USGA moves up Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn CC
The United States Golf Association has moved up its dates for this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open to be held at Brooklawn Country Club.
The United States Golf Association announced Tuesday morning that the third U.S. Senior Women’s Open will now be held July 29-Aug. 1 at Brooklawn CC in Fairfield. It was originally supposed to be held Aug. 19-22.
“In an effort to both ensure a strong field and prioritize our broadcast opportunities, we have made the decision to adjust the dates of the third U.S. Senior Women’s Open,” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director, championships, said in a statement. “After listening to player feedback and consulting with our new broadcast partner, NBCUniversal, it was clear that separating the dates from the week of the AIG Women’s Open was important to the overall success of the championship.”
The AIG Women’s Open is being held Aug. 19-22 in Carnoustie, Scotland. So players above 50 would have had to choose between playing that event and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
Matt Sawicki, the senior director of championships at the USGA, said conversations were had with the players, the USGA, the LPGA, NBC Universal — which took over the broadcast rights for the USGA events from Fox last year — and Brooklawn CC to agree to these new dates.
“I think we heard from a number of our constituents. As the LPGA continued to evolve their schedule and we continued to look at the landscape of events across the globe we recognized in the best interest of our greatest stakeholders, the players, to move that championship,” Sawicki said. “These are discussions that take place over a number of weeks. Ultimately at the Women’s Open (held in December), we had a few more face-to-face dialogues about finding a right date.”
Rick Ryan, Brooklawn’s general chair for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, said the USGA only offered the new dates as a possible change and said moving the tournament back a few weeks wasn’t an issue for the private Fairfield club.
“I said to them (the USGA) the championship is the cake, but the national television is the icing on the cake. I prefer cake with icing and so does our membership,” Ryan said. “We had a signed contract with other dates. We were asked if we could accommodate the new dates. The answer was yes.”
Brooklawn CC was supposed to host this event in 2020, but the USGA cancelled the championship among others due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brooklawn CC remained interested in hosting this year and remained in constant contact with the USGA, which announced Brooklawn getting a second chance at hosting the third U.S. Senior Women’s Open on Aug. 26.
This year’s event will have golfers qualifying for the event nationwide. Last year, qualifiers for all USGA events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yes, we actually already conducted qualifiers for our (U.S. Women’s Amateur) Four Ball championships,” Sawicki said.
One of the unknowns at this point is whether spectators will be allowed at Brooklawn CC for the championship.
“I’m confident we will have spectators, but I don’t make that call,” Ryan said.
Another big question for now: Will Annika Sorenstam be competing? Sorenstam, who retired from competition in 2008, turned 50 in October, making her eligible for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. She expressed in a GolfChannel.com story last month that she would like to have her children see her play some events.
“I’m keeping both fingers crossed she comes,” Ryan said.