A return to Torrey and prime time for the U.S. Open on West Coast
SAN DIEGO » The USGA is starting to escape that reputation of an East Coast bias for the U.S. Open.
The return to Torrey Pines for the 121st U.S. Open means another prime-time show along the Eastern seaboard, and that’s happening with greater frequency for the U.S. Open.
It wasn’t until the 48th edition of this national championship that it ventured farther west than Colorado, with Ben Hogan winning at Riviera in Los Angeles in 1948. That was the start of eight U.S. Opens in California over a span of 50 years.
The next 25 years include just as many U.S. Opens on the West Coast, which includes Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.
One appeal is being able to go prime time, with the weekend finish anticipated for 9 p.m. on Saturday and 8 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’s always good to have a West Coast site leading into the next TV negotiations or coming out of it,” former USGA executive director David Fay said.
The start of a 12-year agreement with Fox (since returned to NBC) was 2015 at Chambers Bay south of Seattle. The next TV contract would start in 2027 at Pebble Beach. And then there’s the weather.
“I’ve been looking at the forecast,” Jordan Spieth said before he even arrived at Torrey Pines. “Cooler nights, 75 degrees in the day and no rain. They can do whatever they want.”
As comfortable as it sounds, that’s not necessarily comfortable for the players. All indications from three days of practice is the USGA has the South course right where it wants it, with little chance of something unexpected causing the wrong kind of havoc.
Missing the fairways is enough of a problem. Of greater concern might be missing the green. Wilco Nienaber, the big basher from South Africa, found that out behind the fifth green Wednesday. All he could do was chop at it to get it up in the air and move it forward, and then watch it roll some 25 feet by the hole.
Sure, it’s tough. That’s what players have come to expect from the U.S. Open. And that works anywhere in the country, East and West, or somewhere in between.
“It’s fairways and greens,” Rory McIlroy said. “It’s a proper U.S. Open test.”
McIlroy arrived later than usual for the U.S. Open, mainly because he played the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January. It’s not the same — not even close — though he has a familiarity of where the ball should be going, where not to miss.
His hope is not to be too slow out of the gates. McIlroy has gone seven years since he last won a major in the 2014 PGA Championship, a stretch too long for that amount of talent.