Elmwood, Bethpage to Host U.S. Open Qualifiers

Elmwood Country Club

Ready to take your shot at the U.S. Open?  Unless you are otherwise exempted, the path to the field in Chambers Bay begins with the local qualifiers, which this year will be held at Elmwood CC in White Plains and the Red Course at Bethpage among some 111 sites in 43 states.

Elmwood is a tough not-so-little Tillinghast track that demands accurate play off the tee and the ability to hit and hold small, well-contoured greens.  It's flourishing under the leadership of Pete Stefanchik, who took over as head pro last year.  The qualifying tournament will be held there on May 13.

The Red Course at Bethpage is considered a near-equal to the more famous Black Course, even though it doesn't have a sign warning less-than-good players to stay away.  Play there will be on May 14.

The U.S. Open will be contested June 18-21 at Chambers Bay, in University Place, WA, the first U.S. Open in the Pacific Northwest. Local qualifying, conducted over 18 holes at 111 sites in 43 states, will take place between May 4-21.

“U.S. Open local qualifying represents the start of an exciting two-tiered process in which thousands of golfers from around the world, both professional and amateur, pursue a place in this year’s field at Chambers Bay and the opportunity to compete for our national championship,” says Diana Murphy, USGA vice president and Championship Committee chairman. “U.S. Open qualifying is conducted with the support and expertise provided by state and regional golf associations, and we appreciate their effort and commitment.”

Those players who advance out of local qualifying will compete in sectional qualifying, which will be conducted over 36 holes at 10 U.S. sites on June 8. For the 11th consecutive year, Japan and England will host international sectional qualifying, both scheduled for May 25.

In 2014, the USGA accepted a record 10,127 entries for the championship at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2, in the Village of Pinehurst, N.C. That total eclipsed the 9,860 for the 2013 championship at Merion Golf Club, in Ardmore, PA.

Just in case you think you're exempt from qualifying, check out the changes made to the local exemptions that were amended prior to 2014. The top 500 point leaders and ties from the Official World Golf Ranking (as of March 2) will be exempt. Any player in the OWGR’s top 500 (as of April 27) who has filed an entry prior to the deadline of 5 p.m. EDT on April 29, will also earn a local exemption. In the past, only the top 150 point leaders were exempted.

Additionally, any player who has had multiple finishes in the top 400 of the year-ending OWGR in the past five calendar years (2010-2014) will be exempt from local qualifying.

Ken Venturi (1964) and Orville Moody (1969) are the only players to win the U.S. Open after qualifying through both local and sectional play. Last year, 24 players advanced through local and sectional qualifying to the 156-player U.S. Open Championship field at Pinehurst.

Oh, and one other thing--very important: To be eligible to play in the qualifier, a player must have a Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4, or be a professional.

Online player registration for the 2015 U.S. Open will begins this week.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Bethpage Black Celebrates 15th Anniversary With Golf Writers

Craig Currier, Dave Catalano, Jay Mottola

The Metropolitan Golf Writers Association observed the fifteenth anniversary of the selection of Bethpage State Park's Black course for the 2002 US Open with a golf outing and panel discussion featuring some of the principals involved in the decision and preparation for the event.

Betsy Wintenberger, Park Director, opened the meeting by recounting how she and other staffers at the time stood in awe of the amount of effort that went into preparing the course for the event.

Jay Mottola, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Golf Association, recounted how the Met Open led to the US Open. "We held the Met Opens in 1987 and 1988 at Winged Foot and Baltusrol," Mottola said. "The next year, we brought it to the Black. The pros in the Met PGA Section praised it, saying it was a good a course as either one of the two they had just played and would make a great US Open venue. It was easy for me to suggest it to David Fay."

Mottola pointed out that the USGA took a major risk by scheduling the event at the Black. "Some 80% of USGA revenue is connected to the US Open," he said. "To risk that the Black said a lot about the importance of public golf to the USGA."

The announcement energized the state park staff. "We had 27 full-time employees and a maintenance budget of $600,000," related Dave Catalano, who was Park Director at the time. "I was scared to death to compete with the other great venues that had held the Open. The best decision I made at the beginning was to hire Craig Currier as Superintendent." It's worth noting that the staffing and maintenance budget covered not just the Black course, but the other four golf courses at the state facility as well.

Currier added, "It's probably a good thing I was only 26 years old at the time. I don't know that I could do it now."  Course conditions were deplorable, he said. "It was a diamond in the rough, but it needed a lot of polishing. The course was totally overgrown. You couldn't see several holes because of the trees and bushes. Some of the bunkers had three feet of sand in them while the liners were poking through in others. You could lose a ball in some of those bunkers!"

He pointed out that, aside from hole 18, the other holes, routing, and even the bunkering wasn't changed for the Open.

Catalano explained that one goal of having the US Open at Bethpage was to elevate the entire complex, which has five golf courses and numerous other outdoor activities. "We set out to be the best public golf complex in the world," he said. "Each year since the renovation, we got an additional $250,000 in rehab money to make sure the other courses received the attention they deserve. The Red course should be a top 100 course. Currier added some distance to it and removed some trees to open it up, but it's otherwise intact as Tillinghast made it."

At 7100 yards, Currier added, "The Red is probably the best par 70 anywhere."

Mottola closed by saying, "The Bethpage staff and facility does so much more than host US Opens. They hold everything from the NY State and Long Island Opens to numerous junior events. They do so much for the game.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Another Bethpage Jewel

Can't get a tee time on the Black Course at Bethpage? Opt for the Red instead and I guarantee you won't be disappointed. It may not have the aura of the U.S. Open around it, but the Red Course is just about as long (6,555 vs. 6,684 yards from the white tees), a little tougher to score on (par 70 vs. 71), and every bit as much of a Tillinghast gem, with fluid, natural bunkering, several back-busting elevated greens, and enough dog legs to populate a greyhound track.

There are differences, of course, mainly because Rees Jones hasn't put his hand on the course. Most notably the greens are smaller and there are fewer bunkers, making the Red a little less punitive. It doesn't have quite as many dramatic elevation changes, either, although several of the holes, notably the first and eighteenth, will make you look around for the chairlift as you approach the green. One notable difference: the 18th on the Red is much more challenging than the closing hole on the Black. If they toughened up the fairway bunkers on the Red, it would be far and away a better hole.

Both courses have seven par fours of over 400 yards, and both total about the same yardage on them - just over 3,000 yards. The par threes on the Black are stronger and certainly more memorable in addition to being at least a full club longer. The best one-shotter on the Red is the fourth hole, 171 yards to a green protected by a moat-like bunker.

The opening hole on the Red is a 459 par four monster that's nearly impossible to reach in regulation without a gargantuan drive. The green sits atop the same hill as the Black's 18th and 16th tees, which gives you some idea of how elevated it is. The closing hole on the out-going side is another killer: 449 yards that bend left around trees and an expansive bunker complex off the tee. The green is surrounded by four very serious traps, too.

Perhaps the most interesting hole on the Red Course is the 13th, where a bunker stretches down the middle of the fairway from about 200 yards off the tee nearly to the green. You have to choose the route you want--right is a wider landing area than the left but leaves you with an approach shot over a huge greenside bunker--and hope for the best. The green is small and heavily contoured, too.

One final note: the Red Course is kept in just as good condition as the Black, with fast, true greens, near-perfect fairways, and clean but tough rough. Like all the courses at Bethpage, the Red is a testament to how good public golf can be.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Round Wrecker At The Black

When I play a tough track like Bethpage Black, I always start out with the best of intentions. Forget distance--keep it in the fairway. Lay up anywhere you can't make it without a miracle. When you're in the rough, wedge out. Still, sometimes it only takes one hole where even the best of intentions don't count for much.

This is the eleventh at the Black. It's a 421-yard par four that I usually do fairly well on. This day, feeling cocky for parring the more difficult 10th hole, I pulled my drive hard left. Not quite a duck hook, but maybe a goose with a crooked neck. Anyway, I wasn't lucky enough to land in the bunker but rather found the ball about three feet short of it. The rough was so deep and I was so far from the fairway, I knew I couldn't get out sideways. I would take an unplayable, but the nearest drop would still have been in the ka-ka--and I couldn't drop in the bunker because that would be closer to the hole.

Finally, I took one hearty swipe to try to hit the ball into the bunker. It moved a foot closer but still in the hay. Got there in the second try though, hit to the center of the fairway with an eight iron from the sand, and eventually walked off the green with a triple.

My thanks to playing partner Tom Ralph, who was playing the Black for the first time that day and brought along his camera to memorialize the occasion.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

U.S. Open Won By Qualifier Lucas Glover

One of the great but overlooked stories of the 2009 U.S. Open is that three of the top four finishers all got into the event through the sectional qualifying tournaments. Lucas Glover, the winner, played his way into the tournament by shooting 133 in the qualifier at Columbus, Ohio, as did runner-up Ricky Barnes.

Barnes, who led after the first two rounds, has been playing on the Nationwide Tour. David Duval, who tied for second, was also a qualifier, having rebuilt what looks to be a promising game after years in the cellar recouping from a precipitous drop from his British Open win in 2001.

The last time a qualifier won the tournament was New Zealander Michael Campbell in 2005. Steven Jones did it in 1996, which was the first time in 20 years. In other words, Glover is one of only three qualifiers to win the U.S. Open since about the time Tiger Woods was born.

A record number of golfers entered the U.S. Open this year, according to the USGA. 9,023 players entered the qualifying tournaments. Entries were received from golfers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 71 foreign countries.

The stellar performance by qualifiers is particularly apropos at Bethpage, where top tour pros and weekend hackers are equally welcome to play.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

A U.S. Open Green With Teeth

Another significant change the USGA has made to the course setup for this year's U.S. Open is to strive for consistent green speeds over all four days of the tournament. In my opinion, this will improve scoring as well, since the players will not have to make daily adjustments as greens get faster during later rounds as has been the case in the past. The weather, of course, is going to make it harder for the goals to be achieved, but the principle remains the same.

Mike Davis, USGA senior director for Rules and Competitions, said this morning:

Last night, after six days of trying, we finally reached the lower end of our desired range – an average of 14 feet on the Stimpmeter. With the rain overnight and early Thursday, the greens have likely slowed to the low- to mid-13 range.

That's still pretty speedy. As a note of comparison, the faster greens at most private clubs will peak out around 11, with an occasional masochist greens committee chairman who presses the superintendent to push them up to 12 or 13. Most public and resort courses will register closer to 8 or 9.

Most of the greens at Bethpage aren't particularly severe. Unlike Winged Foot, they lack the huge undulations and steep slopes that make putting a hit-or-miss proposition much of the time. That's one reason the USGA is pushing the envelope with speed this year.

There are exceptions, however. The eighth hole slopes significantly from back to front and the extension of the green toward the pond in front, coupled with a shaved bank, will make putts above the hole a real test of nerves. Eleven has a substantial false front, too, and seventeen is split by a ridge that can keep things interesting.

Nothing compares with the fifteenth green, however. Without question it's already the toughest hole on the course, requiring a laser-accurate drive to stay in the fairway followed by a second shot to a blind putting surface perched fifty feet above the player's head. The green is brutal, with a six-foot drop from back to front exacerbated by tiering. According to the NY Times, only three percent of the green's surface is level enough for a hole. Check out their graphics for a great overview of the hole.

I've putted (and chipped) from above the hole under normal conditions and can guarantee it's no fun. Honestly, I can't imagine doing that at U.S. Open speeds.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

US Open Holes To Watch

As I wrote earlier, this year's US Open at Bethpage Black will be a substantially easier scoring event for the pros than the 2002 tournament. Here are a few holes where you're going to see lower numbers, especially from big hitters:

Number 6 - 408 Yards Par 4 - The hole is short under normal conditions, but will play much shorter this year. As traditionally laid out, you had to play a conservative shot to a tiny landing area on top of the hill between two fairway bunkers, leaving a short iron to the green that's 50 feet below the driving area. Hit anything longer off the tee and you were in the rough that covered the hillside to prevent balls rolling down to the bottom fairway. The USGA did away with that rough for the Open this year, which will allow a tee shot over the left fairway bunker to catch that slope and roll down to within flip-wedge distance to the green. It won't have to be a driver, either, since the carry is only about 270 yards from the back of the back tee. I can envision some bigger hitters going with a driver, though, and making the greenside bunkers, which aren't particularly punitive by Bethpage standards.

Number 7 - 525 Yards Par 4 - The USGA is touting this as the longest par 4 in US Open history and, at 525 yards, it sure looks like it on the scorecard. Again, though, the hole won't play that long especially since the tees may be moved up to encourage more risk-taking. Even from the back, a 300-yard drive will clear the dog leg and leave less than 200 yards to the green. The USGA has actually widened the fairway to encourage players to challenge the oak trees that guard the right side. Count on that happening a lot. Even a player that doesn't cut the dog leg will be left with a mid- to short-iron.


Number 9 - 460 Yards Par 4 - This was the easiest hole in 2002 and, despite a new tee some 40 yards back and a new bunker off the fairway to the left, I still don't think it will pose problems for the big boomers. They'll be able to carry that bunker, possibly with something less than a driver, and leave themselves a wedge to one of the easiest greens on the course.

Number 13 - 605 Yards Par 5 - The new tee and new deep bunkers left of the driving zone will make this a harder hole for everyone but those guys who hit 320 yard drives with regularity--which includes an awful lot of players in the US Open field. The green will be reachable in two by those guys, with the vaunted cross bunkers not a factor for them (or really for anyone else). There is a bunker that appears to guard the approach to the green that should make someone think twice about trying to reach on the second shot, but it's actually 30 yards in front of the putting surface, so running the ball onto the green will happen fairly often. Even the player who lays up for some reason will have an easy third shot that should set up plenty of birdies. There is no real punishment for taking a chance here, so players who shoot par will have definitely lost a shot to the field.

For a really good overview of the entire course--with expert commentary by my friend Brian Crowell--check out the NBC flyover videos. Brian and I may be friends, but we definitely have a few differences of opinion!

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Lost At The Open

The famous "difficult course" sign on the first tee at the Black might also apply to the freeways on Long Island. I went bright and early to Bethpage this morning to pick up my media credentials, managing to beat most of the crowd and avoiding the lines, probably for the last time this week.

It was fun watching a little of today's practice rounds. I also hung around the practice tee for awhile, then went over to the practice green, where at least half the spectators on the course were gathered to watch Tiger. He wasn't practicing, you understand, just standing there chatting with Steve Williams and Hank Haney and a couple of guys I didn't recognize. As far as the crowd was concerned, though, he was putting on a show. You could see them just drooling for him to walk along the fence and shake a hand or two, which was the furthest thing from his mind, of course.

I had to get home, however, so I walked back to catch the shuttle to the media parking lot where I'd left my car. Considering how far away it was from the course, I might as well have parked at home. When I asked one of the helpful USGA volunteers where to catch the shuttle, they directed me to a trailer. When I told the even-more helpful volunteer inside where I wanted to go, she hopped right to the task, called a driver over, and handed him the keys to a courtesy car!

The volunteer driver, an older man from Farmingdale, drove over an orange traffic cone in his eagerness to be of service, told me he knew exactly where I had parked, and we were off.

As we left Bethpage State Park, nothing looked familiar to me, but the driver assured me he knew where he was going, so I sat back to enjoy the ride. Thirty chat-filled and wrong-way minutes later, we pulled into the wrong hotel parking lot. Finally, I convinced him to follow the directions I'd been trying to give him all along. Eventually we got there.

Next time, I'll wait for the shuttle.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

USGA Softens Bethpage for US Open

This year's U.S. Open at Bethpage Black may be played on a kinder, gentler course, according to comments I heard during yesterday's presentation by Mike Davis, USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions. Players and casual fans should love the result but I'm not so sure it's going to uphold the U.S. Open tradition of being the toughest tournament of the year.

Numerous changes in the set up for the Black Course will be made for this year's event, with most of them making it easier than it played in 2002 when Tiger Woods won his second Open trophy. The course has been lengthened by 212 yards through the addition of several new tees, but Davis said it wasn't likely it will play the full 7,426 yards at any time since the USGA plans to move the tee markers from day to day--in some cases by as much as 100 yards--to encourage more "risk and reward" scenarios.

Another major change will be the use of graduated rough, which was introduced to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006. An intermediate swath of short rough--well under two inches--will line each fairway. The first cut, which will generally be around 2 and 1/2 inches deep, will extend some 20 feet on either side of that, with the more punitive 4- to 6-inch shag coming further out. The purpose is to give the players at least a shot at the green if they miss the fairway. During the press conference, Tiger Woods remarked

"In 2002, if you hit the ball in the rough, majority of the time, you could not get to the green. You had to lay up and try and make par with the wedge game. The graduated rough, I'm sure you could get some balls to the green...."

On top of the shorter rough, the fairways themselves are going to be wider than 2002, averaging 29 yards.

The lengthening of several holes is intended to bring more of Tillinghast's bunkers into play, but that remains to be seen. Even from the new tee on the ninth hole, it's only 285 to carry the bunkers at the dog leg. That may be a mighty blow for Rocco Mediate, but I suspect you'll see plenty of three woods off the tee there to keep from blowing through the fairway.

The seventh hole has a new tee, too, making it the longest par four in U.S. Open history at 525 yards (it typically plays as a par 5). The cross bunker should still be easily carried off the tee, however, and the USGA, in keeping with its apparent newly-found love for birdies, is widening the fairway on the hole substantially to encourage players to fade one around the dogleg so they can short-iron their approach into the green.

A subtle but significant change in the way the course plays from day to day throughout the tournament will also make it easier, at least in my opinion. In past years, the USGA toughened the course as the week progressed, letting the rough grow, the greens harden, and often raising the speed of the greens on Saturday and Sunday. This year, the goal is to keep conditions the same throughout the week, grooming the rough daily depending on the weather and maintaining a speedy 14 on the Stimpmeter for the duration. That means the players will have to make fewer adjustments from day to day in their putting stroke and, given the relatively non-severe contours of most of the Black course's greens, they should be sinking more putts on Sunday since they'll have had three days of consistent practice.

There are a few changes that should make a difference, notably on two of the par threes. The green on the eighth hole has been brought down to the pond, making for some interesting pin placements. The hole itself will play anywhere from 135 to 230 yards, depending on the tee location, which will be adjusted to encourage players to take the risk. The fourteenth green has also been enlarged (although not expressly for the tournament). Davis said,

"we have got three great hole locations that we never had in 2002, two in the back tier, and in the front there's a front left lobe that is really dynamic that will be probably a pitching wedge, but a tough one, at that."

The USGA's goal with all these changes, at least according to the official line, is to give the players a fair test of golf, rewarding good shots and punishing bad ones. It appears to me that the real goal this year is to give the fans a scoring spectacular. Not a birdie fest necessarily, but a tournament with plenty of fireworks to give the always-vocal NY fans something to scream about.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo

Bethpage Black From Inside The Ropes

If you haven't read it yet, pick up John Feinstein's Open: Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black sometime before the US Open comes back to the course in 2009. As a golf writer who's played dozens of munis as well as some of the great courses around the world (including the Black), I greatly appreciated the way Feinstein captured the essence of the course. It's really unlike other Open venues I've seen and played and he describes it perfectly. It was also very instructive to learn what the USGA and the Bethpage staff went through to get the course into shape.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo