John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s Chief Championships Officer, told reporters ahead of the 81st U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club that he was less concerned about having a winner at even-par and more anxious the attention and inspiration from playing at one of America’s greatest venues can bring to the game.
Venues are critical to the USGA’s strategy, and this week’s host attracts a Hollywood-level spotlight to a major that’s never been played at this historic, “cathedral of the game” course at a time when women’s golf has never been more popular.
“It’s not about any score, it’s not about even-par, having a winner at even-par, it’s about the players getting every club in their bag dirty,” Bodenhamer said.
“It’s about the millions of little girls and little boys that are going to be watching the world’s greatest players this week — not just these players play, but at Riviera Country Club, and so many of them will say to themselves, ‘I want to do that. I want to play golf instead of X, Y, Z sport,” he added. “I think we’re going to see better athletes, we’re going to see more women playing as a result of it.”
The USGA was three names shy of 1,900 players filing for entry for this year’s U.S. Open. That pool has been whittled down to 156 players, who will represent 28 different countries at the Pacific Palisades.
“We’re so excited to be in this community and celebrate not only the women’s game, but the resilience of this community, the Los Angeles-Pacific Palisades community, with what happened with the wildfires,” Bodenhamer said. “It’s just a great celebration of that resilience in this community, and we’re proud of everybody.”
Anything to glean from the Genesis?
The PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational was played at Riviera three and a half months prior giving the USGA a good perspective of the course’s footprint and also what changes could be expected come early June.
Bodenhamer believes the major will showcase how similar the men and women play the game.
“You see a little bit of that here, where we try to set it up to where the same approach shots, the guys are going to hit at Genesis, it’s different, it’s February, the kikuya is a little different in February than it is in June, but we do think about it,” he said.
“Back to back really gives us the opportunity to really showcase the women’s game, that they’re every bit as good, and the quality of play, and really just the inspiration of that is a big part of why we do it,” he added.
“The women deserve to play at these great venues where the men have played over the years and made great history,” Bodenhamer added. We believe it’s our obligation to do it, to lift up the women’s game.”
‘Keep the hard holes hard’
Shannon Rouillard, the USGA’s senior director of championships, was asked whether or not she had to “kind of trick up the tees” to create similar approach shots to where male players can see the greens.
She noted that architect George Thomas was brilliant at creating options for players.
“He wanted players to think their way around this golf course,” Rouillard explained. “He created high shot values. He wanted players to think about working the ball left to right, right to left. There are many holes where he is asking for both of those types of shots.
“The centerpiece of the design are his par-3s,” she added Each one of those par-3s here at Riviera are unique and demanding in their own right. The 4th hole, one of the most famous par-3s in all of golf, gives players the opportunity to literally play away from the putting green to funnel it onto the putting surface.”
Citing No. 2, No. 15 and No. 18 as the hardest par-4s, Rouillard said players walking away with a birdie at one of those three holes would skyrocket up the leaderboard.
“We want to keep the hard holes hard but yet provide those opportunities that Thomas wanted to provide that are going to give them some birdie opportunities as well,” she said.