re: US Open Anchor Sites

He drops random nuggets in various threads about his playing career and I just haven't had the balls to start a thread and ask for an AMA. I'm genuinely interested

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The Midwest needs a course on the rotation, too - Medinah, Olympia Fields, Oakland Hills, Whistling, etc.

I wonder if the courses at Sand Valley Wisconsin have the teeth for an open.

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I have played Sand Valley, and it 100% has the teeth for a U.S. Open. The bigger problem there is that it's in the middle of bumfrick nowhere, and it's logistically almost impossible to pull off. Same problem Sand Hills in Nebraska has (and Crystal Downs would have if it every wanted to have a big event). It is difficult enough to have big events at Kohler, and Sheboygan is a decent-sized town and Milwaukee and Green Bay are both less than an hour from it. Nekoosa, Wisconsin is a non-starter unless the players want to stay in a Holiday Inn and the fans are all bused two hours in from Madison and Eau Claire.

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I’m not a fan of Pebble because it’s a regular tour stop, but love west coast golf for watching late Sunday evening. Pacific Dunes would be worth trying. LaCC is getting a shot soon.

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I would rather they take away the AT&T from Pebble and keep it as a regular Open rotation course than vice versa. Just too much great history there for me to think otherwise.

As for other great West Coast courses, the Bandon courses are awesome and definitely U.S. Open caliber, but again, logistics for a major event make it pretty much a non-starter. LACC, Riviera, Olympic, SFGC, Monterey, Cypress, Spyglass, etc., etc. - tons of great options out there if the clubs wish to be a part of it. I also wouldn't mind it if they went to some Colorado courses every once in a while (e.g., Cherry Hills).

Chicago also has a ton of elite, U.S. Open caliber courses around it (just off the top of my head, Chicago GC, Olympia Fields, Medinah, Butler National, Shoreacres, Rich Harvest), but many of them are quite old and don't have anything remotely approaching the required space for a big event (hence why Medinah, which I think is a relatively weak and uninteresting lay out compared to its other top-of-the-run Chicago peers like Butler or Shoreacres or GC, keeps getting big events even though it's like a fricking hour to get there from the city). Same problem with a lot of the great old courses in the Boston area.

I don't think I appreciated how difficult it is to pull off these big events, especially a U.S. Open, until I had some friends work the planning and business side of them. Take the top 200 courses in America, and 100 of them aren't difficult enough for Tour pros now to be a good U.S. Open. Of the other 100, only 20 - 30 can realistically pull off the logistics (location, space on property, parking, hotels, fan amenities, etc.) required to support an Open. It is tough.

I played Shoreacres last October. It was fantastic. The routing is absolutely incredible. It's the most memorable round of golf I've ever played. This article describes it all very well...

LINK

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I played in the '96 Open at Oakland Hills and the Tour needs to ignore that place for another major. It's just nondescript and bland IMO. I think the Tour guys would tear it up.

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That's awesome you got to play. Figured out who you are.