open at under par seventy. I have to go
Speaker 3: back and the look, I'm going from memory now. But
Speaker 3: the Country Club of Philadelphia, I think is a par
Speaker 3: sixty nine, or was when we played the US Open there.
Speaker 3: I mean, I believe that's accurate. I have to go
Speaker 3: back and the look I'm going from memory.
Speaker 5: But you know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's a fair question. And I think to us, when
Speaker 3: we think about it, par is really relative. It's a number,
Speaker 3: and you know it can be a par four or
Speaker 3: par five, but it's all about the number that you
Speaker 3: score on that hole and getting your ball into the hole.
Speaker 3: I think we look more at what are the shot
Speaker 3: values from the teeing area into the fair way and
Speaker 3: where is a good player going to with the way
Speaker 3: they drive the ball today, And I don't just mean
Speaker 3: that by length, but how they hit it, how they
Speaker 3: curve it or how they play it fame hook and
Speaker 3: where they're going to drive it, and then what type
Speaker 3: of shot they have into the putting green. And you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes you can have a one hundred and seventy yards
Speaker 3: shot into a putting green, but putting green can be
Speaker 3: all mounded up and balls can careene away from the
Speaker 3: hole just because of the topography on the putting green,
Speaker 3: And so those holes are generally par fives because you're
Speaker 3: throwing a short shot and you control it. You don't
Speaker 3: want to be hitting a four or five iron into
Speaker 3: some of those types of putting greens where the ball
Speaker 3: is going to careen, a good shot is going to
Speaker 3: careene off the green, or a good shot won't end
Speaker 3: up near the hole.
Speaker 5: And we try to watch.
Speaker 3: Those things and not really think about a number and
Speaker 3: present the golf course so that it is a shot
Speaker 3: value test no matter what it might be. Depending on
Speaker 3: the teas.
Speaker 1: We'll use, Yeah, yeah, I think that I completely agree
Speaker 1: with the par being just a number it obviously, I
Speaker 1: think par is what. You know, the most of the
Speaker 1: golf vans equate to difficulty, which is kind of a
Speaker 1: unfortunate thing because you know, I think back Aaron Hills,
Speaker 1: it's a par seventy two. Brooks winds at sixteen under,
Speaker 1: but if you change it to par seventy he wins
Speaker 1: at eight under, and probably nobody complains that it's too easy.
Speaker 1: And you know, likewise with like Pebble Beach last year,
Speaker 1: you know, you watch the sixth hole, guys are hitting
Speaker 1: iron iron into this into the green.
Speaker 2: It's like, is this really a par five?
Speaker 1: You know, if somebody makes a player makes a five,
Speaker 1: they definitely walk off the green feeling like they lost
Speaker 1: a shot to the field.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a really great example to andy. I think
Speaker 3: that number six at Pebble you know a lot of
Speaker 3: we did hear a lot of that last year where
Speaker 3: you know it's just a long part four. Well, you know, no,
Speaker 3: it's not. We you throw a twenty twenty five mile
Speaker 3: an hour wind in there, and that fairway that runs
Speaker 3: all the way into the ocean and down and away
Speaker 3: from you, you might be hitting two or threeing off
Speaker 3: that tea, but that's not going to be an easy
Speaker 3: fairway to hit. And then I'm going to assure you
Speaker 3: that that shot up the hill, if you're not hitting
Speaker 3: it up the hill from that fairway, just getting it
Speaker 3: up on top of the hill from the road was
Speaker 3: going would have been a really big chore. And that
Speaker 3: rough up that hill was no picnic. It was in
Speaker 3: some places eight to ten inches by design. And you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess if you play it just right, And we
Speaker 3: didn't have a whole lot of win last year. It
Speaker 3: played short, but that's okay. It's the way the architect
Speaker 3: intended it to be played, and that's really where we
Speaker 3: what we try to embrace. We just wanted to let
Speaker 3: Pebble Beach be Pebble Beach, and that's maybe the perfect
Speaker 3: example of a whole that was just intended to be
Speaker 3: the way that it was.
Speaker 1: So with that being, you know, your first opportunity to
Speaker 1: do the US Open setup as the man in charge.
Speaker 1: What were the biggest takeaways from Pebble.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the biggest takeaway for me was I
Speaker 3: grew up playing Pebble Beach as well. I'm from the
Speaker 3: Pasitic Northwest. But in college we'd always go to Pebble
Speaker 3: and play at some point during the year in the
Speaker 3: Monterey Peninsula, and it was played there a lot even
Speaker 3: after college. And it's just such a magnificent place. It's
Speaker 3: a national treasure. It's it's iconic. Players love it. It's
Speaker 3: just so beautiful. And I think just having the opportunity
Speaker 3: to to really oversee course set up there this past
Speaker 3: year was was really a great honor for me. I
Speaker 3: still I still pinched myself thinking about it. And you know,
Speaker 3: Mike Davis asked me to do that. That was something
Speaker 3: that had been in the works for a few years
Speaker 3: and allowed Mike to really become really devoted his time
Speaker 3: to be a CEO. We've been talking about that for
Speaker 3: a few years. And to do it and to begin
Speaker 3: that journey at Pebble was amazing. And I think that,
Speaker 3: you know, Pebble is such a beloved side. You look
Speaker 3: at the history that's been there all the way back
Speaker 3: to the US Amateur when when Bob Jones played in
Speaker 3: almost one and through the US opens that have been there.
Speaker 3: Some of our most iconic with Jack Nicholas is one
Speaker 3: Iron and Tom Watson's chip in and Tom Kite's chip
Speaker 3: in and and and grammicdow to do it this year
Speaker 3: in ed Gary Woodlands. To the mix was just it
Speaker 3: was just fantastic. You know, we didn't get the wind.
Speaker 3: We planned, of course, set up around the wind.
Speaker 4: Because you have to.
Speaker 3: If you don't, then you risk the golf course getting
Speaker 3: away from you because a boy, when the wind blows there,
Speaker 3: it can firm up very quickly. And but but I think,
Speaker 3: you know, we had a great team going in and
Speaker 3: we felt good about it. I'll tell you probably one
Speaker 3: of the biggest factors to the success we had last year.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's no secret, Andy, we needed not
Speaker 3: just a good US Open, we needed a great US Open.
Speaker 4: We had. There's it's no.
Speaker 3: Secret we had we had had some challenges in a
Speaker 3: couple of the previous years, and uh and we needed
Speaker 3: a good one for a whole bunch of reasons. And
Speaker 3: and by every measure we had it. And I think
Speaker 3: where it all started on the golf course was how
Speaker 3: amazing those putting greens were in the condition they were in.
Speaker 5: They were perfect.
Speaker 3: And I think even when the players arrived they were
Speaker 3: a stout because they usually are there in February, and
Speaker 3: it's difficult to progress on the Monterey Peninsula. In February.
Speaker 3: It's soft, it's bumpy, but they still it's wonderful in February.
Speaker 3: But in June, I don't think they'd ever seen Polannia
Speaker 3: greens at Pebble Beach like they were.
Speaker 5: They were literally perfect.
Speaker 3: And it's a testament to Chris Dahlhammer, their former superintendent,
Speaker 3: who just departed to go to Monterey Peninsula Country Club.
Speaker 3: Kudos to Chris. He's a great friend. And you think
Speaker 3: about those little tiny putting greens. They are about as
Speaker 3: big as your kitchen table, most of them, and get
Speaker 3: about seventy thousand rounds a year. For him to have
Speaker 3: them in the condition they were in, it's one of
Speaker 3: the most amazing things I've ever seen. And it just
Speaker 3: allowed the guys to really make a lot of putts.
Speaker 3: And I think a number of the players told us, look,
Speaker 3: it was a perfect setup. Had some wins, you know,
Speaker 3: the scores would have been a little bit lower. But
Speaker 3: we're grateful that you just let it be what it
Speaker 3: was to be without trying to force it.
Speaker 5: And we did.
Speaker 3: We just we had a plan going in and we
Speaker 3: had a strategy and we didn't get any win, but
Speaker 3: we stuck with our plan. We didn't we didn't try
Speaker 3: to force it for a score. And if you know
Speaker 3: a lot of people think we target par, we don't.
Speaker 3: We don't have a target score. We have a golf
Speaker 3: course setup. And I think if there's no better there's
Speaker 3: no better proof than what we did last year because
Speaker 3: it wasn't a target score. Had there been, we'd have
Speaker 3: force it and tried to get to a score. But
Speaker 3: what you saw Gary Woodland do and Brooks Kopka and
Speaker 3: Justin Rose, it was fun to watch.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I talk with Jeff Ogilby regularly on the podcast and
Speaker 1: he always says, stresses, look at the leader board, don't
Speaker 1: look at the scores.
Speaker 2: On the leaderboard.
Speaker 1: And I think anybody that was out at Pebble on Sunday,
Speaker 1: I mean the energy, especially on that front nine, when
Speaker 1: you know the two best players in the field clearly
Speaker 1: were throwing haymakers at each other, with Brooks and Gary
Speaker 1: Woodland off the bat those birdies, those first six holes,
Speaker 1: it was, you know, an energy out on the golf
Speaker 1: course that that I you know, I had never really
Speaker 1: experienced before, and it was. You know, the the two
Speaker 1: players that were most worthy of the championship clearly separated
Speaker 1: themselves on that final day.
Speaker 3: They did and you nailed it. You could see it
Speaker 3: right right off. The get go was there to go
Speaker 3: get and and Brooks and Gary went out and got it,
Speaker 3: as did a few others, you know, as I recall,
Speaker 3: Adam Scott got off the really hot start, and there
Speaker 3: were a few others. But by that time Gary and
Speaker 3: Brooks were what kind of where they were and Justin
Speaker 3: Rose was hanging in there, and you know, it was
Speaker 3: it was really a great testament to Pebble Beach. That
Speaker 3: place is so special and and you know they were
Speaker 3: two prize fighters duking it out and you know it
Speaker 3: was and then you know, you turn theer through seven
Speaker 3: and then you've got to play eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
Speaker 3: even thirteen and fourteen, one of the tougher part fives
Speaker 3: in the world. You know that it's almost two different
Speaker 3: golf courses, and it was. It was a bit nerve
Speaker 3: racking to watch all those bradies ely On, I'll be
Speaker 3: honest with you, thinking about what could it could be.
Speaker 3: But boy, they when they turned the corner to go
Speaker 3: into eight. The golf course took care of itself and
Speaker 3: we knew it would even without wind, and to have
Speaker 3: what happened there was really gratifying. And so that's one
Speaker 3: in a row. We're gonna have a much more coming
Speaker 3: at us again with wing Foot this year.
Speaker 2: We're excited so changing gears this year.
Speaker 1: Obviously, it's been a really tough time for the entire world,
Speaker 1: and the pandemics made hosting any type of event extraordinarily difficult,
Speaker 1: especially with the conflicted you know, there's different information that
Speaker 1: comes out every day bring us into the just the
Speaker 1: decision making process and how difficult it was for you
Speaker 1: guys to come up with your your solution that we
Speaker 1: have now we obviously have the rescheduled events. We have
Speaker 1: the US AM, the US Women's Am, the US Open,
Speaker 1: and the US Women's Open left and and the fall
Speaker 1: dates and no qualifying.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been quite a journey. It's been quite a year.
Speaker 3: It's something that none of us ever anticipated. You can't
Speaker 3: plan for, and so very difficult journey. We feel a
Speaker 3: lot of emotions right now with where we are in
Speaker 3: the year. We're disappointed, you know, sitting here and saying
Speaker 3: that we've canceled ten championships is surreal. It's like a
Speaker 3: dream and I'm waiting to wake up, but we all
Speaker 3: are at the USJA. It's heartbreaking, truly agonizing and heartbreaking.
Speaker 5: But you know, as we.
Speaker 3: Went into this and we saw that it was coming
Speaker 3: at us starting back in March and thinking about our
Speaker 3: championships that were starting the next month with the Women's
Speaker 3: four Ball Championship and the men's four ball a few
Speaker 3: weeks later, we really, as we began to understand what
Speaker 3: the pandemic was was beginning to be, we really put
Speaker 3: a couple of oh guiding stars in front of us.
Speaker 3: One first and foremost, as you as everybody would imagine,
Speaker 3: would be health and safety of everyone involved with with
Speaker 3: a USJA championship or anything that the USJ does, our
Speaker 3: agronomus or our staff who conducts handicapped seminars or allied
Speaker 3: golf associations around the country, Health and safety had to
Speaker 3: be number one, and for all kinds of reasons and
Speaker 3: all kinds and in all kinds of scenarios. The second
Speaker 3: part of that was we really went into the spring
Speaker 3: and saying, Okay, here's here's what we're up against, but
Speaker 3: let's let's give it every opportunity to crown as many
Speaker 3: champions of our fourteen championships as we can while really
Speaker 3: having health and safety as a paramount concern. And it
Speaker 3: was that that led us down the road that we've come,
Speaker 3: and you know, and with qualifying that might have you know,
Speaker 3: that was just such a difficult decision because we take
Speaker 3: great pride in offering the platform that is qualifying to
Speaker 3: more than forty thousand players a year that enter USJA
Speaker 3: Championships at every level opens and amateurs, men, women, junior, senior,
Speaker 3: as mid amateurs. Take great pride in that are our
Speaker 3: championship being inspiring because people can follow their dreams and
Speaker 3: every USJA Championship is a major to somebody. And to
Speaker 3: follow your dream through that platform, through the ultimate meritocracy
Speaker 3: and golf, you earn your way into our championships and
Speaker 3: we take great pride in that, and to not be
Speaker 3: able to do that this year is truly heartbreaking. I
Speaker 3: cannot stress that enough. But I think we also in
Speaker 3: looking at it across the spectrum and our rationale I'm
Speaker 3: happy to talk about, but we do believe this is
Speaker 3: an unusual year, this will be a one off. We're
Speaker 3: already beginning to plan for qualifying full force next year,
Speaker 3: and so with the health and safety concern, that's why
Speaker 3: we did what we did at a macro level. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, I think what we've done with
Speaker 3: the four championships and with fully exempt fields gives us
Speaker 3: really our best chance for success this year in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: And I think as I think about it, I can
Speaker 3: just envision getting to the end of December and looking
Speaker 3: back at crowning four great champions in.
Speaker 4: An amazingly challenged year.
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to celebrating those four great champions and
Speaker 3: then moving on to twenty one and getting back to
Speaker 3: crowning fourteen. But you know, I would say this, I
Speaker 3: think a couple of things really played a huge part
Speaker 3: in our decisions, and this notion of testing. We are
Speaker 3: going to test players and other essential attendees and workers,
Speaker 3: those that would volunteer, or food and beverage staff, or
Speaker 3: all of those that would work at a championship this year.
Speaker 3: The four that we have, we feel we have to.
Speaker 3: If the players are going to play, we want them safe,
Speaker 3: and that was a big part of our decision. You've
Speaker 3: seen the PGA Tour announce that they're going to test
Speaker 3: beginning here in mid June if they're able to play,
Speaker 3: and we sure hope they'll be able to, they'll test,
Speaker 3: and they'll test until there's a need not to when
Speaker 3: we have a vaccine or a wonderdrug, but ways away
Speaker 3: from that, and so to be able to do that
Speaker 3: for each championship proper, and considering the demographics in two
Speaker 3: senior Amateurs, two mid Amateurs, and a Senior Open and
Speaker 3: Senior Women's Open, we just felt this is our best
Speaker 3: way forward. And then you also think about qualifying and
Speaker 3: just you know the ten thousand that enter a US
Speaker 3: Open in most years.
Speaker 5: Or the two thousand and the Women's.
Speaker 3: Open, and then across the amateur championships, there's about six
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty qualifying sites throughout the spring and summer
Speaker 3: and fall that LT Golf Associations arrange and run for
Speaker 3: US One hundred and nine of those are just for
Speaker 3: US Open local qualifying. So you think about clubs that
Speaker 3: close down in March and April may be beginning to
Speaker 3: open up in May, and the challenges both financially that
Speaker 3: they're having now generating revenue and trying to reschedule all
Speaker 3: of that until later in the summer the fall, when
Speaker 3: everything else is trying to be rescheduled State amateurs and
Speaker 3: other major championships, And for that and other reasons, you know,
Speaker 3: the host venues are AGAs those challenges. Just the ability
Speaker 3: to put your hand in a water cooler out of
Speaker 3: water bottle is different this year. You know, at qualifying,
Speaker 3: how are we going to evacuate players if we have
Speaker 3: inclement weather. We're not going to pile them into vans.
Speaker 3: That's a challenge. Some of the littlest things that we
Speaker 3: take for granted normally are major challenges this year, not
Speaker 3: even including testing, And we just felt that we needed
Speaker 3: to do this in a safe way and still crown
Speaker 3: champions and.
Speaker 4: We weighed the risk versus.
Speaker 5: The reward and we feel this is our best way forward.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've run some events and we're the same things.
Speaker 1: It's kind of there's so many little things that can
Speaker 1: happen that you have to have some sort of a
Speaker 1: solution for it, and there's it's such a big challenge.
Speaker 1: I'm curious with the obviously, so much of the openness
Speaker 1: of these championships is the ethos of these championships, and
Speaker 1: how are you guys What are some of your strategies
Speaker 1: that you are going to take to capture that same
Speaker 1: feel in the US Open where we get those underdogs,
Speaker 1: those those local qualifiers and bring those to the forefront
Speaker 1: and get at least, you know, some of that feel
Speaker 1: into the one hundred and forty four person feel.
Speaker 4: Thank you for that question.
Speaker 5: It's a good one.
Speaker 3: It's one we've been really really pushing on for the
Speaker 3: last several weeks. And you know, please know our intention
Speaker 3: going into crown every champion. We were going to do
Speaker 3: it with qualifying until just a few weeks ago when
Speaker 3: we really dug into and spoke to many of our
Speaker 3: lef associations and the challenges were just too great and
Speaker 3: the risk versus reward was just too great. But what
Speaker 3: we'll do this year with the four championships, the Opens
Speaker 3: and the amateurs, the two Opens and the two amters,
Speaker 3: I think we are operating principle is this, we will
Speaker 3: endeavor to create fields through exemptions that will when you
Speaker 3: look at them and who is participating, the representation that
Speaker 3: is there will look as close as we can make
Speaker 3: it look as to what qualifying would produce in the
Speaker 3: US Open, where US Women's Open or US Amateur or
Speaker 3: US Women's Ameter. What I mean by that is we're
Speaker 3: digging into the data now as to the past several opens,
Speaker 3: the US Open, US Women's Open, and looking at the
Speaker 3: makeup of those heels, and we will endeavor to expand
Speaker 3: our exemption categories to really do our best to reflect
Speaker 3: the representation from the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the
Speaker 3: other worldwide tours, even amaters. You know, and you look
Speaker 3: at the US Open over the last five years, just
Speaker 3: the US Open, we haven't there are the average number
Speaker 3: of amters that play have played in the US Open
Speaker 3: over the last five years, it's fifteen point two, and
Speaker 3: most of them come through qualifying. We usually have five
Speaker 3: or six fully exempt diameters, but the rest earn their
Speaker 3: way in through qualifying. Well, we looked at that and
Speaker 3: I think you'll see a number very close to fifteen
Speaker 3: as the number of amaters that'll be in the US Open.
Speaker 3: Probably a little less than that because we've got we
Speaker 3: don't have a full field with one forty four or
Speaker 3: instead of one to fifty six.
Speaker 4: But that's the way we're looking at it.
Speaker 3: And then across the US Amateur and the US Women's ameter.
Speaker 3: We look at it not from a tour standpoint, but
Speaker 3: from a demographic standpoint. What I mean by that is,
Speaker 3: we'll look at our exemptions and expand them. And how
Speaker 3: many juniors have played over the last several years in
Speaker 3: the US Amateur or the US Women's gammter, how many
Speaker 3: college players have made up the field, how many minamates,
Speaker 3: how many senior amates, And we're looking at that and
Speaker 3: both in the opens. We'll use the Official World Golf
Speaker 3: Ranking and the role X Women's ranking and the World
Speaker 3: Amateur Golf Ranking for the amateurs. But we're gonna start
Speaker 3: and look at ways that we can Those fields can
Speaker 3: be reminiscent of what qualifying produces. I can tell you this,
Speaker 3: there'll be strong fields and you know, uh, it won't
Speaker 3: be perfect. You know, it won't provide that platform where
Speaker 3: people can follow their dreams. But I think you'll also
Speaker 3: see some unique opportunities where people can still earn their
Speaker 3: way in. And I use the word earn as a
Speaker 3: key way to say it.
Speaker 4: Stay tuned.
Speaker 5: We'll have more on that in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Oh Man, Cliffhanger.
Speaker 4: Qualifying.
Speaker 3: Qualifying is not perfect either. Sometimes the best players not
Speaker 3: all of them get in because they miss qualifying. So
Speaker 3: I think that's important. But about to two and a
Speaker 3: half to maybe three weeks we'll speak to what that
Speaker 3: will look like.
Speaker 1: Will you take into account, say geographics, like we typically
Speaker 1: get X number about this percentage of the you know,
Speaker 1: across the country, so you've got amateurs. Obviously, with the
Speaker 1: way qualifying works, you kind of get a mixture pot
Speaker 1: of the entire country or entire world.
Speaker 2: Really for these did you look at that? Also?
Speaker 3: I don't know that we'll look at geography. It won't
Speaker 3: be that way. It'll be more of what players have
Speaker 3: earned from the standpoint of maybe what they've done in
Speaker 3: a previous event or where they sit on a ranking,
Speaker 3: you know, official World Golf ranking, Rolex ranking or World
Speaker 3: Amitter Golf ranking. But really, you know, maybe maybe what
Speaker 3: they've done in a prior USGA championship and really earns
Speaker 3: something special, you know, by getting across a certain bar
Speaker 3: or a certain place.
Speaker 4: In the rankings.
Speaker 3: I don't think it'll be geographic, because we want it
Speaker 3: to be as merit based as possible. And as I said,
Speaker 3: thinking about I'm not sure today, I honestly can't tell
Speaker 3: you on you know, in the third week of May
Speaker 3: exactly what that's going to look like as far as
Speaker 3: earning your way in, But we're thinking a lot about
Speaker 3: that and maybe maybe certainly not as many opportunities as
Speaker 3: we normally provide your qualifying but if we can create
Speaker 3: some opportunity there, we want to do it. But it again,
Speaker 3: meritocracy is important, and we're thinking about that more than
Speaker 3: we would something like geography.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that. I mean, I think that's cool.
Speaker 1: With the combination of ranking and what they've done in
Speaker 1: prior USGA championships is a neat way to do it
Speaker 1: because it it you know, brings those players back and
Speaker 1: there's a essence of you've earned it one way or
Speaker 1: the other, whether it be qualifying. But also you know,
Speaker 1: in this situation you don't get the opportunity to earn
Speaker 1: it via qualifying, so it's based off of what you've
Speaker 1: done before.
Speaker 3: You know, something else that is really important. I think
Speaker 3: to mention too with it all all that we do,
Speaker 3: and we do a lot for the game. I think
Speaker 3: you know that a lot of people know that, But
Speaker 3: we think about the us Open and moving the us
Speaker 3: Open into September, it's crucial to what we do and
Speaker 3: helping us fulfill our mission to pay it really is
Speaker 3: is what makes everything else possible. What the US Open generates.
Speaker 3: It's not the only thing, but you know, the US
Speaker 3: Open fuels things like the ten million dollars a year
Speaker 3: we invest in the US Women's Open, the twenty five
Speaker 3: million dollars in running our additional opens and amateur championships,
Speaker 3: you know, all other team championships. You know, we invest.
Speaker 3: I think it's more than twenty five million dollars to
Speaker 3: grow the game.
Speaker 4: Things like.
Speaker 3: LPGA USA Girls Golf, the first tea driveship and putt
Speaker 3: two hundred plus thousand kids will participate in that.
Speaker 4: As we go forward.
Speaker 3: Our PGA Boat Ride internship program in all fifty states,
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty men and women every year that
Speaker 3: enter the game as administrators. That way, three million have
Speaker 3: USJA handicap indexes.
Speaker 5: I don't think there's.
Speaker 3: A blade of grass on any golf course in the
Speaker 3: United States. It hasn't been touched by our green section
Speaker 3: and our agronomous and the money that we pour into
Speaker 3: that to make the game better for everybody. We're proud
Speaker 3: of that. Our championships are inspirational, but it all starts
Speaker 3: with the US Open, and I think that's an important
Speaker 3: message in what it means for the game across all
Speaker 3: these fronts and not just our championships. And you know,
Speaker 3: I'm just as proud of that as anything that I
Speaker 3: do within the championship realm, and I think all of
Speaker 3: us at the USJA are and it means a lot
Speaker 3: for the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's the thing that people don't realize
Speaker 1: is how far, how much UH impact these championships have
Speaker 1: on the entire game of golf. John, I really appreciate
Speaker 1: the time and look forward to talk to you again
Speaker 1: and hopefully closer to the championships. And you know, we're
Speaker 1: I think everybody's excited for for the USGA's big four
Speaker 1: championships that are coming this uh this late summer and fall.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate you having me on it's UH I
Speaker 3: would love to do at anytime, and even more so,
Speaker 3: I would love to see you and shake your hand
Speaker 3: at the USA Championship in the near future again.