Olympia Fields Country Club now knows where it stands with the United States Golf Association.
The club recently received a letter from the USGA that detailed its status in the pecking order for future U.S. Opens. It will have to wait in line to find out if and when the tournament will return to the area. The club also will be expected to be the host for another USGA event in the interim.
The USGA has identified a top tier of clubs for Open venues. In a 10-year period, at least four Opens will go to Pebble Beach, Shinnecock, Pinehurst and Bethpage.
Olympia Fields, the site for this year’s Open, learned it falls in the second tier along with Oakland Hills, Oakmont, Brookline and Congressional, among several others. That means the club likely won’t get another Open until 2015 at the earliest, or right before Tiger Woods’ 40th birthday.
However, a couple of things have to happen first. The USGA wants candidate clubs to be willing to take on its other tournaments. Oakmont, site of this year’s U.S. Amateur and the 2007 Open, just signed on to be host for the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open.
Olympia Fields will be required to follow the same path. The club is likely to get a U.S. Amateur. With two championship courses, the facility would be ideal for qualifying rounds.
An Amateur is at the top of the clubs’ wish list. Olympia Fields, however, also is likely to be asked to hold a U.S. Women’s Open, perhaps in 2009, and maybe even another U.S. Senior Open; the 1997 event was at Olympia Fields.
“We’re not averse to taking any one of those,” said Kevin Kennedy, vice chairman of this year’s Open.
Kennedy said communication with the USGA has been positive since last June’s Open. But there is one negative that could preclude the Open to returning to the course.
The USGA still is burning over the way local public officials, namely Cook County, treated it. The association believes it didn’t receive any breaks, forcing it to shell out more than $1 million for services than it has for previous Opens.
One USGA official said: “Dealing with New York was 10 times easier. It was almost as if [the local politicians] didn’t want us there.”
Club officials will have to resolve that issue if Olympia Fields is to get another Open. It would be a shame if area fans are deprived of seeing golf’s biggest tournament because politicians got in the way.
It is hoped that by the time the Open is set to return to Olympia Fields, there will be a new set of public officials who recognize the benefit of having a worldwide event in their back yard.
Marrying man: Tiger Woods has faced pressure before and handled it quite nicely, thank you. But the nerves he experienced in asking Elin Nordegren to marry him were a new experience.
“I’ve made championship putts before,” Woods said. “I’ve never had [to propose marriage] before. Even if you say it absolutely perfectly, those four words, you could always get denied. . . . It’s amazing how many different things go through your mind at that moment.”
Woods said that only four people knew of his decision to propose. One of them was his mother, Tida, who helped pick out the engagement ring.
Woods should earn enough money to pay for that ring at his tournament, the Target World Challenge, which begins Thursday in California.
Tap-ins: Northwestern grad Scott Harrington made it to the final stage of Q-stage, but didn’t get any further. He will have conditional status on the Nationwide Tour next year. . . . Libertyville-based architect Rick Jacobson has signed on to renovate Sportsman’s in Northbrook. Work will begin at the 27-hole facility next fall. . . . The Chicago Golf Show has moved from its usual February dates to March 19-21 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Officials want to have the show closer to the golf season. Given the usually poor spring weather, they should consider moving it to May.
And finally: Art Carney wasn’t known for golf, but he did contribute one of the great all-time bits on the sport when, as Ed Norton, he tried to teach Ralph Kramden how to play on “The Honeymooners.” In a tribute to the late comedian, the next time they put a tee in the ground, all golfers should say, “Hello, ball!”
