John Bodenhamer, Chief Championships Officer, and Jeff Hall, Managing Director, Rules and Open Championships, noted as much May 2 during U.S. Open Media Day for the upcoming 122nd U.S. Open. Salem hosted a U.S. Women’s Open win in 1954 and 1984, and the U.S. Senior Open in 2001 and 2017. “We definitely want to get back to Salem, no doubt,” says Bodenhamer. “It’s one of the game’s great places for our championships.”
Two top level officials from the USGA said they’re looking forward to returning to Salem Country Club (Mass.) to conduct another national championship, The Salem News reported.
John Bodenhamer, Chief Championships Officer, and Jeff Hall, managing director, Rules and Open Championships, noted as much May 2 during U.S. Open Media Day for the upcoming 122nd U.S. Open, set for The Country Club in Brookline June 16-19.
“We would love to come back to Salem for another championship,” Bodenhamer said. “Salem is an incredibly special club with a great course that’s produced great championships for goodness knows how long (1932).”
In the inaugural event in the middle of the Depression, Virginia Van Wie defeated Glenna Collet Vare, 10 and 8, in the Women’s Amateur final. Since then, The Salem News reported, the history created on the Peabody property has indeed been historic, starting with Babe Zarahias’ U.S. Women’s Open win in 1954, Hollis Stacy’s third Open win in 1984, and the U.S. Senior Open victories by Bruce Fleisher in 2001), and Kenny Perry in 2017.
“We’ve had discussions off and on with Salem officials since the last Senior Open,” Bodenhamer said, “but discussions of a very preliminary nature. Sometime after we hold our three Open championships next month (Women’s, Men’s and Senior), we’ll hopefully resume talks with them. We definitely want to get back to Salem, no doubt. It’s one of the game’s great places for our championships.”
Certainly not a men’s Open, but logically a third Senior Open, with a Women’s Open a long shot, indicated a fellow USGA official who wished to remain anonymous, The Salem News reported.
Saucon Valley, located in Bethlehem, Penn., hosts its third U.S. Senior Open this June. The thinking is that the USGA is quite fond of Salem as a similar championship venue, The Salem News reported.
“Salem is a layout we like very much for USGA championships,” added Hall. “We would be very much in favor of returning for another championship.”
Salem officials are mum about the prospect of hosting a seventh USGA championship. But that’s normal for any club within the USGA family of tradition-rich sites generally considered a USGA favorite, The Salem News reported.
The USGA is locking in Men’s and Women’s Opens long range, but no Senior Open has been booked beyond 2025 (at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado). Salem had requested — and was granted — five years of lead time before holding the 2001 or 2017 Senior Opens, so that would logically occur this time as well, if it happens, The Salem News reported. That would project to 2027 or 2028, if the club and the USGA can come to the required agreements, pending approval of the Salem membership.
The club’s two major restoration projects in the past six years have caught the USGA’s eye, often a sign that a deal could be in the works sometime in 2022.
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