Mystic Rock set to host historic WPGA Open
The 113th playing of the U.S. Open will take place tomorrow through Sunday at one of the world’s great golf courses, Merion Golf Club. That’s a lot of golf tournaments, although it still pales in comparison to the Open Championship, which will be held for the 142nd time next month at Muirfield in Scotland.
Much closer to home, another historic golf tournament will be held when the West Penn Golf Association’s Open championship returns to Fayette County.
The 54-hole event will be held at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort’s Mystic Rock course Monday and Tuesday, the second time the prestigious event has been held there. The first time was in 2007.
The event will be held Monday and Tuesday, with 36 holes being played Monday, followed by a cut to the low 32 and ties advancing to play Tuesday.
It’s an open championship, meaning as long as you meet the handicap requirements, you can attempt to qualify. When the Open was held at Oakmont Country Club in 2005, the qualifier became a necessity when 240 golfers entered. Two qualifying sites were used and the starting field numbered 120.
This year the field will be 78, making it easier to get players around the course twice in a day.
The changes in format now have the Open and the West Penn Amateur contested the same way.
The Open, along with the Amateur, are the two oldest championships in the WPGA. The Open has been played since 1899, except during World War I (1917-18) and World War II (1943-45).
First contested in 1899, it has been played continuously except during World War I (1917-18) and World War II (1943-45). Some of the biggest names in golf, locally and nationally, have played in and won the West Penn Open. Fred Brand, W.C. Fownes, Jock Hutchinson, Ed Furgol, Sam Parks, Jim Masserio, Lew Worsham and Arnold Palmer are the biggest of those.
Enhancing the tournament’s pedigree is the fact that winners here have gone on to win 13 USGA national championships and six majors. Roy Vucinich, the longtime former pro at Allegheny Country Club, won the Open five times, tying legendary Jock Hutchinson and Perry Delvecchio. Vucinich also holds the distinction of winning it in four separate decades.
Amateurs have had their place in the Open, having won it 15 times, most recently by Nathan Smith in 2008. He also won the West Penn Amateur that year, one of four times in the tournament’s existence that had been accomplished.
The purse of over $30,000 won’t be touched by the amateurs, of course, but it certainly makes for one of the nicest paydays of the year for the professionals who are entered. PNC Bank, for the past five years, has contributed $5,000 toward that purse.
Defending champion Dan Thompson has won the event in 2009 and 2012, and will come to Nemacolin Woodlands as the favorite.
n It’s been a tough week for the U.S. Open and Merion Golf Club. Over five inches of rain pummeled the Philadelphia area over the weekend and it rained again Monday. The course has been soaked and there appears to be no chance it will have a chance to get dry and fast as hoped. Add to that, the forecast is for rain again during the first round on Thursday. The only thing that will keep Merion from being totally defenseless is the rough that will continue to grow and most likely not get mowed.
Too bad because Merion superintendent, Matt Shaffer, a Penn State graduate, had the place just as he wanted before the weekend rains.
I’m looking for feature story ideas about people or events around the district. I you have one, send it to me at mike.dudurich@gmail.com. Mike Dudurich is a freelance golf writer and hosts The Golf Show on Sports Radio 93.7 The Fan Saturday mornings at 7 a.m.