The 2005 U.S. Open was awarded
to Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, the USGA executive committee announced
today.
Pinehurst No. 2 was the
site of the 1999 U.S. Open won by the late Payne Stewart. The North Carolina
site beat out the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and East Lake Golf Club
in Atlanta. It was Riviera's chance to stage the national championship for the
first time since 1948.
At the USGA's annual winter
meetings here, the executive committee chose Pinehurst No. 2 because it met tougher
course standards. Riviera, designed by George Thomas in 1927, would have had
to tighten a number of fairways and undergone a complete reconstruction of the
greens.
The USGA decided it would
not be in its best interests to award the U.S. Open to a course that didn't already
have the necessary changes in place.
The announcement that the
Open was returning to the North Carolina Sandhills after successfully hosting
it in 1999 was not much of a surprise.
The timing was. The six-year
turnaround is the quickest the USGA has awarded a U.S. Open to the same course
since the 1940s. The normal turnaround time for the Open at such courses as Oakmont,
Pa., and others is at least eight years.
The last time the USGA
returned to a course so quickly for the U.S. Open was Canterbury Golf Club in
1946, after the Ohio course had staged the 1940 Open.
"It's like winning the
lottery twice. This is unprecedented," Pinehurst president Pat Corso said today
before boarding a plane to the West Coast. "This is a pretty prideful thing for
them to come back this soon."
Last year's tournament
was only the second time the Open had been played in the South. The USGA had
steered clear of such hot-weather venues in the past, fearful greens would be
difficult to maintain.
But with its rebuilt greens,
successful merchandising, smooth operations and sold-out corporate hospitality
village, Pinehurst No. 2 got rave reviews for its first Open from the players,
the USGA and the national media, who were skeptical that a village as small as
Pinehurst, about 80 miles southwest of Raleigh, could host an event as large
as the U.S. Open.
"Nothing would have happened
again if the course would not have held up," said Corso. "It brought back to
the game the idea of chipping and putting."
Corso also said the event
was relatively free of traffic jams and other logistical headaches.
"I'm not so sure the event
in 1999 didn't prove that rural locations may be more advantageous than metropolitan
locations because you're not fighting the commute," Corso said.
"When you had as little
problems as (the USGA) had they probably couldn't wait to come back," added Don
Padgett, director of golf at Pinehurst.
The 1999 event was also
a boon to North Carolina, pumping between $160 million and $180 million into
the economy, officials said.
"I think by being designated
as a host to the national golf championship it makes a strong statement as it's
an area where the best players in golf and the whole golf industry convenes,"
said Caleb Miles of the Pinehurst Convention and Visitors' Center. "It is a strong
statement about the importance of Pinehurst and the game of golf."
