A major success getting in seven major championships
HOUSTON — Already the latest a major championship had ever been played, it was only fitting the U.S. Women’s Open had to go an additional day because of rain.
Equally appropriate for the conclusion of this surreal season was the winner, A Lim Kim, wearing a mask while she played. “I’m OK to get positive tests for COVID-19, but I don’t want to affect other people,” Kim said. What a year.
Mike Davis, the retiring CEO of the USGA, couldn’t help but think about what almost was.
Imagine the USGA leaving the wintry chill of Houston on Monday and heading straight to Los Angeles for a U.S. Open at Riviera the week before Christmas. It was one day away from happening.
And it’s a reminder that piecing together a major championship schedule among seven golf organizations in the middle of a pandemic was tougher than trying to hit a mudsplotched ball with a 5iron.
Davis could only smile and shake his head on the eve of the Women’s Open when thinking back to the possibilities and the lastminute phone calls as golf was trying to reconfigure a schedule that worked for everyone.
September was probably the latest the British Open could be played because of weather and daylight in England. The PGA Cham
pionship was going from May to August. The Masters was going from April to November. Davis said the USGA thought about consecutive weeks in December to stage a U.S. Open for women and men.
He said he called Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open, but the greens on the North course were not ready. So he called Riviera Country Club, which asked for 24 hours to consider, and called back to accept.
“We were ready to go,” Davis said.
Press releases were prepared for the surprise announcement. And then the R&A concluded it could not host the British Open this year and would be forced to cancel. That freed up September, the USGA made sure the date would work with Winged Foot, and so it was.
That only one major — the oldest one — wasn’t played is remarkable.
Between the men and
women, golf staged seven majors in five U.S. states (two in California separated by one month, 500 miles and more than 50 degrees in temperature) and Scotland.
No tickets were sold. The courses were not devoid of spectators because of player guests (a spouse, a parent); photographers, writers and support staff for the broadcast; and tournament and club officials. The Masters allowed Augusta National members, who only wore their green jackets if they were on a tournament committee (Peyton Manning apparently isn’t on a committee yet).
Observers can only speculate whether the silence helped or hurt. Six of the seven winners had never won a major. Two of them — Sophia Popov in the Women’s British Open at Royal Troon and Kim at the U.S. Women’s Open — had never even played a major.