Herrmann: U.S. Open should return to Shinnecock
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.
Here is the U.S. Open, back at one of its familiar stops, where it has had four memorable visits. The place is an American seaside icon, classic and scenic. Respect and enthusiasm for the game are in the air. History is in the wind, and the wind is a mighty factor.
Does this sound familiar to anyone on Long Island? There are some who say that Pebble Beach, which is hosting the Open this week, is the West Coast's answer to Shinnecock Hills. And more and more, people in golf are saying that - despite the hard feelings and harder turf in 2004 - the U.S. Golf Association is planning to bring its greatest championship back to Southampton to one of its prized courses.
It would be only right to have it at Shinnecock Hills at least once more, so the scorched earth debacle on Sunday at the 2004 Open isn't the lasting image of the club that helped give birth to American golf. It was a tough break that the wind didn't blow that week and that someone made the decision to compensate by making the layout look like the Mojave Desert.
Can we have a mulligan?
The U.S. Golf Association thinks so and apparently so do members of the club. The striking views at Pebble Beach, which is hosting the Open for the fifth time in 38 years, are a reminder that they ought to arrange another East End Open as soon as they can.
It won't be all that soon. The Open is booked through 2016, with the sites reflective of the USGA's mixed goals of revisiting old haunts and exploring new ground: next year at Congressional, 2012 at Olympic Club, 2013 at Merion, 2014 at Pinehurst, 2015 at Chambers Bay and 2016 at Oakmont.
We will know Wednesday, when the USGA announces where the 2017 Open will be. All reports have pointed toward Erin Hills, a new course in Wisconsin. Another possibility is Cog Hill in Chicago. Mike Davis, the senior director of rules and competitions for the USGA, has said it will be a Midwestern club. But you never know.
And there's always 2018. People in the golf industry say that USGA officials had a positive visit at Shinnecock Hills while they were on Long Island for the Open at Bethpage last year. Steve Smyers, a USGA executive committee member who was at Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton last month in advance of the U. S. Mid-Amateur Championship to be held there in September, was asked specifically about Shinnecock Hills and said, "We're open to everything . . . We like coming to the New York area. We like coming back to Long Island."
Shinnecock Hills member Ray Floyd, who joined after having won the 1986 Open in Southampton, said at the Masters this year, "I'm hearing rumors that they're getting back together."
People familiar with the USGA and the club say that the talks have been serious.
Well they should be. Long Islanders and golf buffs can't help but think of Shinnecock when they hear someone such as amateur Scott Langley say of Pebble Beach, "Whenever you play here, there's a kind of 'Wow' factor . . . this place is so special and the history here is almost unparalleled in golf."
It will be great to hear the pros say that at least once more about Shinnecock. And it will be great when the lasting memory is that of golfers draining putts on the greens, not beleaguered workers spraying water on tired, brown grass.
