Latest news with #MikeWhan
USA Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Here's what fans can expect as Oakmont gears up to host a 10th U.S. Open
Here's what fans can expect as Oakmont gears up to host a 10th U.S. Open Show Caption Hide Caption 2025 U.S. Open: Oakmont gears up to host its 10th championship Oakmont and the USGA is looking to give the world's top players a tough challenge and fans a unique experience at the 125th U.S. Open Championship. Oakmont Country Club will host its record 10th U.S. Open from June 12-15. New fan experiences include expanded merchandise areas and a relocated fan experience venue. The course will play longer and with higher rough than in 2016. OAKMONT, Pennsylvania — Fans and the best golfers from around the world will soon flock to Oakmont, Pennsylvania, as Oakmont Country Club will host the 125th U.S. Open Championship on June 12-15 for a record 10th U.S. Open. 'When you fit, you can feel it,' United States Golf Association President Fred Perpall said. 'The U.S. Open and the USGA has fit so well here at Oakmont. It is hard to win a U.S. Open and playing Oakmont is really hard. With 175 bunkers and obstacles, it demands meticulous play and a lot of creativity.' In 2021, the USGA named Oakmont an anchor site, which began a 25-year partnership between the two entities. After 2025, the country club will host the 2033, 2042 and 2049 U.S. Opens, the U.S. Women's Opens in 2028 and 2038, along with the 2033 Walker Cup match and the 2046 U.S. Women's Amateur. Pinehurst and Pebble Beach also joined Oakmont as anchor sites, which in turn will help enhance the experience for both players and fans, with the tournament dates already being planned out over the next two decades. The USGA and Oakmont have been hard at work to give fans and players alike a better experience in its first year hosting as an anchor venue. 'As an anchor site, we want to be a partnership to grow the game, invest in the location and invest back in the region,' USGA CEO Mike Whan told the Beaver County Times. 'We think of Oakmont as a 'cathedral' for the game of golf and with the number of tournaments that will be hosted here, it will be a site where players strive to reach and fans want to continue to come back to.' This year, fans will experience 40,000 square feet of merchandise space from the main tent and satellite tent. It will also have a new fan experience pad by hole 11, which used to be located on the other side of the turnpike. The new location will house the USGA and museum experience, a small merch area, food and beverage options and big-screen TVs where fans can gather. 'The greatest thing that I can say about Oakmont and believe me it is as great as it can be, we know that Oakmont is going to continue to get better, the fans and players will notice it as well,' Whan said. 'The fans that have experienced Oakmont 10 times before, when they return for the next 10 times, they will continue to see the investments that are being made.' When it comes to the course for this year's championship, it will continue to challenge the world's best golfers in unique ways. The yardage is 153 yards longer than when Oakmont hosted back in 2016, adding a yard for each year since the previous championship held there. It will also have the rough sitting at five inches or higher, rivaling the height of seven to eight inches of rough at Oakmont in 1983. But in the end, just as course designer Henry Fownes' son William made changes to make the course more difficult back in the early 1900s, he did so to find a balance between the strategy and the difficulty which the USGA and the country club still strive to meet each time the U.S. Open comes to Oakmont. 'We work closely with the team at Oakmont to prepare and present a stage for the 'actors' to go at it, but we don't get to write the script,' USGA managing director of rules and open championships Jeff Hall said. 'But when you look at the names on the U.S. Open trophy, specifically here at Oakmont, this course brings out the best because you have to play at a top level, you can't pretend your way around here. The venue, the way it is prepared, will bring the cream to the top. We want to provide a stage for the world's best players to do what they do best.' With the U.S. Open just one month away, the world's top players will be in for a tough test and the fans will be treated to an entertaining four days of golf.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How Maja Stark held off Nelly Korda to win the U.S. Women's Open
ERIN, Wisc. — You can see it all atop the ninth tee, standing on the hill overlooking the rolling mounds and marshes. There are barns and dairy pastures in view across the sprawling Wisconsin countryside. You can see from one end of Erin Hills to the other, hardly a tree in sight from the large wooden clubhouse in the south to the 18th green in the center, and across the fields of green to the 15th hole tucked in the northeast corner. The man in charge of this event, USGA CEO Mike Whan, called it 'Field of Dreams for golf.' Advertisement And atop this hill, you can see how the 80th U.S. Women's Open was decided. The daunting eighth hole with its steep, blind fairway is to your right. To your left is the 10th tee shot. A little further left and you have the approaches into the 11th green. Take a few steps behind you and you can look down the valley that is the 12th hole in between mounds, and the downhill par-3 No. 13 around a marsh. But if you just look in front of you, you see the true stage of this U.S. Open. You see the gorgeous downhill par-3 — No. 9 — a 145-yard shot surrounded by slopes and bunkers with just the tiniest little landing spot to save you from rolling away. It's at this spot where you see contender after contender roll from the center of the green, off to the right and down the fairway for bogey. You see Ruoning Yin and Sarah Schmelzel enter with hope, only to roll off that slope and say goodbye. You see Linn Grant hit it to 19 inches, the shot of the week there, to gain hope of her own. Oh, and just off in the distance, you see Nelly Korda coming up that hill on eight. You see the horde of fans behind her, packed together, a strange sight at such a vast, spread-out property. You see Korda, fresh off a birdie on seven, make her 17-foot birdie putt on eight to get within one of the lead. The No. 1 player in the world is coming, and leader Maja Stark knows it. And it's here on nine, you see Korda hit the perfect, correct play. Left side of the green along the ridge, away from the bunkers, away from that center slope. Nine feet for birdie. This is the kind of U.S. Open golf Korda has been clamoring for. Patient yet scorable. Dialed but not risky. No blowups for the critics to hone in on. The tournament was coming to her, if she could just grab it. The birdie putt did not fall. Neither did the next chance, nor the next one, nor the eagle putt after that. She did not gain another stroke on the day. Advertisement So some 20 minutes later, when Stark finally made her way up the hill, we did not realize she'd already done all she'd need to win this U.S. Open. At 7 under par, with Korda one behind, Stark did not need to attack. U.S. Opens are not often won by heroics. They are won by the correct decisions made across four days, well before any singular Sunday moment. Stark found her line and hit that approach into nine, rolling up the center, past the pin and hanging up top for an easy two-putt par. Maybe it was truly over then, because Stark got this far by playing proper U.S. Open golf. She found fairways. She hit greens. She controlled her spin on those evil edges. She played the back nine in even par to seal her first major victory Sunday in a two-shot rout that felt like more. On a course where 197 double bogeys were scored — and 33 holes even worse — Stark bogeyed just 10 of 72 holes. She was the only player in the field to go under par each of the first three rounds, and the only reason she finished with a Sunday 72 is her four-shot lead meant she could play uber-conservative and bogey 17 and 18. This was a U.S. Open won by a golfer who straight-up said she had low expectations. She said, 'I haven't been playing that well lately.' And she is right. She had just one top-20 finish in the last eight months, and she hasn't truly contended since her second-place finish at the Chevron Championship a whole 13 months ago. But another U.S. Open rule of thumb: They are not won by players trying to win a U.S. Open. They are won by respecters of the golf course, stewards of par. They go to the golfers who limit mistakes and capture the opportunities given. They are earned, rarely taken. And sometimes it takes a win to see the greater picture, and there are some golfers made for certain tests. "I had a friend tell me, you need to be confident and you need to trust yourself. That's what I tried to do, to make myself and everyone on my team proud." Maja Stark's had the resolve to get the job done on Sunday at @ErinHillsGolf. @Ally — U.S. Women's Open (@uswomensopen) June 1, 2025 Stark was 20, an Oklahoma State freshman, when she finished T13 in her U.S. Open debut. A year later, she went to the Olympic Club and finished T16. Two U.S. Open top 20s before she turned pro. Two years later, in perhaps her worst professional season, Stark came in at T9 at Pebble Beach. She is a U.S. Open golfer, and sometimes it is that simple. Advertisement 'I don't really think I ever felt that my confidence was great,' Stark said. 'I think that I just stopped trying to control everything, and I just kind of let everything happen the way it happened.' The most U.S. Open answer possible. As much as Stark is Sunday's story, though, it is impossible to ignore the story of every women's golf tournament these days: Nelly Korda. Because she is the game's best, and because she is the one who admittedly puts so much pressure on U.S. Opens, it leads to implosions and missed cuts. In her previous 10 starts, she rarely left herself in contention at all. But this week was different. From tee to green, Korda did everything to earn this U.S. Open. She launched it off the tee and still ranked third in fairways found. She was second in greens in regulation and led the entire championship in the tee-to-green strokes gained category. No silly errors. No short-game blowups. Korda did not find a single bunker for four days. She put herself in every good spot and left herself a birdie putt seemingly every hole. They just didn't fall. 'Not much to say other than it does sting to come up short,' she said. Korda finished 52nd in putting out of the 60 golfers who made the cut. Other than two painful short misses on Friday, she didn't miss gimmes, either. The 50-50 putts just never went her way. 'When you strike it really well and you give yourself so many opportunities, it does get at the end of the day, frustrating. It comes down to your putting, right? 'I wasn't hitting bad putts,' she continued. 'Not at all. I wasn't pushing them. I wasn't pulling them. They just weren't falling.' The pain for Korda won't be about any glaring mistake or some huge missed chance that turned the tide. It will be about the opportunities she amassed over 72 holes, and how she just couldn't quite take them. But on 13, still in view atop our beloved hill, Korda trailed by just one with a five-foot par putt remaining. She missed left, dropping to 5 under after her big run. Seemingly seconds later, just 70 or so yards away on 11, Stark made a tricky 14-foot birdie to create a three-stroke gap. Then Korda responded with one of the best shots of the week into the par-5 14th, playing it off the back ridge and down the slope for a 14-foot eagle look. A chance to get back within one. It didn't come close as she had to settle for birdie. By the time Korda bogeyed the par-5 18th hole to finish 5 under par, the tournament was completely Stark's to lose. Advertisement 'Obviously, with the pressure and everything, your mistakes get bigger,' Stark said, 'but it felt like I could just control anything that was thrown at me really today.' Now, Stark goes into the history books, joining the club of Swedish major winners like Annika Sörenstam and Anna Nordqvist. She will continue her career as somebody who knows that, even when their game isn't in form, she can play proper golf and win. But perhaps the greatest winner of the week is Erin Hills. It's a course criticized for how it played eight years ago in the men's U.S. Open, a week when Brooks Koepka ran away at 16 under par and the lack of wind made it appear easy. But this week was an undeniable success, those slopes causing damage, those greens forcing balls to fly from end to end. And there were those beautiful rolling hills and the things they let us see. (Top photo of Maja Stark at the 18th tee: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
How hard does the wind need to blow at Erin Hills for a stern U.S. Women's Open test?
ERIN, Wisconsin – USGA CEO Mike Whan apologizes in advance for the potential eye roll when he calls Erin Hills golf's Field of Dreams. The organization loves the place so much it will host 10 USGA championships by 2039 – heady stuff for any place much less a property that opened 19 years ago. 'You're driving out here and you kind of keep driving and you go, maybe I missed it,' said Whan during a pretournament press conference at the 80th U.S. Women's Open. Advertisement 'Then you take the left into this property, and it's, if you build it. It just feels – my parents are from Iowa, so it reminds me of the Iowa drive and then you pull in. It's just majestic.' What the blue coats love most about the place is its ability to test players in every facet. It can be stretched out into oblivion, if necessary, but a deft short game and creativity are crucial to tackle the green surroundings – especially if the wind kicks up. It's a long walk. The recommended time to play a casual round of golf out here is 4 hours and 55 minutes. The target time to finish Rounds 1 and 2 this week is 4:54, but good luck. Mother Nature didn't show up when the men played the U.S. Open here in 2017 and scores were, for many, frustratingly low with Brooks Koepka's winning score 16 under. The forecast, which has changed a bit already this week, calls for rain on Wednesday and Thursday and gusts up to 30 mph on Friday as potential thunderstorms roll in. 'It tests every part of your game,' said world No. 1 Nelly Korda. 'It's very demanding. It's firm. It's fast, as well. Even if you think you've hit it good, you just can never – you can exhale when you see it stop. I would say even the weather plays a big role with the shots out here, with the putts. Advertisement 'I think it's a great big hitter's golf course, but it's just demanding in every aspect.' The grounds crew at Erin Hills endured a particularly challenging winter and matters weren't helped last week when a storm dumped a good deal of rain on Thursday and hail the size of a quarter. Zach Reineking, who has been at Erin Hills since the beginning and was recently promoted to the role of co-general manager, joined the Golf Channel Live From set on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the behind-the-scenes prep. 'It takes a small army, to be honest,' said Reineking. 'We've got our own staff of about 35 people and in addition to that, we've got 85 either superintendants or assistants, people that are in the industry who all came out to volunteer for us. A total of 110, 120 total staff members.' Advertisement As for the hail, Reineking said the impact wasn't as significant as a ball mark, but they did have depressions on the greens. After the full staff watered the greens excessively, they brought in a ton-and-a-half asphalt roller to iron out the greens, and they're now back to pristine condition. As was the case in 2017, ownership shut down the course back in October to get ready for this week. The biggest difference, of course, is that this championship is taking place two weeks earlier than the U.S. Open's traditional mid-June dates. That means the fescue that lines the fairways of Erin Hills hasn't quite made the transition yet from a green hue to amber. But, if Mother Nature cooperates, there will be wind. How much does it take, exactly, to get the true Erin Hills test? Advertisement 'We always joke, if it says five to 10, it's all a 10,' said Reineking. 'If it says 10 to 15, it's all 15. There's just no place for the wind to actually slow down. So you, if you can get winds that are 15 miles per hour, sustained, and then some gusts of 20, which I think we might see on Friday, it'll play a factor.' This article originally appeared on Golfweek: How hard does the wind need to blow at Erin Hills for true major test?
NBC Sports
29-05-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
Whan: Growth of golf in U.S. driven by women
USGA CEO Mike Whan discusses how the U.S. Women's Open showcases the growth of women's golf and reflects on his time leading the LPGA.
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
USGA Invests In Women To Drive The Growth Of Golf
ERIN, WISCONSIN - Nelly Korda prior to the U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally at Erin Hills Golf ... More Course on May 28, 2025 in Erin, Wisconsin. (Photo by) As the 2025 U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally gets underway at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, the United State Golf Association (USGA) is celebrating a significant milestone: 80 years of the organization's marquee women's championship. The 80th anniversary of the U.S Women's Open is a celebration of the USGA's long-standing commitment to advancing women in golf, as women have been core to the organization's programming since its founding, dating back to the inaugural U.S. Women's Amateur in 1895. 'It's in our DNA,' said Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA. 'For every men's event we have, we have a women's event,' said Whan. 'We showcase women the exact same way we showcase men.' In the last few years in particular, the USGA has scaled its efforts to reach and retain the next generation of female golfers. For the USGA, creating opportunities for women and girls in golf is a strategic part of the organization's overall efforts to grow the game. 'The game was never going to unlock its full potential unless it was going to invite a bigger audience in, and that's what has been happening,' said Whan. The USGA has made significant commitments to women's golf at every level of the game. At the youth level, the organization continues to be the largest contributor to the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf program, helping fund community-first junior programs that serve as an essential entry point for girls beginning to play golf. When it comes to developing emerging talent, 17 athletes are currently benefitting from elite level training and support as part of the U.S. National Junior Team and U.S. Elite Amateur Team, with even more being supported by the USNDP grant program. At the professional level, the USGA continues to innovate and raise the bar for women in golf. With an assist from presenting sponsor Ally, the U.S. Women's Open now offers a $12 million prize purse, which is the largest in all of women's professional golf. (Disclosure: Ally is a sponsor of The Business Case For Women's Sports podcast, which is hosted & produced by Caroline Fitzgerald.) By the numbers, the USGA's strategy is working: more women are participating in golf than ever before. Additionally, the overall growth of the sport of golf is largely being driven by women and girls. According to the National Golf Foundation, 28% of the 28.1 million Americans who played golf on a course in 2024 were women – the highest proportion ever recorded. Off the course, participation was even more balanced, as women now make up 43% of off-course players, which is significant because women and girls are typically more likely to participate in clinics, lessons, and activities like Topgolf. Since 2019, there's been a 41% increase in women playing green-grass golf, and females now account for 39% of beginner golfers and 35% of junior golfers nationwide. This growth has been especially visible at the high school level, with over 1,000 new girls' golf teams added since 2010, per the National Federation of State High School Associations. As the USGA celebrates 80 years of the U.S. Women's Open, one thing is clear: the future of golf is female.
