By MARK EVERSON
USGA executive director David Fay announced this morning said the 34,000 holders of Thursday tickets for the U.S. Open will be given Monday access to Bethpage, if, as seems likely, the championship extends beyond Sunday.
However, the USGA later announced its intent to revert right back to the policy for Saturday and Sunday that prompted the outcry in the first place.
“Thursday ticket holders will get Monday golf,” Fay said. “If there’s Monday golf, those tickets will be honored.”
Then, after the state Attorney General’s office had its say, the USGA went on to say that if there is no play Monday, Thursday ticket holders will be eligible for a 50 percent refund of the ticket price.
Fans were irate that after Thursday’s round was suspended after 3 hours, 16 minutes of play, before most of the field had teed off, and no one had finished the first round, that the USGA declared those Thursday tickets would not be “rainchecked” or otherwise honored.
“We don’t have makeup dates at the Open,” Fay said. “The reality is that we are dealing with a sellout all four days.
“When you consider the parking situation, the security situation, the transportation situation and the golf course itself, we’re at 55,000 max, what our operations people think we can fit on the golf course without bursting at the seams.”
The USGA went on record that if 90 minutes or more of golf is played Saturday or Sunday, those tickets will not be exchangeable or refundable, and will be considered used. It was that policy that started the controversy after three hours and 16 minutes were played Thursday, with more than half the field never teeing up.
Fay cited other sports policies, saying the British Open considers a day fulfilled after two hours, and the tennis Open at Flushing Meadows after 90 minutes.
There may not be any golf Monday, with the USGA doing all it can to complete three rounds by Saturday evening as scheduled. However, rain forecast for tomorrow makes a Monday final round likely.
Fay said the USGA would try to make its ticket policy more clear to fans in the future without chaning it’s basic premise: one ticket, one day.
“Certainly in the future we’re going to have to amend our policy to provide more information to [ticket holders],” Fay said.
