NEWPORT, R.I. — Figuratively stationed on the 18th fairway with nothing more than a wedge to the pin, the U.S. Senior Open became one of the latest major sporting events to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States Golf Association made a number of announcements Monday morning, including the cancellation of the U.S. Senior Open, to be played at Newport Country Club from June 25-28, and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, slated for July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The U.S. Open, which was set to be played June 18-21 at Winged Foot in New York, has been postponed to Sept. 17-20 at the same location.
“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA, said in a statement. “Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer.”
Planning for the 2020 U.S. Senior Open began long ago, and an official announcement was made during an intimate gathering at the Newport Marriott in April 2017. It would have been the 41st installment of the tournament, which heads to Omaha Country Club in Nebraska next year and Saucon Valley Country Club in 2022.
“It’s out of our control,” Barclay Douglas, president of Newport Country Club, told The Daily News via a phone conversation Monday morning. “It’s unfortunate because a lot of people worked hard and were anticipating this.”
The bulk of that work started about 18 months ago, when employees with the USGA, led by championship director Hank Thompson, set up shop in an office building on Third Street in Newport.
“It’s not like throwing together a family reunion,” Thompson told The Daily News back then. “I like to say it’s a big jigsaw puzzle, where you take all of these pieces and you start fitting them together. It may not all fit together today, 18 months out, but as you proceed through that timeline, they start to fit.
“And every now and again, you might have to get a hammer and bang one or two in.”
Still, he feels for all those involved with such a massive undertaking.
“My first reaction was how hard so many people have worked for the past two years, the people at Newport Country Club and the USGA,” Smith said. “They’ve been working on this project, and I feel for all of them because that hard work has been wiped out by a silent enemy.”
The field of players likely would have included first-timers Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera and KJ Choi, as well as Rhode Island natives Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley.
“The field was going to be fantastic — a lot of new names and great names,” Douglas said. “I think everyone was looking forward to it.”
Newport Country Club is one of five founding members of the USGA, the others being Chicago Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York, St. Andrew’s Golf Club in New York and The Country Club in Massachusetts.
Newport, with its historic clubhouse, hosted the inaugural U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in 1895. In more recent times, the course along the Ocean Drive that overlooks the foot of Narragansett Bay, was the site of the 1995 U.S. Amateur, when a young Tiger Woods prevailed, and the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open won by Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam.
While the sites for the next two Senior Open championships are set, a future stop in Newport certainly isn’t out of the question.
“I think these relationships will carry on,” Smith said. “Certainly there is no date set for a future event in Newport, but the relationship with Newport Country Club and the USGA is a strong one and has been for decades. I think you’ll see another major golf event [in Newport].”
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A USGA official told The Daily News during a kickoff event in March that between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators were expected to attend the tournament during the course of the week. Smith said the cancellation of the Senior Open is just the latest blow to the area’s economy.
“The second quarter of this year has been totally wiped out,” Smith said. “When you look at the different conferences and events, all of those things have been devastating for the industry — in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Something like golf could have been our fabulous comeback, an enormous kickoff, but these are the cards we were dealt,” he said.
Smith said the USGA shared with him with an economic impact study from the 2018 Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “The total was about $10 million, and I have no reason to doubt that report,” Smith said.
The South Bend Tribune last summer reported that officials in the Indiana city anticipated an economic impact of between $15 million and $25 million for the Senior Open contested at Notre Dame’s Warren Course.
Douglas said another USGA event at Newport Country Club will come down to “scheduling,” but said the game’s governing body in the United States “enjoys Newport.”
“They enjoy the history, and the people and the town,” Douglas said. “To be continued.”
As for the 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, it was expected to be the third USGA Open championship and fifth overall USGA championship hosted by Brooklawn Country Club.
The club — located outside of Fairfield, Connecticut — was founded in 1895, hosted the 1974 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, the 1979 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Jerilyn Britz; the 1987 U.S. Senior Open, won by Gary Player; and the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior, which was won by 16-year-old Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff.