Do we not have a running 2017 golf thread?

I guess I'm unclear on the issue that prevents a club from hosting a PGA AND a US Open championship. The term "defection" is used. Do both orgs demand exclusivity for consideration? Granted, you won't host a PGA and Open the same year but isn't the course the thing?

FWIW - never liked the Olympic as a major course. The shot onto the 18th at a major should make the golfer feel like they are in the middle of a gladiator arena, not sneaking into a library after hours. Pebble is much better.

 

The debacle on the 18th green with Payne Stewart will be in my mind forever.
It just wouldn't stop rolling.

 

It's super political, and yes, both orgs do not have a cooperative spirit, so to speak.

You also have to agree to let the decisions of your club be taken over by the organization for a year prior to the tournament, holding your membership essentially hostage. Most super private clubs don't want more than one major every five years because of the disruption is causes. But enough private courses DO want a major that you can't hold them on public courses every year. Both governing bodies feel pressure to do the "grow the game" quid pro quo, so if you spend millions and millions to build new courses, you're going to be considered for a major if you want one (Chambers; Erin Hills).

I'm excited for LA Country Club. I love US Opens on the West Coast.

If they never played a major at Southern Hills, Congo, Baltusrol or Olympia Fields again, I'd be thrilled.

 

Olympia Fields will never see a Tour major again. Women's and Champions, maybe. Southern Hills is a wonderful course somebody built in the middle of a very moist oven. Baltusrol will get other majors.

 

It totally depends on how the membership feels, and that varies wildly. After all, one of the most exclusive clubs, Augusta National, pretty much exists for the purpose of putting on its major. I know the Country Club was very turned off by the 1999 Ryder Cup experience (can't blame 'em. Most liquored up crowd of my Boston sportswriting experience and that's setting a pretty high bar.) but since then has mellowed and will have another US Open.

 

Boy, I had no idea that the major golf associations were so paranoid and dysfunctional until I got hired to deal with the PGA just a few years ago.

It's literally a turf war.

The PGA exists to teach people how to give golf lessons and sell overpriced merchandise in the pro shop. They're fanatically obsessed with -- and openly despise -- the USGA, because the USGA gets to set rules and the U.S. Open is considered more prestigious than the PGA Championship. If you choose to go with the USGA, the PGA won't have anything to do with you. And vice versa.

They despise the PGA Tour, because 50 years after the split, there are still hard feelings. Plus, the higher-ups in the PGA believe The Players is considered more prestigious than the PGA Championship, which is probably why moving the PGA to the spring is better than being the "season's last major" or an afterthought.

So the folks at Palm Beach Gardens have this tremendous inferiority complex, which is bad enough. However, it's coupled with a dangerous sense of entitlement, because if you don't teach or sell golf shirts, you become a director of golf at a hoity-toity private club, eventually leading to becoming Section President and getting elected to the national board. That's where all the big egos get bigger.

But they have the Ryder Cup, which is perhaps the best event in golf not called The Masters. Except the PGA can't stand any negative press, so they go apoplectic at the slightest possible hint of an insult to their captain's picks, vice captains, course maintenance, crowd control, parking, weather, choice of beverages or just if they think you might be looking at them funny. And just imagine if the U.S. fails to trounce Europe, like in 2014. TASK FORCE! And how dare the Olympics try to horn in on their show.

The USGA, Augusta National, the R&A, the Tour ... all seem to be rich guys (and USGA's woman president) with serious trust and cooperation issues. Probably why Donald Trump fits in so nicely.

 

I never dealt with the R&A, but of the other three the Augusta National folks were by far the easiest to deal with as a media person.

 

PS: Maumann. Back in my day, the PGA was reduced to telling courses that they had to hold the PGA Championship if they wanted a Ryder Cup. Sure I'll go out with you, but you have to find a date for my friend.

 

Payne did an excellent job making them more media friendly (way better than Hootie). Will be curious to see what approach Ridley takes.

 

Payne did not run the Olympics very well, but that's just a damn hard job for anyone. He was an excellent Augusta National President.