LA JOLLA, Calif. — The U.S. Open will return to Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., in 2020, marking the sixth time it will be played there in the venerable club’s history.
The official announcement will come today in a United States Golf Association press conference at the club.
The last time the U.S. Open was played at Winged Foot was 2006, when Phil Mickelson famously collapsed with a double bogey on the 72nd hole to open the door for Geoff Ogilvy to win.
Interestingly, Winged Foot members voted overwhelmingly not to host the 2015 U.S. Open. Obviously, there was a change of heart. The club hosted the U.S. Open in 1929, 1959, 1974, 1984 and 2006.
This year’s U.S. Open will be played at Merion Golf Club outside of Philadelphia with the tournament moving to Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014. Chambers Bay in Washington will host it in 2015, Oakmont in 2016, Erin Hill in Wisconsin in 2017, Shinnecock in 2018 and Pebble Beach in 2019. Long Island’s Bethpage Black, which hosted the Open in 2002 and 2009, is expected to get another Open sometime after 2020.
* In a bow to TV on the part of the PGA Tour, it opted to start the Farmers Insurance Open in the late morning (early afternoon in New York) so the event will finish in the late afternoon on the East Coast for the CBS broadcast.
In doing this, the PGA Tour showed disregard for 16 of its members who are in the Torrey Pines field and planned to attempt to qualify today for the Waste Management Open in Phoenix. Had they scheduled play to begin earlier, those players would have had a chance to get to Phoenix to try to qualify.
* Because tournament officials opted not to re-pair the field after the third round for the fourth to expedite play after Saturday’s weather delays, PGA Tour rookie Brad Fritsch missed the chance to be paired with Tiger Woods in the last round.
He finished the third round second to Woods, which would have meant he’d be paired with him.
“Out of curiosity it would have been nice,’’ Fritsch said. “But I think it will benefit me playing in front of him [in the group ahead of Woods] to be honest, having not done it before. We’ve got to start some time. Obviously, it was not going to be [yesterday]. I’ll live with that.
“I’m pretty happy. I’ve never played in this atmosphere before especially in front of Tiger. I think I handled it well. It was fun.’’
* Luke List carded a double eagle on the 13th hole, holing out a 255-yard 3-wood.