vol. 32, no. 33 r o c h e s t e r golf in a remote and ... · light the pristine surroundings....

Golf in a Remote and Breathtaking Part of the World

by ALLIE LAZARAn Andean condor, one of

the world’s largest flying birds, occasionally sails beneath the snowy peak of the Lanín volca-no, swoops through a valley and over the fairway at El Desafío Mountain Resort in Patagonia’s northwest region.

Pumas, foxes and wild boars sometimes make their way near the course too, said Alfredo Bauer, who pauses his round of golf whenever he sees ani-mals roaming. Bauer, 64, from Buenos Aires, built his vacation home at El Desafío, a private golf and polo community about 10 miles outside San Martín de

los Andes, a city in Argentina’s Neuquén Province. “It’s still so pure here,” he said. “It’s my favorite place in the world.” El Desafío and the nearby Chapel-co Golf & Resort are attracting international golfers seeking to connect with nature and play on courses with stunning views.

Designed by the Hall of Fame golfers Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman, these courses have been integrated with the ter-rain and vegetation, taking a minimalist approach to high-light the pristine surroundings. Nongolfers have gravitated there too, building houses and working

Snow Golf? In Switzerland, Where the Greens Are White

by ADAM H. GRAHAMFor years, golf has been asso-

ciated with lush greens, bluebird skies and a Whitman’s sampler of riotous plaids and checks. But few know the sport has also qui-etly embraced winter whites, par-ticularly in ski-crazy Switzerland.

In 2021, the Engadin Snow Golf Cup will enter its 42nd

year in Switzerland’s Engadine Valley, home to St. Moritz, and its famed diamond dust skies and scenic alpine golf courses dating to 1889. What started as a lark in one of Switzerland’s sunniest winter sports destinations, has become a bona fide sport that’s not only drawn golf enthusiasts

This Year’s U.S. Open Spotlights Ben Hogan’s Claim to a Fifthby MARTIN DAVIS

For almost 100 years, the hall-mark of the United States Open has been the qualifying procedure. It’s integral to the very nature of the Open, as the tournament is open to all comers — provided they have an official handicap index of 1.4 or better.

Usually the Open field is composed of 156 players, with half of them qualifying via prior performance and the other half through a series of grueling qualifying rounds. The Open is played on some of the fin-est courses in the land, under the most rigorous conditions imaginable, but the need to first qualify through superlative play is paramount.

It is this requirement of hav-ing to earn one’s way into the championship that clearly sets the Open apart as the most democratic of all of golf’s tour-naments.

Typically, there are 9,000 to 10,000 applicants for local qual-ifying at about 115 sites across

the country, with successful qual-ifiers moving on to 10 region-al qualifying sites in the United States. There are also additional international qualifying rounds, with regionals in Canada, England and Japan. Most years, about 78 players are fully exempt into the championship and qualify through a variety of categories — winners

of the major tournaments over the past several years, winners of other U.S.G.A. events in the past year, high finishers on vari-ous money lists and the like.

Because of the coronavirus pan-demic, the U.S.G.A. canceled all qualifying and replaced it by de-liberately selecting players picked

If this year’s U.S. Open, without local and sectional qualifying is consid-ered official, shouldn’t Ben Hogan’s name be added to the championship trophy? (Ar/Getty Images)

Bryson DeChambeau Wins U.S. Open His Way: In Commanding Fashion

by BILL PENNINGTONMAMARONECK, N.Y. — The

most repeated, and accepted, prediction before the 2020 United States Open at Winged Foot Golf Club was that the golf course would overwhelm the field with its time-honored com-bination of elusive fairways and punishing rough.

That forecast was not wrong. Every golfer but one failed to shoot under par in the champi-onship this year.

But the most prescient proph-ecy came from the lone player with an under-par score in the event, Bryson DeChambeau, 27, the beefy college physics major who theorized that he would overpower Winged Foot by bombing tee shots so far that it would be irrelevant whether his ball landed in the fairway or not. Almighty distance would eclipse precision.

Not only was DeChambeau right, in the wake of his runaway six-stroke victory on Sunday at the 120th U.S. Open, but golf itself may be on the cusp of ac-ceding to the new methodologies he espouses. The counterintui-

tive philosophies DeChambeau has preached and his unconven-tional tactics, including his belief that an intense strength-train-ing regimen can significantly augment what has been largely considered a finesse sport, now have the validation of a major championship title.

Tens of thousands of young golfers watching DeChambeau dominate the field as he easily surpassed Matthew Wolff, the

third-round leader who finished second, may be moved to em-ulate the new, hard-swinging U.S. Open champion. So, in fact, might many of his brethren, even those who mocked De-Chambeau as an overanalytical eccentric.

Most of the 20-something pro golfers, like the 21-year-old Wolff, already swing harder and do more weight training

“Tiger inspired this whole generation to do this, and we’re going to keep going after it,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop.” (Hilary Swift for The New York Times)

The Engadin Snow Golf Cup is a nine-hole tournament played in a snow field in Surlej near Silvaplana Lake.

A condor flying over San Martín de los Andes, Argentina, with the Lanín volcano in the background. (Eliseo Miciu)

Commanding — PAGE 3

Hogan’s Claim — PAGE 6Snow Golf — PAGE 5

Remote and Breathtaking — PAGE 7

Vol. 32, No. 33 R O C H E S T E R Monday, September 21, 2020

OUR 1645 THISSUE

Local Holes-In-One on Page 3 See Past Holes-In-One at golfweekrochester.com

MulligansNews, Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes from the Local Golfing Community

Cindy Glitzer Wins Senior Champion and Cheryl DeMeyers Wins Super Senior Champion at WRDGA Senior Championship

The Women’s Rochester Dis-trict Golf Association held its Senior Championship on Mon-dayday, September 14 at Chili Country Club.

Cindy Glitzer won Senior Champion and Cheryl DeMeyers won Super Senior Champion. Runners up were Maggie Kril and Mary Munger.

WNYPGA Match Play Championship Results

(September 15) — Kirk Stauffer, PGA Director of Golf at Chautauqua Golf Club, won the WNYPGA Match Play Cham-

pionship for the fourth time at Crag Burn Golf Club by defeat-ing Rodney Blair, PGA Profes-sional at the Park Club, 4 & 3.

In the Semi-Finals, Blair de-feated Jack Widger, Elkdale CC, on the 21st Hole and Stauffer defeated Conor Grandin, Oak Hill CC, 2 up.

In the Quarter-Finals, Stauffer defeated Jon Hoecker, Brook Lea CC on the 19th Hole, Conor Grandin defeated Jeff Kaye, Livingston CC, 4 & 3, Widger defeated Tom Keenan, PGA Life Member, 5 & 3 and Blair defeated Rob Horak, Mid-vale CC, 3 & 2.

• • •

WNYPGA Assistant Match Play Results

(September 17) — Tim Falk-ner, PGA Assistant Professional at Crag Burn Golf Club, won the WNYPGA Assistant Associ-ation Season Long Match Play Championship by defeating Greg Beringer, Oak Hill CC, 4 & 3 at Stafford Country Club. The win sent Falkner to the top of the WNYAA Omega Play-er of the Year Standings with one event left in the WNYAA schedule.

• • •

WNYPGA WNYAA Stroke Play Results

Matt Stasiak, Teaching Pro-fessional at Battistoni Golf Cen-ter, and Anthony Schiro, Head Professional at Glen Oak Golf Club, tied for first place in the GOLF MAX WNYAA Stroke Play at Holiday Valley Resort with 75. Host PGA Assistant Professional, Kyle Benish and David Patronik from Woods to Wedges finished tied for third with 76.

The first-place tie took Stasiak to the honor of the WNYPGA OMEGA Assistant Player of the Year for 2020. x

Cheryl DeMeyers of Clifton Springs Country Club, WRDGA Super Se-nior Champion

Senior Champion ...............................Cindy Glitzer ................. 76Senior Champion Runner-Up ..............Maggie Kril ................... 82Super Senior Champion .....................Cheryl DeMeyers ........... 89Super Senior Champion Runner-Up ....Mary Munger ................ 92Nancy Lopez FlightLow Gross .........................................Barb Lucas ................... 82Low Net ............................................Phyllis Haberer .............. 76Kathy Whitworth Flight1st Low Gross ....................................Julie Hamm .................. 832nd Low Gross ..................................Tammy Blyth ................ 851st Low Net .......................................Paula Piper ................... 732nd Low Gross ..................................JoAnn Campbell ........... 75Babe Zaharias Flight1st Low Gross ....................................Kitty Colliflower ............ 842nd Low Gross ..................................Jan Lavigne .................. 853rd Low Gross ...................................Joy Florczak .................. 911st Low Net .......................................Linda Patten ................. 762nd Low Net......................................Ramona Rathbun .......... 773rd Low Net ......................................Linda Potter .................. 77Super Senior FlightLow Net ............................................Sharon White ................ 76

WRDGA Senior ChampionshipSEPTEMBER 14, 2020, CHILI COUNTRY CLUB

Cindy Glitzer of Chili Country Club, 2020 WRDGA Senior Champion

In the photo, Kirk’s wife Teena reminds him that she is still 1 Up.Tim Falkner

Matt Stasiak and Anthony Schiro

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than their predecessors. But DeChambeau has gone further than anyone else, and not just symbolically. His average drive off the tee traveled 325 yards, the longest for any U.S. Open champion. He also shot 67 on Sunday, the only under-par round of the day.

“I think I’m definitely chang-ing the way people think of the game,” DeChambeau, whose four-day score was 274, or six-under par. He added: “The next generation that’s coming up into golf hopefully will see this and go, ‘Hey, I can do that, too.’ I’ve just wanted to just keep pressing the status quo.”

He has done that and more.

Next, DeChambeau will turn his iconoclastic deliberations toward conquering the Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters Tournament in two months. Its golf course, which is almost de-void of rough, is susceptible to a power game, especially now that DeChambeau has proved he can win at Winged Foot, where the victor’s score was five-over par the last time the club hosted the U.S. Open, in 2006.

DeChambeau is 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds — he gained 40 pounds this winter in an attempt to swing more forcefully — but on Sunday evening he was asked if he wanted to become bigger before the Masters.

“Yeah, I think I can get to

245; it’s going to be a lot of working out,” he answered.

The extraordinary ball speeds he routinely generates — in excess of 200 miles an hour — have at-tracted most of the attention this season, but DeChambeau is far from a one-trick pony.

Long before he bulked up, he was a N.C.A.A. and United States Amateur champion and exhibited the deft skills near the green necessary to be a good short game player. He is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour and last month finished tied for fourth at the P.G.A. Champion-ship, the first golf major of the season.

On Sunday, DeChambeau re-lied on all of his faculties to turn the mammoth drives off the tee into three birdies, 14 pars and only one bogey.

On the first hole, Wolff, who began the round with a two-stroke lead, outdrove DeCham-beau, his playing partner. De-Chambeau nonetheless hit his approach shot more than seven feet closer to the hole than Wolff did. With steadier putting, De-Chambeau erased Wolff’s lead by the fourth hole and took the lead on the next hole, when he sank a seven-foot par putt and Wolff missed his par attempt from 10 feet.

DeChambeau gained two more strokes on Wolff at the 10th and 11th holes, but he exhibited the somewhat-under-appreciated depth of his talent for golf at the 14th hole, which was also a turning point.

DeChambeau hit only six of 14 fairways on Sunday, and his drive from the 14th tee was one of his worst — pulled left and into the deepest grass on the hole. He had 135 yards to a sloped green that might reject a shot from rough that typically would lack spin, or one that landed too close to the hole.

“I’ve got a lot of creativity,”

DeChambeau said, explaining what transpired next.

He had an uphill lie and de-cided that would make it easier to hit his golf ball near the top of the face of an iron. It would reduce the impact of his swing and, in DeChambeau’s mind, let the ball land short of the green but still have some roll.

When DeChambeau made contact it sounded like a flubbed shot — as if too much grass had lodged between the club and the ball. But that was the plan.

“The ball came out dead be-cause of the lie, and it rolled down there to 10 feet from the hole,” DeChambeau said.

He made his par putt, and Wolff missed his. The rout was on.

“That was huge,” DeCham-beau said. “If I don’t make that and he makes his, you know,

we’ve got a fight.”There were no other serious

contenders DeChambeau had to worry about. Louis Oosthuizen, who shot 73 on Sunday, was in third place, eight strokes back.

After hoisting the trophy, a smiling DeChambeau was already plotting the other breakthroughs he has for golf. They include a longer, 48-inch driver — the kind more commonly used in long driving competitions, where ac-curacy is not paramount. He will test some new driver heads, too.

“Tiger inspired this whole gen-eration to do this, and we’re going to keep going after it,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t think it’s going to stop.”

Looking almost bemused, he paused before adding: “I kept telling everybody it’s an advan-tage to hit it farther.” x

© The New York Times

Dennis Sneddon aced Hole #12 at Deerfield Country Club for 138 yards, using a 5-Wood.

At Shadow Lake Golf & Country Club, Rui Amorim used a 7-Iron to score a hole-in-one on the 157-yard 17th hole.

Robert Booms used a 7-iron to ace the 156-yard 12th hole at Stafford Country Club.

On the 170-yard sixth hole at Shore Acres Golf Course, Evan Harrington used a 5-iron to score a hole-in-one.

Using a 7-Iron, Curt Provenzo aced the 175-yard 17th hole at Cobblestone Creek Country Club.

At Reservoir Creek Golf Club, Mary Lisi used an 8-Iron to score a hole-in-one on the 100-yard 17th hole.

Local Holes-In-OneSee More On-line at www.golfweekrochester.com

Bryson DeChambeau shot a final round 67 on Sunday, and his average drive off the tee traveled 325 yards, the longest for any U.S. Open cham-pion. (Hilary Swift for The New York Times)

With steadier putting, DeChambeau, center, erased Matthew Wolff’s lead by the fourth hole and took the lead on the fifth. (Hilary Swift for The New York Times)

Commanding

(Continued from Page 1)

� Rochester�GOLF�WEEK�•�Monday,�September�21,�2020�•�Page�3

The First Look: Corales Puntacana Resort

& Club Championshipby ADAM STANLEY

Graeme McDowell’s Round 4 highlights from Corales Pun-tacana

For the first time, the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Cham-pionship will offer full FedEx-Cup points to the winner. The TOUR’s stop in the Dominican Republic has continued to move up in stature since it debuted on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule in 2016.

Graeme McDowell is back to defend his title from 2019 — his first TOUR victory in nearly five years.

FIELD NOTES: Will Zalatoris, who is tops on the Korn Ferry Tour’s Points List and made the cut in the U.S. Open, is in the field on a sponsor exemption. Zalatoris is hitting a KFT-leading 81% of his greens this season. He has 11 straight top-20s on that circuit, the longest streak in KFT history… Past FedExCup champion Henrik Stenson makes his debut in the Dominican… Graeme McDowell looks to become the first golfer to defend his title at Corales... The three other past champions — Brice Garnett, Nate Lashley and Dominic Bozzelli (the latter two were winners when the event was on the Korn Ferry Tour) will look to reclaim some Caribbean magic… 18-year-old Akshay Bha-tia will tee it up at Corales after his top-10 at the Safeway Open. He was the youngest player to finish in the top 10 of a stroke-play event on the PGA TOUR since Justin Rose at the 1998 Open Championship… Rafa Campos — from nearby Puerto Rico — will be in the field. He teed it up at the Safeway Open for his first TOUR start since January because of injury… Corales club pro Julio Santos will lead a nice contingent of Dominican golfers

in the field.FEDEXCUP: Winner receives

500 FedExCup points.COURSE: Puntacana Resort

& Club (Corales Golf Course), par 72, 7,666 yards (yardage subject to change). The Tom Fazio design from 2008 is a beautiful beast, culminating in the final three-hole stretch dubbed “The Devil’s Elbow” with a dramatic forced carry over the Bay of Corales on 18. The front nine also wraps up along the coastline. While fairly open off the tee, when the wind blows it’s difficult to nail down yardages into the difficult green complexes.

STORYLINES: The event started as a Korn Ferry Tour event before becoming an op-posite-field event in 2018. Now it offers full FedExCup points to the winner … The Corales course is one of the longest the TOUR plays every season… The event was originally scheduled for March 23-29 but was moved due to COVID-19… Mackenzie Hughes, who finished 14th on the FedExCup standings last sea-son, will look to improve on his T2 from a year ago at Corales. He’s the highest-ranked finisher from the 2019-20 FedExCup in

the field.72-HOLE RECORD: 264,

Dominic Bozzelli (2016 Korn Ferry Tour). As PGA TOUR event: 270, Brice Garnett (2018), Graeme McDowell (2019).

18-HOLE RECORD: 62, Stephan Jaeger (2nd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour), Scott Harrington (2nd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour), Alexandre Rocha (3rd round, 2016 Korn Ferry Tour). As PGA TOUR event: 63, Brice Garnett (1st round, 2018), Chip McDaniel (4th round, 2019).

LAST TIME: After struggling to an opening-round 73 Graeme McDowell’s putter heated up through the weekend (he took only 20 putts on Saturday) and he captured his first PGA TOUR win since 2015. McDowell topped Mackenzie Hughes and Chris Stroud by one shot after a final-round 69 that included a key birdie on the penultimate hole. His birdie on the par-3 17th to Stroud’s bogey was the late-round swing McDowell needed. Jonathan Byrd finished fourth, while Kelly Kraft and Monday qualifier Chip McDaniel rounded out the top five. x

©PGATour.com



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Rory McIlroy Questions Whether Bryson DeChambeau Transformation is Good for Golf

by MATT MAJENDIE Rory McIlroy has questioned whether

Bryson DeChambeau’s brute-force suc-cess in winning his first Major at the U.S. Open is right for the game of golf.

The heavy-hitting DeChambeau only made 23 fairways during the course of the four rounds, but still proved victorious as the only man under par on the final day.

“I don’t really know what to say, be-cause that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. Open champion does,” said McIlroy. “He’s found a way to do it.

“Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it.”

DeChambeau bulked up sizeably during lockdown, putting on more than three stone — mostly muscle — by consuming

up to six protein shakes a day in a bid to power his way to the top of the game.

And after reaping the re-wards, McIlroy, who finished in the top 10, said: “I think it’s brilliant, but I think he’s taken advantage of where the game is at the minute. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong.”

Following his maiden Major win, DeChambeau predicted budding golfers would copy his approach to the game. He said: “I hope that inspires peo-ple to say, ‘Hey, look, that’s a different way to do it’. Hope-fully, my way inspires people. I think I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game.” x

©EveningStandard Question marks: Rory McIlroy (Getty Images )







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DeChambeau Carves Up US Open One Divot-Sized Slice at a Timeby JIM LITKE

(AP) — Golfers like to say they win when it’s their week, when a swing adjustment suddenly clicks or because they’re driving the ball and putting it just that little better than everyone else. Bryson De-Chambeau has a different take: He thinks every week belongs to him.

Over the course of four days, DeChambeau unnerved the folks who run the U.S. Open and carved up Winged Foot’s unyield-ing reputation one divot-sized slice at a time. By the end, he was the only player to beat par, which also happened to be enough to beat his closest pursuer, Matthew Wolff, by a whopping six shots. In the bargain, DeChambeau turned one

of the golf’s foundational myths — the game is about how many, not how — inside out.

“I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. Open champion does” said Rory McIlroy, who counts the 2011 U.S. Open among his four major championship wins. “Look, he’s found a way to do it. Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played.”

The big debate in golf at the moment is about the merits of dis-tance vs. accuracy. Most weeks, a younger, fitter generation of play-ers inspired by Tiger Woods tries

to drive the ball as far from the tee as possible, figuring a second shot with a wedge — even from the rough — is easier than say, a 6-iron from the middle of the fairway. It’s called the “bomb and gouge” strategy and DeChambeau has become both its loudest and most successful advocate.

He’s already tinkered with every other facet of the game, from equipment (single-length irons) to how he reads putts (factor-ing in the rotation of the planet). Last October, with five PGA Tour wins already under his belt, De-Chambeau doubled down on the distance side of the argument, announcing he would pack on 40 pounds of muscle in a bid to hit the ball even farther.

“I’m going to come back next year,” he vowed, “and look like a different person.”

Yet even at the start of the week, few people believed he re-sembled a U.S. Open champion. No tournament in golf places a higher premium on par, or re-wards accuracy while punishing wayward shots with rough sev-eral times gnarlier than anything encountered at a routine tour event. But when the U.S. Golf Association set up Winged Foot, it’s risk-reward calculations ended yards behind where many of De-Chambeau’s tee shots landed.

None of that would matter, however, if he couldn’t putt, or if DeChambeau didn’t have a work ethic that saw him back out on the practice range for several hours after he’d completed his round Saturday, pounding drive after drive into the distance and well be-yond the reach of a few scattered spotlights.

Tiger Woods had that same drive though the prime of his ca-reer and for a while, he hit the ball

farther than just about all of his major rivals, too. There’s no way to know how long DeChambeau will have that same advantage nor whether he’ll hold up over the long run.

But either way, the powers-that-be in golf are going to have decide how much distance is too much, and whether to throttle back the ball, sooner than they planned. On Sunday, No. 16 at Winged Foot stretched to 508 yards, a par-5 dogleg converted to a par-4. DeChambeau shred-ded that defense by cutting the corner with a tee shot that mea-sured 365 yards.

“I don’t know what they can do really, because he’s hitting it so far,” said Louis Oosthuizen, who finished third.

The more immediate concern, though, is how many of the golf courses on the schedule will be able to contain him.

“If he can do it around here,” McIlroy said. “I’m thinking of Au-gusta and thinking of the way you play there.” x

but has begun to lure second home buyers seeking winter rec-reational activities adjacent to the snowy piste.

Winter golfing might sound odd, but the alps of southern Switzerland are especially sunny and offer a refuge for golfers from northern European coun-tries who may not feel like haul-ing their nine irons on a plane for a few rounds farther afield. What’s more, snow golf offers an active but less-risky alternative to skiing. This has all led to a surge in popularity in predictable places like Germany, Austria, Canada and the United States (including popular golf destinations like Col-orado, California, Wisconsin and North Carolina) but also off-the-golf-radar spots like Argentina, Greenland and Finland.

It has also drawn enthusiasts to buy nearby property. “Winter golf is just one of many offerings that make Switzerland’s Enga-dine Valley attractive for second home buyers, and a few have even bought here solely because of that,” said Ramun Ratti, the managing director at Engadine Golf Course, home to two 18-hole courses; it will host the Snow Golf Cup in January. “But snow golf is and will probably always be niche.”

While images of winter golf on frozen lakes can be found as far back as 17th-century Dutch paintings, it’s believed by some that modern snow golf started with St. Moritz’s former resort manager, Peter Kasper, who

took up the idea of converting the putting greens to whites in 1904, which turned into reali-ty with the first tournament in 1979, held on a frozen Lake St. Moritz. (The tournament moved in 1996, and today nine holes are played in a snow field in Sur-lej near Silvaplana Lake.)

There are, of course, signif-icant differences with regular golf. The “whites” need a lot of manual grooming to make the surface around the hole com-pact, and the balls are orange and the golf holes three times bigger than regulation size. But the trade-off is something spe-cial, enthusiasts say.

“Winter golf is an amazing ex-perience,” said Caroline Rom-inger, a professional golfer and Engadine native. “It can be quite cold, but when the sun comes out, we often play without jackets.”

The Alps play host to another tournament, the Barnes Winter Golf Cup, which is entering its fourth year in 2021. The an-nual host of the event rotates between four different alpine resorts: Courchevel, Megève, and Val d’Isére, in France; and Crans-Montana, in Switzer-land’s Canton Valais, host of the Omega European Masters and one of eight golf courses in the canton.

As the popularity of snow golf tournaments has grown, so has demand for nearby real estate.

Switzerland has had a wave of new golf residences, resorts and courses open in recent years, including Bürgenstock,

a resort complex of hotels and residences perched above tur-quoise Lake Lucerne and once home to Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren. In 2017, its sce-nic nine-hole course offering views of mountains like Eiger, Jungfrau, Pilatus and Titlis, re-opened. Andermatt’s network of high-altitude residences and a 18-hole course just below the Gotthard Pass opened in 2016, while Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, the spa resort, reopened in 2019 with three hotels and seven restaurants, including two with two Michelin stars each.

The next generation of Swit-zerland’s golf communities in-cludes Golf Resort La Gruyère, scheduled to reopen in 2023 after a major refurbishment. Not all courses offer snow golf, but demand is growing and having fun is the goal.

“Snow golf is not about scores,” said Eveline Fasser Testa, a regu-lar player who lives in St. Moritz. “The chance that you’ll find your ball in the deep snow is unlikely. It’s more about the experience of playing golf in the winter and having a great day.” x


The Bürgenstock Alpine Spa.

Snow Golf








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DeChambeau Declares What His Next Big Equipment Experiment Will Beby E. MICHAEL JOHNSONAfter winning the 2020 U.S.

Open, Bryson DeChambeau said long-drive specialists such as Kyle Berkshire and Justin James “all inspired me to try and go harder at it. They are the ones breaking the barriers. I can see what is possible.”

Now it appears as if DeCham-beau might go after another trait some on the long-drive circuit use in order to get even longer than he already is — a 48-inch driver.

Asked if his U.S. Open win validated his approach, DeCham-beau did not hesitate. “Absolute-ly,” he said. “And I’m not going to stop. Next week, I’m going to be trying a 48-inch driver. We’re going to be messing with some head designs and do some amaz-ing things with Cobra to make it feasible to hit these drives maybe 360 [yards], 370, maybe even farther. I don’t know.”

According to Ben Schomin, PGA Tour rep for Cobra who works with DeChambeau on his equipment, DeChambeau’s current Cobra Speedzone driver is 45.75 inches, so a 48-inch driver is an additional 2.25 inch-es in length. Schomin notes, however, that a drastic change

to the driver head isn’t likely needed as DeChambeau already uses light, 2-gram weights in the two weight ports on the bottom of the club. By already utiliz-ing a light clubhead, the extra weight from the additional length shouldn’t be an issue.

That said, the relationship be-tween clubhead speed and shaft length is not always an easy one to figure out. That’s because a longer club generates more clubhead speed than a shorter club only when, at impact, it is rotating around the swing axis at the same rate. In layman’s terms, it means the clubhead will cover a longer arc in the same amount of time, thus increasing speed and distance.

Although one would be crazy to question DeChambeau’s desire to try a 48-inch driver, longer driver shafts have a mixed history. Major winners such as Phil Mick-elson (47-inch shaft) and Padraig Harrington (a brief experiment with a 48-inch shaft) found little success by going longer.

A pair of senior tour players, however, did well with longer shafts. Rocky Thompson nota-bly used a 56-inch shaft (before length was limited to 48 inches)

in the early 1990s. Just 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, Thompson finished among the top 10 in driving distance on that circuit for four straight years (1991-’94). Terry Dill followed Thomp-son’s lead and used a 47-inch shaft in his driver (compared to 43 inches prior) on the senior tour and picked up five addition-al yards.

As for DeChambeau, it’s not just about added yards, but the impact his innovative approach has on the game.

“I think I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game,” DeChambeau said after his win. “I hope that inspires people to say, ‘Hey, look, maybe there is a different way to do it.’ Not everybody has to do it my way. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying in general that there are different ways to do things. If you can find your own way, find your passion—like Arnie said, swing your swing. That’s what I do. That’s what Matthew Wolff does.

That’s what Tiger does. That’s what Phil does. That’s what ev-erybody does. We’re all trying to play the best golf we can.”

For DeChambeau, playing the best golf he can is a perpetual work in progress. And for those who might be tempted to think a move to a 48-inch shaft is a questionable call, make that

assumption at your own risk. Whether it be single-length irons, low lofted drivers, graph-ite-shafted irons or a pretty unique putter, when it comes to his equipment DeChambeau has pretty much earned the ben-efit of the doubt that he knows what he’s doing. x

© GolfDigest.com

from several golf performance lists for approximately half the field with the other half coming from the fully exempt categories as usual. Because of the change of dates for the tournament — to mid-September from mid-June — the field was reduced to 144 players, a result of the fewer hours of available sunlight in the fall than in the summer that is critical to completing the first two rounds with a much larger field.

The goal was to mirror — as closely as possible — the average composition of the various play-er categories over the past few years and fit play into the avail-able light. John Bodenhamer, the U.S.G.A.’s senior managing director, in charge of the Open, acknowledged that the goal was to mirror the average composi-tion of the past few years. “This has been a very challenging year, and to go without quali-fying is deeply disappointing to us,” he said.

However, the U.S.G.A.’s cat-egory selections were somewhat

arbitrary — for example, this year’s inclusion of players off the Official World Golf Ranking list was increased to 70 from 60; 13 amateurs, always a fixture in the Open, were included, down from the 18 who played their way into the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.

Without the qualifying rounds, there won’t be any wonderful, compelling stories about the young assistant pro at a small club who overcomes all odds to qualify or the heartwarming tale of the senior amateur who first played in the Open 25 years before and finally made it back. The U.S.G.A. takes great joy in publicizing those individuals.

Also missing will be the ultimate Cinderella stories — the players who had to go through the quali-fying rounds and went on to win the U.S. Open — Ken Venturi in 1964, Orville Moody in 1969, Steve Jones in 1996, Michael Campbell in 2005 and Lucas Glover in 2009.

Because of the elimination of local and sectional qualifying, this year’s Open is tantamount to an invitational tournament. But the winner’s name will ap-pear on the U.S. Open trophy right there with the greats of the game. His scores will go in the official U.S.G.A. record book and he’ll also receive the same gold medal as those legendary players.

As a counterpoint, consider the case of the 1942 Open. It was called the Hale America Open, but it came to be known as the Wartime U.S. Open. It was conducted by the U.S.G.A., with an assist from the Chicago District Golf Association and the PGA of America, and was played at Ridgemoor Country Club in Chicago on the tradi-

tional mid-June dates for the U.S. Open.

Most significantly, it featured local and sectional qualifying conducted by the U.S.G.A.

Virtually all of the top players were there; players who had al-ready won a major or would go on to win one. Bobby Jones even came out of retirement to play.

Without a doubt, it had all of the trappings of the U.S. Open.

Ben Hogan won by three strokes over Mike Turnesa and Jimmy Demaret, and by four over Byron Nelson, shooting 17-un-der-par 271 for the tournament. Hogan’s Open appeared for many years in the official record book. And the gold medal that Hogan was presented with by the pres-ident of the U.S.G.A., George Blossom, was visually identical to the other four he would go on to win. There was one very slight exception — the background of a small field of stars on the face of the medal, about half the size of a pinkie fingernail, is not painted blue as it is normally in the ones that winners get for winning the Open.

The threshold question then is, if this year’s U.S. Open, without local and sectional qualifying — the bedrock principle underpin-ning the U.S. Open — is consid-ered official, shouldn’t Hogan’s name be added to the iconic tro-phy and his records put back in the official record book as well?

Hogan always believed he won five U.S. Opens, though U.S.G.A. removed the 1942 victory from their record book and did not engrave his name on the trophy. Restoring his fifth title would also change another bit of Open history: Hogan’s 62 in the second round would also count as the lowest score in the tournament’s history. x


Hogan’s Claim(Continued from Page 1)

Bryson DeChambeau has gained 20 yards in driving distance this year, but he’s looking for more. (Kevin C. Cox)





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with landscape designers to pre-serve the native wildlife.

San Martín de los Andes is known as the gateway to Pa-tagonia. It lies on the banks of Lago Lácar, one of the many glacial lakes in the district, and borders Lanín National Park, Chapelco Ski Resort and the Pa-tagonian steppe, the largest des-ert in Argentina. With its many mountain rivers and streams, the region is also known for its fly-fishing.

Desafío executives said the city attracted tourists, mostly from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. They come for events like Tetra Chapelco, a tetrathlon, and the Fiesta Nacional del Montañés, a festival featuring competitive wood chopping.

Chapelco Golf & Resort, a residential and vacation devel-opment, hotel, and golfing com-munity named after the nearby Chapelco mountain, opened for play in 2004. Jack Nicklaus and his son Jack Nicklaus II de-signed its 18-hole course, which was the first to bring the city major golf notoriety. This was

the farthest south the PGA Tour Latinoamérica had ever traveled when it hosted the Neuquén Argentina Classic in 2018 and 2019, and it was selected be-cause, according to the PGA, it’s “one of the most beautiful golf venues in Latin America.”

Across National Route 40 is El Desafío. Claudio Hirsch, its founding director, said he quit his Buenos Aires banking job in 1999 and began scouting land to buy in Patagonia. After founding Argentina’s National Parks Foundation in 2002, he came across an opportunity to purchase a 2,500-acre site on a tree-covered mountain four miles from San Martín de los Andes’ airport, which made it accessible despite its remote location. Its landscape could make “tears of joy fall from your face,” he said.

The ecological aspect was an important pillar of the de-velopment, maximizing natural areas to ensure the preservation of wildlife. “It was ambitious,” Hirsch said. “To build what we did on that mountain, it was an amazing thing.”

In 2008, the Dallas-based pri-

vate equity firm Hicks Trans American Partners joined the project as developers. “We tried to develop a community that would have the best of Patago-nia,” said Marcos Clutterbuck, director at El Desafío and part-ner at Hicks Trans American Partners. Its plans included a real estate development, a golf course, polo fields, equestrian facilities and a nature reserve.

The developers asked Nor-man, who had experience with mountain courses, to lead the golf course design team.

He said his vision was for every hole to have an open view of the mountains, volcano or

steppe, with houses allowed on only one fairway side to not ob-struct the view. Norman’s team incorporated the topography into the design and created wide corridors that all players could enjoy, but still challenging from the pro tees. “It’s worth the jour-ney all the way to Patagonia,” Norman said of the course.

The partners said they believed in an eco-friendly approach, using organic liquids instead of chemical fertilizers to treat the greens. They built an irrigation system propelled by gravity, not pumps, that traveled from a res-ervoir at the mountaintop, to streams and then into pipes.

The first nine holes were com-pleted in 2015, and executives hoped the final nine would be completed in five years.

Jorge Peralta of Patagonia Golf, who has organized golf tours in Argentina for 20 years, said that some of his clients re-turned to Patagonia to play golf because of the scenery, activ-ities and climate. The golfing season, he said, runs through the Southern Hemisphere’s warmer months of November through March and peaks in January, when there is daylight from about 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. “Golfers are always chasing the sun,” he said.

The lots at El Desafío were placed so as to not disturb the natural habitat. While each buyer chose an architect, the houses are largely modern in design and built primarily with stone and wood siding. There are 240 lots, about two-thirds of which are sold, Clut-terbuck said. Lots start at half an acre, from about $60,000 to $130,000, depending on size.

These Andes golfing commu-nities do not appeal only to lov-ers of the sport.

“This place is paradise,” said Alicia Sujoy, an architect from Buenos Aires, who vacationed at Chapelco Golf in 2009. Cap-

tivated by the area’s wildness, she bought land at El Desafío in 2012. By 2013, she celebrat-ed Christmas in her new home there.

“Here you can find solitude,” she said.

She spends winters and sum-mers there in the 4,062-square-foot sustainable solar-power house she designed using local materials. It has floor-to-ceil-ing windows with views of the mountains, volcano and steppe. She does not play golf, but the course is her favorite walk, and she takes advantage of the pri-vate 1,500-acre reserve, which remains untouched from con-struction, and, executives said, is reachable only by foot, bike or horseback.

Sujoy spends most days in her garden, where, under the counsel of the landscape design-er Karina Querejeta, she had hundreds of nonnative ponder-osa pines removed and plant-ed about 300 indigenous trees. Querejeta, who has lived in the region her whole life, has clients with houses at El Desafío and Chapelco Golf, and often favors rugged gardens that can support the stress of wind, sun and snow.

“We need strong plants: tough, rustic and resistant, but with color,” she said. “Perfect for Patagonia.”

In a recent phone interview from his Buenos Aires home, Bauer, who, like other Argen-tines, has been barred from trav-el by the government because of the coronavirus pandemic, said he was “absolutely desperate” to return to El Desafío and, more specifically, its fifth hole, which is tucked into the mountain. His house is directly above the green, an ideal space to work during the pandemic.

“The moment this travel ban is lifted, I’m getting in my car and driving to Patagonia,” he said. x


The eighth hole of El Desafío’s golf course, viewed from the green. (Marcos A. Clutterbuck)

El Desafío Mountain Resort has polo fields, a golf course and a nature reserve. (Eliseo Miciu)

A home designed by Alicia Sujoy at El Desafío. (Alicia Sujoy)

Remote and Breathtaking



GOLF opinion & comment

Nine Things to Know: Winged Foot Golf Club

by SEAN MARTINBetter late than never. That

definitely applies to this year’s U.S. Open. Winged Foot Golf Club is a classic U.S. Open test, traditionally producing an over-par winning score. We’ll have to wait and see how the three-month delay impacts the championship, but one thing is certain. After thrilling finish to the FedExCup and with the Masters a couple months away, we’re in the midst of a thrilling stretch for golf fans.

To get you ready for the year’s second major, here are 9 Things to Know about Winged Foot.

1. BETTER BY THE HALF-DOZEN

This will be the sixth U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Only Oakmont Country Club and Baltusrol have hosted more. Oakmont hosted its ninth U.S. Open in 2016, while Baltusrol, another A.W. Tillinghast design, has been the site of seven U.S. Opens.

Winged Foot joins Oakland Hills and Pebble Beach as cours-es that have hosted a half-dozen U.S. Opens.

Winged Foot hosted its first U.S. Open in 1929, just six years after it opened. This will be its first U.S. Open there since 2006, when Geoff Ogilvy won after Phil Mickelson famously double-bogeyed the 72nd hole. Ogilvy is the only winner of a U.S. Open at Winged Foot who didn’t win multiple majors in his career.

Bobby Jones, Billy Casper, Hale Irwin and Fuzzy Zoeller also won U.S. Opens at Winged Foot.

The club also hosted the 1997 PGA Championship. Davis Love III won, which means four of the six men’s majors at Winged Foot have been won by members of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

2. THOROUGH EXAMINATION:

Mike Davis, the USGA’s chief executive, calls Winged Foot the “quintessential U.S. Open golf course.”

“With its wonderfully challeng-ing green complexes and dogleg holes that emphasize proper placement off the tee, Winged Foot offers the best players in the world a spectacular test of golf,” he says.

That may be an understate-ment. The winning score was over par in all but one of the U.S. Opens at Winged Foot. That was in 1984, when Zo-eller and Greg Norman tied at 4 under par. Norman shot 75 in the playoff, which means just one player has finished under par in the six U.S. Opens at Winged Foot.

In 2006, Winged Foot played to a 74.99 scoring average. Only one hole, the par-5 fifth hole, played under par for the week. There were just 12 un-der-par rounds in 2006, and none lower than 2-under 68.

Winged Foot’s diff iculty doesn’t come from intimidating water hazards or stunning land-forms. It was built on a fairly flat site, but Tillinghast produced 18 difficult holes.

“The golf course gets tough on the first tee and never gets any easier,” Jack Nicklaus once said. “That’s why it’s a great golf course. You can’t make a mis-take and get away with it here.”

Tillinghast’s courses put an emphasis on approach shots, and Winged Foot is no excep-tion. The greens complexes make getting up-and-down a difficult task.

“A controlled shot to a close-ly-guarded green is the surest test of any man’s golf,” Tilling-hast once said.

Ogilvy won without break-ing par in any round. Jones’ final-round 79 in 1929 is the highest final round by a U.S. Open winner since World War I. No one broke par in the final round of the 1959 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, and no one was under par in the first round of the 1974 U.S. Open.

3. ‘WE’RE NOT TRYING TO HUMILIATE THEM’

The most famous of Winged Foot’s U.S. Opens was in 1974,

when Hale Irwin won with a winning score of 7 over par. No major has had a higher winning score in relation to par since.

The 1974 U.S. Open was dubbed the “Massacre at Winged Foot” and produced one of the most famous quotes in golf his-tory. “We’re not trying to humili-ate the best players in the world. We’re simply trying to identify them,” said USGA president Sandy Tatum.

Many believe the 1974 U.S. Open was the USGA’s response to the previous year’s champion-ship, when Johnny Miller shot 63 to win at Oakmont. How thick was the rough at Winged Foot? “They had trouble finding their ankles, much less the golf ball,” said one player. Players lost balls in the rough and putted balls off the greens.

“It was easily the most difficult golf course I have ever seen,” Irwin said.

The A.W. Tillinghast design has stood the test of time. There are no lakes or large water haz-ards. Just a couple creeks. There are no dramatic landforms. It just consists of 18 difficult holes.

“The question of the week was why,” famed golf writer Dan Jenkins wrote in Sports Illus-trated. “Where did it say in all of that lore of the game that Winged Foot was a killer? The answer was in the subtle design of the course. No water to speak of, and even the trees do not often come into play, but, ah, the tumbles and turns of those

old-fashioned, elevated greens and, ah, the bunkers.”

4. TILLIE THE TERRORHis nickname was Tillie the

Terror.Tillinghast is one of six golf

course architects to be elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, after Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones, Alister Mackenzie, C.B. MacDonald and Pete Dye.

Tillinghast had his hands on more than 250 golf courses, most of them in the Northeast. His most famous designs include Winged Foot, Bethpage Black, Baltusrol, Quaker Ridge, Sleepy Hollow and Somerset Hills.

He was born in North Phila-delphia in 1875, the privileged only child of a rubber baron.

He made his first pilgrimage to St. Andrews in 1896, where he studied under Old Tom Morris.

“I got to know the old man very well indeed in succeeding years, and I spent many happy hours with him in his little sitting room over his shop,” Tillinghast wrote. “It was there that I han-dled the champion’s belt won by his son, as Old Tom got it out reverently and his eyes filled with tears as he told me many things about his boy.”

Tillinghast returned to St. An-drews several times. He became skilled enough to finish 25th in the 1910 U.S. Open at the Phil-adelphia Cricket Club.

His architecture career start-ed when a family friend asked him to build a course in Shaw-

nee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania. His services quickly became in high demand after that course opened.

It was the architect’s job, he wrote, to “produce something which will provide a true test of the game and then consider every conceivable way to make the course as beautiful as possi-ble,” Tillinghast wrote.

He didn’t like overly long courses, hating layouts that em-phasized “brawn over finesse.” He liked small, tightly-bunkered greens that put an emphasis on approach play.

After falling on hard times during the Great Depression, Tillinghast died in 1942 at the age of 67.

“He was an unusual man, to say the least,” Tatum once said, “but he was a certifiable genius. You always know when you’re on a Tillinghast course without being told.”

5. HUMPS AND BUMPSNicklaus once called Winged

Foot’s putting surfaces “the most difficult set of greens I’ve ever seen.”

Colin Montgomerie, runner-up in the 2006 U.S. Open, said they may even be more difficult than the game’s most famous putting surfaces.

“These greens are as quick downhill as Augusta and with possibly more slopes on them than Augusta,” he said. “I think everybody will three-putt out here.”

Winged Foot’s greens were rebuilt by famed architect Gil Hanse a few years ago. Many of the greens were expanded to their original size. Making the greens 15-25% larger has allowed some of the original hole locations to be used.

‘What makes Winged Foot special is the greens,” course historian Neil Regan says.

How sloped are Winged Foot’s greens? “You can see the bot-tom of the cups from the fair-ways,” because of the amount of back-to-front slope, joked one PGA TOUR putting instructor.

Davis Love III celebrates winning the 1997 PGA Championship at the Winged Foot. (Jamie Squire/Allsport)

Colin Montgomerie eyes the greens on the 18th hole during the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

A view of the 18th green during the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Golf Opinion & Comment — PAGE 10


Gil Hanse Restores Courses to Their Glory

by PAUL SULLIVANGil Hanse is an acclaimed

golf-course architect, who teamed with the L.P.G.A. Hall of Famer Amy Alcott to build the Olympic course for the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016.

This week his restoration of Winged Foot Golf Club’s West Course will get its international debut as host of the 2020 Unit-ed States Open. He completed the work in 2017, after first re-storing the club’s East Course in 2014. (Both are ranked in the Top 100 courses in the world according to Golf Digest and Golf Magazine.)

Winged Foot’s West Course is a famously brutal course on the U.S. Open rotation. But Hanse has a roster of resto-rations set to host major events. The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., will host the U.S. Open in 2022 and the Los Angeles Country Club in 2023. He has

also worked on courses that previously were in the champi-onship rotation, like Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., where Jack Nicklaus won the Open in 1967 and 1980.

In a previous generation, the architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. was known as the “Open Doc-tor” for his work preparing some of these same courses for the U.S. Open. When asked if he’s the new “Open Doctor,” Hanse laughed and credited his busi-ness partner Jim Wagner, and in Winged Foot’s case, the club’s superintendent, Steve Rabideau.

Hanse could more aptly be called the “Open Therapist.” He does not remake a course, but unearths how architects like A.W. Tillinghast, the design-er of Winged Foot, wanted to challenge golfers. Hanse does extensive research and then

brings those original features back, making adjustments to fit the length of the modern game.

The following interview has been edited and condensed.

How did the Winged Foot restorations happen?

Through a change in superin-tendents and a change in lead-ership at the club, we had an opportunity to come in and talk about how both courses should be treated. It was a pure resto-ration. We were hired. We put together a master plan for all 36 holes. The East Course came first. Some of the luster had come off it. We were hopeful we’d do both.

Was the East Course a tryout for the West?

I don’t know if it was a try-out. I think what happened was when they saw the changes to the East, they realized they couldn’t have the West sitting there untouched when the East had been restored to that level, not only architecturally but also all the infrastructure.

Did you feel added pressure working at such a famous golf course?

Not really. I don’t want to sound cavalier about it. We un-derstand the responsibility, and really what we focus on is the re-search. If we’re convinced that’s the right thing to do, we do it. When you know you’re hosting a championship, you have to

decide what the proper length is. That’s different than a pure restoration at a course that’s ultimately for the members.

How do you balance the needs of the members with the needs of the tour pros?

A lot of it is positioning of tees and bunkers. At Winged Foot, we’ve reopened the front of the greens, which helps the member who has the ability to bounce it up and doesn’t affect the pros. But when you show up at Winged Foot, you expect it to be hard. No one is looking for it to be easy.

Has the restoration process changed in the past two decades?

To a certain degree. There’s

a recognition of these great ar-chitects. What’s also changed is the technology. Twenty years ago, we’d never have tried to rebuild all the greens at Winged Foot or Baltusrol. Now we have the technology to map them and a high de-gree of certainty that if we pull up the green it’s going to go back the same way.

Do these restoration projects make you think about who might restore your courses some day?

If karma is a real thing — and the fact that we’ve been so me-ticulous in restoring the work of these golden age golf archi-tects — then hopefully someone will take a similar tack with our courses. x

©The New York Times

GOLF business

The Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., which will host the 2020 U.S. Open. Gil Hanse restored the club’s East Course in 2014 and the West Course in 2017. (James Estrin/The New York Times)

Gil Hanse in 2016. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)


Play Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus

September 21, 2020 R O C H E S T E R Vol. 32, No. 33

Official Newspaper of the Rochester District Golf Association

BARBARA MORGENSTERN, Publisher & EditorPublished weekly since 1989 by Rochester Golf Week

2535 Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Rd., Rochester, NY 14623Phone: (585) 427-2468 • E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.golfweekrochester.com

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GOLF opinion & comment CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

Pandemic Could Spur Junior Jump of Half-Million Golfersby NATIONAL GOLF

FOUNDATIONSince golf courses reached ful-

ly-operational status two months ago, one of the most common questions is whether there’s been an increase in the number of juniors, beginners and return-ers playing?

The short answer is yes.A deeper look into NGF’s na-

tional participation data revealed evidence of a lift in all three groups during the second quar-ter. The number of kids ages 6-17 who teed it up on a golf course in April, May and June

was up considerably versus the average number who played during the same periods in 2018 and 2019. Early indications are that the trajectory was similarly positive during July.

With approximately 2.5 mil-lion kids having teed it up on a golf course last year, that’s a potential Covid-related bump of half a million junior golfers (+20% over 2019) by year’s end.

If we had used the first quar-ter of 2020 (January, February and March) as any indication, we’d have seen no real change in the junior ranks, as the num-

bers were relatively normal. But in Q2, the rise was significant from a directional standpoint. It makes sense, with golf cel-ebrated as a safe and healthy outdoor activity for all ages as the coronavirus rages on. With many youth sports on hold or slowly coming back, and families seeking activities they can do together, especially as schools were out, golf has emerged as a terrific alternative.

NGF mid-year data also sug-gests that these players may actually be a little bit younger than usual, with an increase in

the number of girls and about the same racial/ethnic diversi-ty (~25% non-Caucasian) that we’re now accustomed to seeing among the junior set.

Looking more broadly, the number of overall beginning and returning golfers during the Q2 stretch appears equally significant — both about 20% higher than in recent years.

The question, as always, is whether golf operators will be able to convert these fresh faces into committed customers. And that will depend on the expe-rience they have at the golf

course, which can no doubt be managed in a way that enhances satisfaction, fosters loyalty and improves retention.

Bear in mind, the inflow of new golfers will be offset, to some extent, by a natural churn that occurs every year. This may end up even more pronounced in 2020 due to Covid, as some golf-ers will elect not to play because of financial hardship or health and safety concerns. There is early indication of a slight decline in participation among the oldest age groups — who of course are at greater risk. x

Jack Nicklaus ran his first putt of the 1974 U.S. Open 30 feet past the hole.

“Putting uphill here, you can take a run at it,” one observer noted. “Downhill, you just touch it and hope that maybe the hole will get in the way. Somebody with a jerky stroke will not stand up at Winged Foot.”

6. CLASSIC FINISHTillinghast and the clubhouse’s

architect, Clifford Wendehack, used to say that the multi-tiered 18th green was like a set of steps leading from the course to the clubhouse.

Fourteen years ago, several players dejectedly made that trek. There are others who have been exuberant as they ascended the 18th green and walked to the clubhouse.

Winged Foot’s final hole has been the site of some of golf’s most memorable moments, both good and bad.

We all know what transpired on that hole in the last U.S. Open at the storied club (and if you don’t, you’ll soon be ap-prised). It was one of the wildest finishes in golf history. Mick-

elson’s double-bogey alone is worthy of a documentary. But it overshadows the other collaps-es that occurred on the closing hole. Colin Montgomerie flared a 7-iron right and made his own double-bogey. Jim Furyk missed a 5-footer for par. They all tied for second, a stroke behind Ogil-vy. Padraig Harrington also bo-geyed 18, his third bogey in a row, to finish two back.

It seems that each major held at Winged Foot has been capped by a trademark moment.

It started with the first U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Bobby Jones holed a downhill, side-hill 12-foot par putt to force a 36-hole playoff with Al Espi-nosa. Jones won the playoff by a remarkable 23 strokes. That par putt may have changed the course of golf history.

Jones once led by as many as seven, but he triple-bogeyed the 15th hole. He needed a par on the final hole just to get in a play-off, but missed the green with his approach shot. His touchy chip shot stopped 12 feet short. The shaft of his famed Calamity Jane putter had been cracked and was held together with cords but he

used the damaged implement to sink the putt.

O.B. Keeler, the Atlanta Jour-nal’s golf writer and Jones’ bi-ographer, believes Jones would have retired if he had missed that putt on the 72nd hole and blown such a large lead.

“I knew in a sort of bewilder-ing flash that if that putt stayed out, it would remain a spreading and fatal blot, never to be wiped from his record,” Keeler wrote. “I will always believe that the remainder of Bobby’s career hung on that putt and that from this stemmed the Grand Slam of 1930.”

In 1974, Irwin lashed a 2-iron to 20 feet and two-putted for vic-tory. It was the first of his three U.S. Open titles. Ten years later, Greg Norman holed a 40-footer for par on the 18th hole. Zo-eller, standing in the fairway, waved a white towel in surren-der, thinking that the long putt was for birdie. Zoeller went on to win the next day’s playoff.

When Winged Foot hosted the PGA in 1997, Love capped his five-shot win with a 15-foot bird-ie putt on the final hole. A rain-bow appeared behind the green, which many felt was Love’s late father, Davis Love Jr., a PGA professional, smiling down upon his son.

7. THE “OTHER” COURSE

Winged Foot is considered the finest 36-hole club in the coun-try, and possibly the world. And for good reason.

The West Course, which is hosting this week’s U.S. Open was 11th in Golf Digest’s list of the United States’ top 100 courses in 2019.

Winged Foot’s East Course, which was also designed by Till-inghast, came in at No. 52 on the same list. The East Course is shorter, but it’s no pushover for players who may be seeking a reprieve from its difficult sibling.

The East Course hosted U.S. Women’s Opens in 1957 and 1972. Betsy Rawls shot 7 over par and won after Jackie Pung was disqualified for signing an in-correct scorecard. Susie Maxwell Berning shot 11 over par but it was enough to win by one.

Rawls (4) and Berning (3) com-bined to win seven U.S. Wom-en’s Opens. They are both in the World Golf Hall of Fame, with Berning being elected this year.

The East Course also hosted the inaugural U.S. Senior Open in 1980. Roberto De Vicenzo won by four shots with a 1-over 285 total.

8. CLUB PROSJenkins called Winged Foot

the Yankee Stadium of golf be-cause of its history.

“Its monuments are not in centerfield. They’re in the bar,” Jenkins wrote in 1974.

World Golf Hall of Famer Tommy Armour was a member, as was Fred Corcoran, who was instrumental in the creation of the professional tour. Babe Ruth was a regular. There is a photo of Bobby Jones teeing off on 18 in 1929, and Ruth is just a few paces behind him.

“It has often been said that the quickest way to get over-golfed is to spend an afternoon on Winged Foot’s terrace,” Jen-kins added. “Armour used to sit there telling tales for hours. (Claude) Harmon and Corcoran still do. Because of the charac-ter of the membership, Winged Foot, more than any other club in the metropolitan area of New York, has been looked upon as the Yankee Stadium of golf.”

The club also has a long lin-eage of accomplished club pros.

The club’s first head pro was Mike Brady, who was runner-up in the 1911 and 1919 U.S. Opens. Winged Foot’s next two head pros won majors during

their tenures.Craig Wood, who succeeded

Brady in 1939, won the Masters and U.S. Open in 1941.

Claude Harmon, who was the club’s head professional from 1945 to 1978, is the last club pro to win a major (1948 Mas-ters). He is the patriarch of the first family of golf instruction, as several of his sons also went on to become noted teachers.

Major champions Dave Marr and Jack Burke Jr. spent time as Harmon’s assistant profes-sionals.

Harmon was succeeded by another TOUR winner, Tom Nieporte, a former NCAA cham-pion at Ohio State and three-time PGA TOUR winner. He served as the club’s head profes-sional until 2006.

9. ATHLETE’S FOOTSo, why Winged Foot?It comes from the logo of the

New York Athletic Club. Though the two organizations have never been affiliated, the group that founded Winged Foot included several NYAC members. The group was led by Charles “Nibs” Nobles. They tabbed Tillinghast with simple instructions.

“Give us a man-sized course,” they told him, according to leg-end. He listened.

Clifford Wendehack, one of the foremost residential archi-tects of his era, designed the clubhouse. The cornerstone was laid by the membership on April 14, 1923. Players teed off on Tillinghast’s masterpiece two months later. x

©PGATour.com

Winged Foot Golf Club will host its sixth U.S. Open. (John Mummert/USGA)


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