Champions Made Here

The USGA's selection of host sites for its 19 national events speaks to the variety in great course design and our country itself

- Ran Morrissett

A CAREFUL STUDY of this year’s USGA host venues clearly reveals one thing: The USGA does not play favorites. The courses truly are spread across the nation, from the Low Country in South Carolina to the heartland of Wisconsin to the Monterey Peninsula cliffs. With such geographic diversity comes a variety of playing surfaces that runs the full gamut from bermuda to bent to fescue. Six of the courses were built during the Golden Age in architecture, Pinehurst No. 6 was built in the 1970s, SentryWorld in the 1980s, the River Course at Kiawah Island Club in the 1990s and Cassique in 2000. And, of course, golf has been played at the Old Course longer than the USGA has been around!

The single common denominator across all sites is in the USGA’s desire to have firm and fast playing surfaces, as such playing conditions help identify who is both striking the ball the best as well as managing their game.

Many of us don’t have regular access—or any access—to most C.B. Macdonald/Seth Raynor courses, but for those who live in the Northeast, September will be a grand time to tour Sleepy Hollow (right) when it hosts the Mid-Amateur. In revisiting the Macdonald/Raynor design over the past two decades, architect Gil Hanse and Macdonald expert George Bahto accomplished something remarkable, as this image of the 15th green (foreground) and the 16th green (background) conveys. Trees were felled, and width and playing strategy returned. Hanse’s pièce-de-résistance was imbuing the course with many of Macdonald’s favorite template green contours. The dazzling views of the Hudson River only add to the thrill.