Winged Foot Golf Club

By Sam Weinman – The Journal News

November 27, 2005

MAMARONECK – Two days before Thanksgiving, Winged Foot Golf Club is mostly deserted. There are only a handful of cars in the parking lot. There is a maintenance worker braving the elements to rake some leaves. As the rain begins to pick up, small puddles appear in the fairways.

As the club approaches its winter slumber, there are few outward indications of the frenzy that will arrive with the U.S. Open this June. Over the next few months, however, that is likely to change.

In the two decades since Winged Foot last hosted the Open, the national championship has evolved into much more than a golf tournament. It is an event of epic proportions, hosting up to 40,000 spectators, requiring more than 100 temporary structures on the club grounds, and demanding the coordination of village, county and state officials, along with 5,500 volunteers. In other words, this isn't your father's U.S. Open.

"To get an event of this scope ready is hard to convey," said Danny Sink, the manager of the 2006 Open who has been on site at the club for some 18 months. "It's a massive undertaking with a lot of moving parts."

Winged Foot at least has some experience in this department. The venerable Mamaroneck club has hosted five other major championships, from the 1929 U.S. Open to, most recently, the 1997 PGA Championship. In the summer of 2004, it was allowed a dress rehearsal of sorts when it hosted the U.S. Amateur. But given the scope of the modern Open, even Winged Foot's longtime head pro, Tom Nieporte, acknowledged, "those events are pussycats compared to this."

Nieporte would know. During the 1984 Open, he oversaw all merchandise sales for the event, an operation that consisted of little more than three small tents. By comparison, this year's event will feature a 36,000-square-foot merchandise pavilion on the site of the current driving range (this is to say nothing of the countless U.S. Open items available through catalogs and online).

Merchandise represents just one example of how the event has grown. Corporate involvement is another. At the '84 Open there were no more than a dozen corporate tents scattered throughout the club. This June there will be more than 70, in three separate "villages" that will line key fairways. And none of these tents is cheap, ranging in price from $37,500 to a $200,000 option that will have TVs, computerized scoring terminals, and catered food and drink.

So prevalent are these tents, a common criticism lodged at the USGA is that the Open has become more a vehicle for profits than anything else. As a defense, the USGA says those profits are essential to the organization's overall mission. While the Winged Foot Open likely won't rival the record $13 million netted at the 2002 Open at Bethpage Black, it will be profitable enough to underwrite other parts of the USGA budget.

"Obviously, the U.S. Open makes a profit, but that's money we use to help grow the game," Sink said.

The party that likely will feel the Open's growing pains most is the host club. While quiet now, construction for the various tents is slated to begin in late March. And while the West Course, the site of the actual competition, will be open to members right up to the week before the tournament and soon after its completion, it is the East Course where many of the tents will stand that is likely to be lost for the majority of the 2006 season. As bad as that sounds, the fear around the club was the East, on its own one of the finest layouts in the country, was expected to be left unplayable even longer. Earlier this month, in fact, the USGA held a town-hall-type meeting at the club in an attempt to answer questions about the East Course's restoration, which will be overseen by Winged Foot course superintendent Eric Greytock.

"You hear all the rumors that it's going to take years and years. It's just not true," Sink said. "It won't be the week after the Open, but the hope is to have (the East Course) ready by the end of the golf season next year."

Is the sacrifice worth it to Winged Foot members? Perhaps it depends on whom you ask. For all the disruption the Open will cause this year, keep in mind the club is rewarded handsomely for hosting the event (upward of seven figures). And while that might be the most tangible benefit, almost as alluring is a chance to add to the club's rich tradition.

"It's a minor inconvenience," Winged Foot member Paul Dillon said. "The loss of the golf course to the membership is a little longer than we realized. But it won't be long before it's as good as new. And by then we'll have a memory we can keep forever."