We have bold ideas for golf we'd like to see happen (even though we know they likely won't). This is the second in our annual series for "Bad Takes Week," where we share a brash, thoughtful and possibly harebrained idea and then defend it.
You want to grow the game? For real? Great! Join the U.S. men’s and women’s Open in holy golf matrimony: Hold them at the same location during the same week, every year. It will enhance them both.
This would be difficult for a variety of reasons—note that I used the word “location,” not “course”—but it can be done. We will get to the challenges in a moment. First, let’s be candid about golf and the USGA’s signature events.
The sport has a long history of separating people with closed triple-locked doors: Men’s clubs that refuse to admit women; white clubs that refuse to admit people of color; private clubs that build hedges and fences so the public cannot even see the course from the street. The exclusivity fetish is especially egregious in the United States. The most revered course in Europe, the Old Course at St. Andrews, becomes a public park on Sundays, open to anyone. The most revered course in the United States, Augusta National, has a slightly different policy.
The men’s U.S. Open was once the most celebrated of golf majors. Now it is the most likely to irritate. The 2018 Open at Shinnecock Hills was marred by a ridiculous course setup on Saturday. The atmosphere at the 2023 Open at L.A. Country Club had all of the charm of a billionaire’s fifth wedding. At times, male stars seem to view the U.S. Open like one of those random TSA screenings at the airport: It’s an annoyance that people must tolerate to get where they want to go, but why do they have to go through this crap when they fly private anyway?
The women’s U.S. Open got some buzz last year, when it was held at Pebble Beach for the first time. But one of golf’s problems is that the people inside the sport seem oblivious to anything happening outside of it. Women’s spectator sports are more popular than ever, and compared to what is happening in the culture, golf is way behind.
NBA stars weigh in on women’s basketball all the time. They watch it on TV and in person. Other than a fun silly-season event in December, men’s and women’s golf seem to operate in completely different worlds. The money in women’s golf is better than ever, but Nelly Korda’s epic five-win streak did not attract the mainstream interest that it deserved. Ask some most avid golfers to name the four women’s majors, and I bet they won’t even know it’s a trick question. (There are five.)
Golfers might be happy getting drunk on Hublot endorsements and Saudi Arabian government money. But the sport would be far better off if the people in charge were proactive about how they package it to the masses.
This brings me to my dumb idea.
Tennis holds all of its men’s and women’s majors at the same venues at the same time, and doing so has helped both tours. Male stars bring in viewers and media for the women’s game, and vice versa. Tennis is still a niche sport. But imagine the reaction if Wimbledon announced it would hold its men’s tournament in July and its women’s tournament in September. Nobody would say that was best for the sport. Yet golf does that every year.
The only reasons not to do this are logistical. Serena Williams and Roger Federer played their entire careers on the same-sized court with the same rules (except for Grand Slam match length). The best PGA Tour players are significantly longer than the best LPGA Tour players, a difference that cannot be overcome simply by having them play from different tees. Greens are set up to hold higher-trajectory shots for men than for women.
And of course, playing two full-field tournaments on a single course over four days is impossible. There isn’t enough daylight, unless the USGA sets up a permanent U.S. Open site in Anchorage.
But these are challenges to be overcome—not reasons to give up.
Remember: The goal here is to have the men and women compete in the same location during the same week, not necessarily on the same 18 holes. This gives the USGA plenty of options. Winged Foot’s West Course has hosted a half dozen men’s U.S. Opens, but its East course has hosted the women’s U.S. Open twice. Oakland Hills has a famous South course but also a North course across the street; during the stroke-play portion of last year’s men’s U.S. Junior Amateur, players played both the North and South courses. Pinehurst has three highly ranked courses: No. 2 (which regularly hosts U.S. Opens), No. 4, and No. 8.
Not every U.S. Open site has a second course. Like Oakmont, for example. But the USGA would still have options, like having the men play Oakmont while the women play, say, nearby Fox Chapel Golf Club, which is too short for a men’s major but is long enough for the women.
The other issue is traffic: Getting to and from one golf tournament can be hard enough, so two would be especially annoying. It would require extra shuttles and satellite lots. But if Los Angeles can host an Olympics, the USGA can figure this out.
If it commits to this idea, the USGA can then get really ambitious. Who says a major must be contested on the same course for four straight days? The PGA Tour stop on the Monterey Peninsula utilizes both Pebble Beach and nearby Spyglass Hill; in previous years, Cypress Point, Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Poppy Hills have been part of the mix.
The USGA uses multiple courses for other events (and already uses multiple courses for U.S. Opens if you count qualifying sites). Imagine the men playing Spyglass Hill on Thursday and Saturday while the women play Pebble, and then the women playing Spyglass on Friday and Sunday while the men play Pebble. It would break precedent, and the USGA would have to let go of its precious par-is-a-winning-score dreams, but so what?
There would still be course-setup challenges, but today’s best architects take pride in solving these kinds of problems. I played Oakland Hills after Gil Hanse’s renovation, and Hanse did a marvelous job of making the course more playable for amateurs while still retaining its U.S. Open viability. It can be done.
The USGA has already awarded future U.S. Opens through, I believe, the year 2874. So there are some business considerations that must be addressed. But USGA CEO Michael Whan came from the LPGA Tour, and he takes pride in being forward-thinking. Whan can make the U.S. Open the most progressive and fun major on the calendar. After a century of clinging to staid and stodgy, why not shoot for progressive and fun?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bad Takes Week: The U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open Should Be Played Together at the Same Location.
