UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – We’ve come quite a long way since the first U.S. Open was played at Newport (R.I.) Country Club in 1895, when Horace Rawlins shot 91-82 to win a gold medal and $150, beating out a field that, well, could have squeezed into a stage coach.
There were 11 players trying to win that first championship, and nary a Stimpmeter in sight.
The U.S. Golf Association, a proud group, has staged 114 of these national championships, but amazingly, never before attempted one in the Pacific Northwest. Not once. That’s one historical box of many checked off this week.