Craig Annis, chief brand officer of the USGA, said on...

Craig Annis, chief brand officer of the USGA, said on Monday the organization is planning to make a decision by mid-April. Credit: Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill

The United States Golf Association is nearing the point when it will have to make a decision on playing the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in June.

“I would look at the next two weeks as being critical for us to make a go, no-go decision on the dates we set at Winged Foot,” Craig Annis, chief brand officer of the USGA, said on Monday. “We have set a time frame of the middle of April to make decision on Winged Foot on our dates \[June 18-21\].”

Construction on the infrastructure at the venerable club in Mamaroneck was halted three weeks ago.

“We canceled our corporate hospitality program because we couldn’t meet it at the quality we would typically do based on the fact we couldn’t work,” Annis said. “Out of abundance of caution we stopped all work even before the quarantine happened. When the CDC gave guidance to not having more than 50 people gathered together, that’s when we put a pause on the build.”

Annis would not say whether alternate sites like Oakmont near Pittsburgh or Pinehurst in North Carolina were being considered, but he didn’t rule out moving the event or the Women’s Open in Houston set for June 4-7.

“Here’s where we are exceptionally fortunate. We have host clubs that we’ve brought the U.S. Open to a number of times. You’ve just listed two,” Annis said. “Everyone in the golf community is incredibly collaborative and incredibly supportive. Those are two wonderful places we’ve had fantastic U.S. Opens. If we needed to go someplace else, what would really dictate that is agronomics, climate, daylight, among many things.”

Annis says the USGA is committed to Winged Foot. “We are fundamentally set on two things: The date that we have and the location we have, which is wonderful Winged Foot Golf Club. If we need to pivot our priority would continue to be Winged Foot.”

The Masters — set for next week in Augusta, Georgia — and the PGA Championship — set for San Francisco in May — have already been postponed without dates being announced.

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