Why the USGA Loves having the U.S. Open on the West Coast

The USGA loves having the U.S. Open on the West Coast. Let’s dive in and look at some of the reasons why.

USGA CEO Mike Davis has made no secret of his love of seaside, links-styled golf paired with West Coast U.S. Open venues, as he proved instrumental in bringing the U.S. Open to Pebble in both 2010 and 2019, to San Francisco’s Olympic Club in 2012 and to Chambers Bay on Washington’s Puget Sound 2015.

The Left Coast loves its golf, but the reasons why the USGA keeps returning to the California and Washington coasts in June goes well beyond the drama promised by its waterside venues, to the staging of the event itself. Holding the Open in Pacific Time means the event finishes in prime-time on the East Coast, a boon to the part of the country with the greatest concentration of golfers in the nation.

A quick glance at the Sunday start times for the leaders at the 2019 U.S. Open can cause even the most avid golfer to do a double take, with the final groups teeing off around 2:30 p.m. Pacific; a time amateur golfers in the rest of Golf Nation are more likely to associate with twilight rates.

More from Pro Golf Now

Twilight time in Boston and New York City is perfect for busy summer viewing audiences, who will just be sitting down in front of their screens after a busy Father’s Day by the time Gary Woodland and Justin Rose hit the back nine. For Fox, the broadcaster of choice for this year’s U.S. Open, it’s perfect timing.

Already, Fox’s prime-time coverage of the first round has been a winner, drawing an average of 3.465 million viewers. Fox says that’s a 61 percent increase over last year and claims it’s the “the best first round coverage on a broadcast network since 2002.” The network can thank its lucky stars, a Pacific Time Zone venue, and the presence of Tiger Woods in the field for the ratings bonanza.

Years ago I had the pleasure of covering the AT&T National Pro-Am from the press room at the Lodge, a time I later recounted in a book about Pebble. Back then Chris Berman of ESPN recalled for me the days before the other networks figured out what a goldmine it had in a late-finishing Open.

"“I remember in the 1992 U.S. Open [at Pebble],” Berman told me in 2010. “It was me, a producer, and a cameraman covering the whole golf course. And Andy Dillard came up in the second to last group in the dark, but they wanted to finish… We had to, like, shine a flashlight on the green. ABC begged us for the footage because everyone else had been off the air for hours. We were the only ones… It was like our little secret, you know. None of the papers had it in the East in the morning… You know, second round still in-progress sort of thing.”"

California U.S. Opens in June also mean an almost zero chance of rain delays. The bane of every golf tournament and a weather event that nearly stopped the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in New York, as writer Alex Myers recalls in his retrospective prior to last month’s PGA At Bethpage.

It rained 26 out of 30 days that June in New York, he notes, necessitating a Monday finish that nearly turned into a Tuesday finish. The prospects looked so grim NBC brought in celebrity weatherman Al Roker to complement its golf coverage.

Next. U.S. Open 2019: Can Gary Woodland keep this ride going?. dark

Rest assured, Mr. Roker’s in-person services will not be needed at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble , where the chances of a soaking, play-suspending rain are about the same as Tiger Woods hosting his own personal clambake on Carmel Beach.

Home/US Open