The USGA announced on Monday that the US Open will return to Winged Foot in 2028, filling the entire roster for the 2020s with a golf course that has hosted some of the most famous major championships in the calendar. history. This will be Winged Foot’s seventh US Open since the first came in 1929 when Bobby Jones knocked out Al Espinosa in the playoffs.
Winged Foot joins the list of major golf courses that the USGA has lined up in the next seven editions of the organization’s most prominent golf tournament. Here are the locations that will host the US Opens for the rest of the decade.
- 2023: Los Angeles Country Club
- 2024: Pinehurst No. 2
- 2025: Oakmont Country Club
- 2026: Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
- 2027: Pebble . Beach Golf Course
- 2028: Winged Foot Golf Club
- 2029: Pinehurst No. 2
- 2030: Merion Golf Club
This is an extraordinary list. All elite golf courses, all worthy major championship venues. If we’re being completely honest, Pebble Beach could actually be the worst courses on this list. If Pebble is the worst pitch in your group of locations, there’s something very good about your organization. I realize that disparaging one of the country’s most iconic golf courses sounds crazy, but I’m not sure I have a choice considering this group of heavyweights.
The Winged Foot is traditionally one of the most exciting tests in major championship golf. Its frenetic, curving greens and sharp edges have given the world’s best players some of their biggest challenges in years.
“Winged Foot has set the scene for some of the most dramatic moments in our sport’s history, with many of golf’s legendary champions having set their sights on the world,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA championship director. crowned on the club’s iconic West Golf Course.” “We strive to give our players the best stage to compete for the national championship and there are few stages as epic as Winged Foot.”
This is certainly true, although the Winged Foot — all of its 7,500 yards — isn’t what it used to be. Most recently, Bryson DeChambeau burned down the track to claim his first big win of 2020 over Matthew Wolff and Louis Oosthuizen. Much of the amazement stems from that Major’s style that DeChambeau’s style – hitting as far as possible on a pitch with few penalty areas, finding and replaying – doesn’t seem to be fitting for a classic venue, bringing symbolic in the way that many people think. .
“I really don’t know what to say because that’s the complete opposite of what you would think of a US Open champion,” Rory McIlroy said at the time DeChambeau won. “Look, he’s found a way to do it. That’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but that’s… not how I see this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It’s kind of hard to really wrap my head around it.”
Is Winged Foot, gasp, old-fashioned?
The real answer is that the lack of device restrictions will ultimately make all of golf courses — modern, historic or otherwise — are eventually obsolete, and it will be interesting to see where we are with golf balls and clubs when this US Open gets back on track. back 5 years from now. Winged Foot’s big problem is that its footprint can’t really expand any further than it currently has.
That won’t matter in 2028, but it will certainly happen in 2048 or 2068 when golfers hit the ball for 450 yards with ease.
All of that is neither here nor at the present time. Winged Foot kicks, and having another US Open would be a huge addition to the major championship schedule for both the USGA and major championships in general.
