Global Golf Post - June 21, 2010

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | To no one’s
surprise, the USGA has awarded the 2017 U.S.
Open to Erin Hills, a daily-fee public course
about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

At the same time, USGA President Jim Hyler
said the 2019 U.S. Open will return for a sixth
time to Pebble Beach Golf Links, which also
gets the 2018 U.S. Amateur. The announce-
ments came on the eve of the U.S. Open.

USGA officials have been enamored with
Erin Hills since it opened in 2006.
“Erin Hills, though just a few years old, has
justifiably earned its reputation as one of the
premier facilities in the nation,” Hyler said.

A minimalist design, Erin Hills is a
collaboration of Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry
and Ron Whitten. The U.S. Open is the third
USGA championship scheduled for Erin Hills. It
was the site of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur
Public Links Championship and will be host to
next year’s U.S. Amateur Championship.

Pebble Beach, site of five U.S. Opens, in-

cluding this year, needs no introduction. It will
celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2019.
“Pebble Beach offers a spectacular setting
and boasts a long tradition of major champion-
ship golf,” Hyler said.
For a fleeting moment, Phil Mickelson
thought he might have incurred a penalty on
the fourth hole in Thursday’s opening round.

He played a shot out of a bunker but failed
to get the ball out of the sand. As is the habit of
most golfers, Mickelson immediately went to
smooth over the footprints. He stopped almost
as soon as he began.

“I kind of smoothed, but I wasn’t sure if I
could do that,” Mickelson said.

The ruling was that if had he kicked the sand
in frustration, he would have incurred a penalty
for testing the hazard. But since he was smooth-
ing footprints and did not improve his lie for the
next stroke (Rule 13-2), there was no violation.

Mickelson also was deemed to have played out
of order but, once again, since he didn’t do it to
give anyone an advantage, there was no penalty.
Don’t ask Tiger Woods about his personal
life. When somebody delved into his marital
status at a pre-championship press conference,
Woods’ response was terse.
“That’s none of your business,” Woods said.

Woods wasn’t the only golfer complaining
about the greens at Pebble Beach but, truth
is, when Woods calls something “awful,” the
echoes reverberate loudest. And so it was that
Woods’ criticism reached USGA officials even a