At This Week's U.S. Senior Open, the Wildcard Will Be the Weather in Newport

Newport Country Club will host the best senior players in the world and weather will be a focus.

Newport Country Club hosts the 2024 U.S. Senior Open. / USGA

NEWPORT, R.I. – As a continuous stiff wind blew in off the Long Island Sound and across Newport Country Club, grins gleamed across the faces of several United States Golf Association staff members scattered around the practice green. 

“If we get this kind of wind for the tournament,” one of them said, “it would be perfect.” 

The wind was blowing between 15 and 18 mph that sundrenched May afternoon and everyone’s hoping for similar weather when the U.S. Senior Open gets under way at Newport CC this Thursday. 

A dry, windy forecast will showcase the best of Newport, challenging Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker and other top senior players in a similar manner to how Pinehurst challenged Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. 

“Everything is in hands of mother nature now,” USGA senior director of championships Ben Kimball told Sports Illustrated. “The golf course is exactly where we want it to be. It’s happy, it’s healthy and it knows it’s gotta run a race.”

Who wins that race will be determined heavily by the weather. 

Like Pinehurst, where the 2024 U.S. Open was held two weeks ago, Newport CC is a natural course, with varying lengths of rough and fescue lining the fairways. You could get a good break or a bad break if you hit into the thick stuff. 

Unlike Pinehurst, Newport only has irrigation systems on its greens and tee boxes, making rain the only source of water for the fairways and rough. Thankfully this year’s spring was wet in Newport, providing enough rain for the native vegetation to grow as intended. 

“It’s golf in its purest form,” Kimball said. “Nothing is perfect. The rough is inconsistent, which makes it more exciting. It creates all sorts of unusually situations and lies and shots.”

When Tiger Woods won the U.S. Amateur at Newport in 1995, there was a severe drought that made the course play fast and firm. When Annika Sorenstam won the U.S. Women’s Open here in 2006, the first round was cancelled because of rain and players finished the tournament with 36 holes on Sunday.

The extended forecast appears ideal for the U.S. Senior Open, with mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the mid-70s, and a steady 10–13 mph wind predicted in Newport. That would provide Kimball with the flexibility to set the course up in a way that tests the players and showcases Newport’s best qualities. 

“It [weather] is the most important factor in what we do to set up the golf course,” Kimball said. “It drives every decision I make.” 

Newport CC is one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA and hosted the first U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open Championship in 1895. This will be the 1,001st championship event hosted by the USGA and it's fitting to be conducted on such hallowed grounds. 

“Everything is setting up for another historic event,” Kimball said. “This is where major championship golf started in this country and when you visit here, it’s kind of like stepping back in time. We owe it to the world's best senior golfers who are coming here to try and win their national championship at a venue that's so special to us to showcase this course at it’s best.”

Now we’ll see if Mother Nature plays along.