USGA Remains Committed to U.S. Open, But NY’s Governor Might Say Otherwise

We’re officially a week into Spring 2020 and the COVID-19 Coronavirus continues to disrupt all aspects of normal, everyday life (and, most importantly, weekend warrior golf).

With The Masters already being postponed to be held later this year, possibly in September, and the PGA Champion most recently following suit to be postponed to a later date, the powers at be remain committed to holding the 3rd major on the 2020 calendar: the U.S. Open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by United States Golf Association (@usga) on Oct 30, 2019 at 4:10am PDT

However, it might entirely be outside of their control if the Coronavirus continues to remain a widespread problem in New York State.

Indeed, the USGA recently announced that local qualifying, originally slated to be held between April 27th to May 12th, for the 2020 U.S. Open has been cancelled. It goes without saying that with the First Stage being called off that there could be some logistics that need to be worked out in order to ensure things fall into place before the sectional qualifiers, which are scheduled to be held between May 18th and June 8th.

But, as briefly mentioned above, the New York State Governor may already have served the kiss of death.

Indeed, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order that closed all “non-essential businesses”, thereby halting preparations for Winged Foot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Braden Hanson (@premieraerials) on Mar 18, 2020 at 10:17am PDT

Fortunately, Winged Foot’s grounds crew will be able to continue to maintain the West Course, a 1923 A.W. Tillinghast design that was renovated by Gil Hanse in 2015, in the event the U.S. Open can be held on schedule. Sadly, however, reports indicate that no grandstands have been built, which begs the question that IF things continue on schedule, will the grounds be ready for spectators, or will the 2020 U.S. Open follow The Masters rumor and hold the event absent any attendees?

It goes without saying, nobody expected that we’d be waiting until June to see the first major of the 2020. But at this point, I think we’d all be very, very grateful just to see any events getting played.

Cover Image Via Instagram