Winged Foot: US Open Course Guide

Take a look at our course guide on the 2020 US Open host venue.

Winged Foot: US Open Course Guide

Just over a month on from Collin Morikawa's imperious victory at the PGA Championship, the 2020 US Open is set to take place from the 14th of September to the 20th.

The venue for the event is Winged Foot Golf Club in New York with the club's West Course providing the battleground for the world's best golfers. This will be the 6th time the Club has hosted a US Open with Oakmont and Baltusrol the only clubs to have hosted more.

2020's edition will be unlike no other though because as expected, with the Coronavirus still lurking there will be no fans at the golf course for the event.

The West course at Winged Foot was originally the work of A.W. Tillinghast, the same architect who created Bethpage Black.

Back in 2013, after the USGA announced the US Open would head back to the Club, Gil Hanse did some restoration work to the course in 2016 and 2017 to prepare for the event.

As mentioned above the Club has hosted the US Open several times before along with other Major tournaments and big events.

When we look back at the scoring that has taken place on both the East and West Courses at these events, no doubt 2020's event will be a tough prospect for all of the players.

For example four of the five US Opens have been won with over-par scores. The other was a playoff in 1984 in which the eventual champion Fuzzy Zoeller, and Greg Norman were the only players to shoot under-par.

The most recent Major to be played there was in 2006 which was famously won by Geoff Ogilvy on five over-par.

So what will the course actually look like?

Well on rather mundane topography the course is an excellent design that presents difficult changes in a variety of ways.

As you would expect at a US Open the rough will be up and this will be exacerbated further by the fact no fans will be present to trample it down in certain areas.

The course will play long too and many of the fairways narrow the further down the fairway players hit it so accuracy and hitting the fairway will be of paramount importance.

The difficulty doesn't stop there though as distance control and hitting the greens will also be a tough challenge.

Many of the greens are raised up which makes club selection difficult and whilst some greens appear large, they are undulating, tricky, and most of them have huge run-offs and false fronts to them so not being short is vital. The six-feet false front at the 18th is the best example of this.

There are some holes in which players can attack, the drivable par-4 6th and the par-5 9th are two good examples but on the whole players will have to be patient and not miss in certain locations.

There are also some absolute monster holes like the 243-yard par-3 3rd and the 633-yard 12th hole. The three par-4's that finish the round are all brutes too.

No doubt the eventual champion will have earned his Major victory after having been thoroughly tested over the four days play.

Winged Foot: US Open Course Guide - Watch a full flyover of the course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWl3FJN4ITg

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