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PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA | Without officially calling it a rota, the USGA has decided that future U.S. Opens will be played on a smaller collection of courses, perhaps as few as five or six.
One outcome of the year-long evaluation of the U.S. Open was learning from players and fans that they prefer a handful of familiar, classic courses, USGA officials said.
John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of championships for the USGA, said Nick Price, a three-time major winner and member of the association’s executive committee, told him, “It’s important where players win their majors.”
Jason Gore, the USGA’s liaison with PGA Tour players, heard similar sentiments.
The U.S. Open is booked through 2027, starting this year at Winged Foot, followed by Torrey Pines, the Country Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Pinehurst No. 2, Oakmont, Shinnecock Hills and Pebble Beach. It’s fair to assume the last four courses on that list are part of the USGA’s core group of future Open sites, and general discussions about future dates are underway.
The U.S. Open will be played on the West Coast in 2021 and 2023, allowing for prime-time telecasts on the East Coast, but Bodenhamer said that will not be a priority in the future.
“We are fueled by what is most important to the players, not by checking a box with geography,” he said.
J. Stuart Francis of Hillsborough, Calif., was elected to serve as the 66th president of USGA during the annual meeting. Francis will serve a three-year term leading the USGA Executive Committee, which serves as the policy-making board and provides strategic direction and oversight to the association’s full-time staff.
“The opportunity to serve the game that has given so much to me is truly a great honor,” Francis said.
Outgoing president Mark Newell joked that the organization was finally getting a president “who could hit the ball on the center of the clubface.” Indeed, Francis is an accomplished amateur golfer. He competed in three U.S. Amateurs, two NCAA Championships and three Canadian Amateurs. He earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University, where he was named first team All-Ivy League and All-American as co-captain of the men’s golf team.
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In prepared remarks, USGA CEO Mike Davis was effusive in his praise of Newell. “I am not sure it’s possible to adequately describe Mark’s extraordinary nine years of service on the USGA Executive Committee,” Davis said, going on to compare him favorably to some of the association’s great leaders from the past 125 years, including Bill Campbell, Sandy Tatum and Judy Bell.
During Newell’s tenure, the humble and unassuming retired attorney had a hand in negotiating some of the most important, and perhaps most difficult, issues in USGA history. He was intimately involved in the rules modernization, in the anchored putting ban decision, in the development of the World Handicap System, and most recently, in the Distance Insights Project.
That said, insiders and close observers of the USGA will remember him for modernizing USGA governance. He transitioned the Executive Committee from a body that involved itself in USGA operations to one that now functions much more like a corporate board of directors, concerning itself with strategy and oversight while empowering the professional staff to run day-to-day affairs.
The USGA announced that the medal presented each year to the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open has been renamed in Mickey Wright’s honor and redesigned with an image of her iconic swing, ensuring that every future champion is forever linked to one of golf’s greatest pioneers and competitors.
Over the course of her career, Wright, who died on Feb. 17 at age 85, won four U.S. Women’s Open titles, a record total matched only by Betsy Rawls.
The gold medal, which until now has not had a formal name, dates to the 1953 U.S. Women's Open when the USGA first began conducting the championship. Beginning in June with the 75th U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston, each champion will receive the Mickey Wright Medal along with the U.S. Women’s Open trophy.
The USGA announced that Diana Murphy, a past USGA president, and Pam Murray, a past chair of the USGA Women’s Committee, will serve as U.S. captains for the 2020 World Amateur Team Championship and 2020 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, respectively.
The Women’s World Amateur Team Championship will be held Oct. 14-17, followed by the World Amateur Team Championship Oct. 21-24, at Tanah Merah Country Club and Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore. Murphy is the second woman to be named captain of the U.S. entry in the World Amateur Team Championship, joining Bell, who captained the United States to victory in 2000.
Concerns about the coronavirus led Davis and Thomas Pagel, the association’s senior managing director of governance, to cancel a scheduled trip to St. Andrews for meetings with R&A officials.
Davis said the meetings will be held remotely instead.
The USGA hosts 14 championships and more than 700 qualifying events, a handful of those at international sites. The association is monitoring the virus but has not adjusted any scheduled events at this point.
Davis, who serves on the board of the International Golf Federation, which is directly involved with golf in the Olympics, said plans are still moving forward for the games to go on this summer in Tokyo, Japan, but acknowledged the situation is being watched closely.
Top: John Bodenhamer, the USGA's senior managing director of championships, speaks at the association's annual meeting.
Ron Green Jr. and Jim Nugent