79th US Women's Open nears at Lancaster Country Club [photos, video]

Current LPGA dynamo Nelly Korda didn’t play in the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club. She was only 16.

Her emergence is just one of many differences between this year’s Open — set to make a return trip to LCC on May 29 through June 2 — and the one held here nine years ago.

Many of the operational tasks for which the United States Golf Association used to hire outside vendors or rely on volunteers are now being handled in-house.

“The first year we took the Women’s Open (fully) in-house was 2018,” Bryan Megee, a USGA Championship Manager in charge of the Open, said Tuesday at the event’s official media day.

“(Before that) we had that outside management company. Parking, transportation, volunteers, community relationships, all that stuff is done by us now. It’s just a more direct involvement.”

About 200 fewer volunteers will be needed this time.

“(The transportation) part is really good for us, not having that responsibility,” Jerry Hostetter, General Chairman of the Open, said last July. “That was a challenging division of the volunteers, taking cars to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, making sure the players get their courtesy cars.

“I feel like, as general chairman, it’ll be a little easier to manage this time.”

READ: Top-ranked Nelly Korda among US Women's Open’s participants

The fan experience

Last time, the main entrance for spectators was the club’s usual main entrance off New Holland Avenue.

This time, that entrance will be for the players, whose courtesy cars will drive in and park where the members usually do. Adjoining that parking lot is an activities center, with a pool and gym, which LCC constructed for its members in 2021. It will serve as a hangout and workout space for the players and their families.

“We really want them to feel like they’ve arrived at the U.S. Open and at Lancaster Country Club,” Megee said of the players. “We certainly don’t want to bring them in on a gravel road or anything like that.”

The majority of spectators will arrive at the club in shuttle buses, same as last time. This time, though, they will enter the property at a new entrance, perhaps 100 yards southwest of the main one.

Looking at that spot, Megee said, “We’re going to make this a grand entrance.”

Spectators will get off the bus, go through admissions and ticketing at a welcome center, then walk toward the merchandise center along a path decorated with what Megee called, “awesome signage” along which unspecified interactive activities will be available.

There also will be a USGA mini-museum on the grounds, with artifacts culled from the USGA’s main museum in Far Hills, New Jersey.

The golf course

The USGA announced Tuesday that Lancaster Country Club will play between 6,500 and 6,700 yards long for this year’s Open, with rough 4-5 inches in spots, and greens that will roll to about 11.5 on the Stimpmeter device.

That’s similar to 2015 except the length, which will be about 100 yards longer on the scorecard, and, if the 6,500-6,700 is correct — the actual yardage varies daily with setup and conditions —effectively more than that.

“Average driving distance on the LPGA Tour is about 255 yards now,” USGA Senior Director Shannon Rouillard said. “That’s the basis that I work the plan around.”

The club also has changed the golf course since 2015, adding bunkers here and there, removing trees, and installing in spots the long, wispy fescue grass familiar from European links-style golf.

All to adhere ever-closer to the vision of original architect William Flynn, who designed LCC’s course in the 1920s.

“It’s taken me some time to understand what William Flynn did here,” Rouillard said. “He was a magnificent router of golf courses.”

READ: Chun, Corpuz come to Lancaster as final month's countdown to U.S. Women's Open begins

The broadcast

Combining the efforts of NBC, Peacock, the Golf Channel, USA Network and the USGA’s own multimedia efforts, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open likely will be the most comprehensively covered women’s sports event ever.

Peacock, NBC’s streaming arm, will air coverage from noon to 2 p.m. on May 29 and May 30; from 1-3 p.m. on June 1 and from 2-3 p.m. on June 2. USA will take over from 2-8 p.m. on May 29 and May 30 and 3-4 p.m. on June 2.

NBC’s coverage will begin at 3 p.m. June 1 and 4 p.m. June 2.

The Golf Channel’s “Live from …” studio show will air live from Lancaster throughout Open week, beginning at 9 a.m. the four days of the tournament and filling in after live coverage in the evenings.

While NBC is live on the tournament’s final two days, Mike Tirico, the network’s veteran play-by-play man, will host an alternate broadcast on Peacock that will mix live golf and interviews (on live video feeds) with athletes competing in this year’s Summer Olympics, similar to ESPN’s “Manning Cast” broadcast that runs alongside “Monday Night Football.”

Needless to say, NBC also will air the Olympics.

Kayak mania

Much was made in 2015 of the armada of kayaks that floated through the USWO along the Conestoga Creek as it snakes through LCC.

It was mostly charming and made for great visuals, but some of the boaters got very close to the action, especially on the par-5 seventh hole, where a tee is on one side of the creek and the fairway on the other, meaning the golfers were driving over spectator’s heads.

The kayakers will be back because the creek is a state waterway. Hostetter, however, said the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is taking a more active role in policing the area this time.

READ: U.S. Women's Open launches 'Hidden Ball Challenge' for ticket packages in Lancaster

Cell phones

It’s not as if personal mobile devices weren’t pervasive in 2015, but the entire planet wasn’t quite the photo/video staging area then that it is now.

The Masters formally prohibited cell phones for spectators in 1993. It still — quaintly or weirdly, depending on outlook — provides banks of pay phones for fans.

The USGA still allows mobile phones (“smaller than seven inches in length and/or height”), albeit with the following rules:

— Volume controls must be set to silent or vibrate.

— Using devices to take photos is subject to the USGA’s photography policy.

— Video and audio recording are prohibited.

— Texting and emailing are allowed, but should not disrupt players.

Violators may be escorted off the grounds.

Traffic

As in 2015, the USGA is working with state and local officials to ensure reasonable access to the event for fans and minimal inconvenience for everyone else.

Complicating that will be the work PennDOT already has begun on a four-year, $72 million reconstruction of the Route 30/222 interchange, which includes widening ramps, replacing two bridges over Route 30, and widening Route 222 to six lanes from the interchange to a point about one mile north.

That interchange is a traffic snag in normal times, and it’s less than a mile from Lancaster Country Club.

“It’s not unusual to have major construction projects going on the same time as our championships,” Megee said. “It’s going to be a long (project), and it’s hard to do anything about that.

“We’re certainly keeping an eye on it. PennDOT has been great to work with, but obviously it’s a big project for them.”

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