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By Bill Pennington
MAMARONECK, NY – On a rainy day in mid-March, nearly three hundred members of the National Guard in military uniform arrived to establish a containment zone in the New York suburb of New Rochelle, one of the first coronavirus hot spots in North America. .
Three miles away, near Mamaroneck, the United States Golf Association prepares to welcome 150,000 enthusiasts and the world’s most productive golfers to the 120th US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club from 18-21 of June.
“At that time you realize that they are to save lives and that we are just a golf event,” Mike Davis, U. S. G. A. CEO recalled in an interview last month.
However, he was stunned.
“You think to yourself, ‘Are you kidding me?” Davis said. “Will it have to appear in town next to Mamaroneck?” What is the possibility of this happening? “
Within hours, U. S. G. A. he had stopped performing in June in New York’s Westchester County, confidentially postponing mandatory structural paintings to build colossal bleachers and hospitality tents. The logistical planning, the arduous preparation of the golf course and the commercialization of the occasion had been counted five years earlier. As a result, no one in the organization knew when or where the championship would be played, or if it would be played in 2020.
The next six months were a dizzying maze of global deliberation that declared and challenged March’s shadowy clients for the occasion to be held in New York City. But next week, barring further complications, the four-day US Open, one of America’s oldest sporting occasions, will be held, albeit without fans, at Winged Foot beginning Sept. 17.
“It’s a miracle,” said Westchester County Director George Latimer. “It may have turned smoothly the other way.
In fact, Davis had conversations with officials from at least 4 other states while attempting a new home for this year’s US Open. At one point, unable to postpone the occasion until the weather turned bloodless in New York City, Davis agreed to host the championship in December at the Riviera Country Club in Southern California. Only a sneak call at 11 am replaced the negotiations again.
In the end, there were plenty of phone calls, emails and text messages between leaders of the governing golf framework and New York State and local officials. The conversations took a multitude of directions, adding, strangely, Roger Goodell’s office, the N. F. L. Notary.
“It’s an absolute roller coaster,” Davis said of the months that followed. “A complex puzzle that everyone seeks to combine at the same time. “
But if there was a first piece of the puzzle that fell into place, it was a belief, encouraged by medical experts, that Westchester County’s prestige as one of the country’s first hot spots for coronaviruses. it may mean a faster recovery from the crisis than in other parts of the country.
“In one of our first meetings, our medical advisers told us to stay there,” said John Bodenhamer, senior general manager of the championships in the United States. Let him play. His argument that what is lately a hotspot might not be late summer.
At the time, however, the concern and anguish in and around New Rochelle ran deep. At Winged Foot Golf Club, a worker died from the virus, according to the club’s general manager, Colin Burns.
“We felt like we were under siege as a community,” Burns said. “New Rochelle is full of suitcases. I don’t think the championship has been at the forefront of anyone’s thinking. We were in shock.
Even in the open air of New York, obstacles were closing in that seemed to doom the likelihood of a US Open held at Winged Foot this year, or anywhere in the northeastern United States. In particular, a reconfigured golf program was missing from an open week through October, and in all likelihood later.
Updated September 8, 2020
Here’s what happens as world sport slowly comes to life:
The coronavirus pandemic put an end to all golf competitions in mid-March, but the seven governing bodies of the sport (the PGA, the LPGA and European Tours, as well as the independent administrators of the 4 primary golf championships such as the ‘USGA ) had privately reformulated a tight international match. golf program. The calendar featured a set of musical chairs, and the US Open – not yet officially postponed since June – seemed to be the one that remained standing.
In late March, golf executives will announce the new schedule on April 6, and the US Open will move to California in December. Press releases had already been produced. On April 3, it was announced that the US Women’s Open would move from June to December in Houston, the location of her home.
Early in the morning on Palm Sunday April 5, Davis received a call at his home from Martin Slumbers of the R&A, the organization that oversees the British Open. Slumbers told Davis that the British Open, which was postponed from July to September 17, has been canceled for 2020.
It was a big hit for golf in general, but Davis knew it was a game changer for his flagship event. Now there was an opening for the US Open to remain at the venerable Winged Foot, in mid-September. Davis then called top executives at Fox Sports, which had broadcast the last five US Open. Could Fox, which televises several N. F. L. games in September, still driving the last round of the National Golf Championship – not yet in June on Sunday, September 20?
Davis said Fox Goodell about dropping an N. F. L. double billboard that day. “Roger came back and said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to paint with you,'” said Davis, who added, referring to Goodell, “Because he loves golf. “
Eventually, the resolution to move the championship to September was, according to the United States of America, the genesis of a new televised deal for the event. In June, NBC Universal, which airs N. F. L. games, took over the rights to the US Open and all U. S. G. A. championships, Fox.
In mid-afternoon on April 5, the heads of the seven golf governing bodies gathered for a phone call about what Davis had to say about the 40th time since March. He agreed that the US Open at Winged Foot would fill the spot that was vacated in mid-September through the British Open. Although this is the plan, it is still considered conditional.
On the same day, as the death toll in New York State from the coronavirus rose above 4,000, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo pointed to the first signs that the crisis could be on the horizon.
Larry Schwartz, a former Cuomo staff leader who joined the governor’s tenure in the Covid-19 crisis, first contacted the US in May, shortly after Cuomo announced his help for the comeback. professional gambling in New York if the number of virus cases in the state continued to drop and the game adhered to strict protection protocols. Schwartz had worked with U. S. G. A. the last time the US Open was at Winged Foot, in 2006.
But it wasn’t until July that Schwartz’s discussion with the United States escalated when he, along with Dr. Howard A. Zucker, the state’s fitness commissioner, reviewed the rules of protective gear ready for the US Open, which was inspired by positional positions on the PGA Tour since its reboot in mid-June.
Schwartz informed Cuomo that the United States of America’s security protocols only followed state guidelines, but also went beyond insisting that the several hundred volunteers needed to run the championship would be entirely from the New York area. Typically, US Open volunteers come from all over the world. Also, at Winged Foot, no one would be allowed in the box without first passing a coronavirus test.
There is a sticking point before the state approves the event: the United States of America. Hoping that a limited number of fans, between 2,000 and 5,000, could continue to attend the tournament every day, however, Cuomo sought that all returning sporting events were fan-free.
“And it is not open to negotiation,” Schwartz said.
On July 29, Cuomo and U. S. G. A. announced that the US Open will take viewers position in September.
At Winged Foot, already several years after the arrangements for their sixth US Open began, there was renewed excitement, but not much celebration. The heartbreak of March is not far off yet and it might not last for a while.
“You have to get back into the context of things,” said Burns, the club’s general manager. “You have to live somewhere else to perceive that it is still a very serious moment in time. “
Burns is comforted that club members are excited to be recruited to volunteer for the New York-based US Open, but is also disappointed that, when it comes to ‘An Event Without Fans, the companies in the Nearby village of Mamaroneck will not gain advantages from an influx. barely 40,000 viewers consistent with the day. Burns had rented carts to send clubbing enthusiasts to the village and to a giant waterfront park where food trucks and entertainment would serve as a hub for a festival-like atmosphere.
Justin Zeytoonian, general manager of Smokehouse Tailgate Grill in Mamaroneck, said he estimated that the US Open, by adding sessions, would have meant $ 20,000 in additional profit for his restaurant.
Latimer, the Westchester County executive, said he expected the region to see only 20% of the same economic benefits from a US Open. The non-profit organization U. S. G. A. reported that the 2019 championship generated $ 165 million in revenue, adding $ 70 million in profits that fund golf projects across the country, as well as more than a dozen other championships organized through the association. The U. S. G. A. has cancellation insurance, yet Davis said wasting the organization on this year’s main occasion would still be “good at 8 figures. “
But since the US Open almost never comes in Westchester County, few think in terms.
“From a symbolic point of view, it will be crowning a champion in New York and literally turning it into a city at the epicenter of Covid-19,” Davis said. “It would be memorable and inspiring. “
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