• A brief summary of the overall project as described below

Once selected to host the U.S. Open, the tournament venue has a serious challenge to prepare its course, facilities, and local supporting sites for this premier event. All the while, the clock is ticking. Everything must be in place for the week in mid-summer when golfing royalty, TV and media professionals, and spectators descend on the course for the Open. Delays (other than for unforeseeable weather reasons) are not an option. In this way, developing the site for a golfing event like the U.S. Open highlights the critical nature of project management and important principles of project scheduling.

How do the USGA and the host course prepare for the tournament? How do they set up the site to make it a true test of golf while maintaining schedule discipline? The USGA takes several steps as it works with the host course, some of them starting years in advance. First, Open courses are measured against the current standards of golf equipment. An Open site that was a good test of golf in 1950 may now be considered too easy because of advances in golf clubs and balls. As the sport has evolved, the USGA must make sure that the course is still a fair and tough test for a new generation of golfers and their improved equipment.

A couple of years prior to the Open, USGA officials and golf course designers examine the proposed course hole-by-hole. What was the architect's intent for the hole? Where should the ideal shot be hit? Is the architect's original intent still valid, given the changes in equipment and changes to the course over time (including the addition or removal of trees, shrubs, and other features)? Depending on the answer to these questions, the planning committee may decide that for some holes major changes are needed to return the hole to its original state, or add a degree of difficulty to a hole that is no longer considered challenging. Some courses have had greens re-contoured (or moved), water hazards added or removed, sand traps replaced, and tee boxes moved further back to lengthen the hole. The changes that some courses have to go through is the reason why the redesign process begins years in advance of the tournament: to make sure the course is in top shape agronomically, but also to ensure that it provides a challenging test of golf.

Once the hole-by-hole analysis is completed, the USGA puts together a letter to the golf course superintendent outlining mowing heights for the fairways, rough, tee areas, and putting greens. This letter will also discuss expected green speeds, changes to fairway width or contours, sand trap preparation (including types of sand to be used), water management, and daily maintenance schedules. Nothing about the design of the course and the maintenance and preparation of each of the 18 golf holes is left to chance.

As the time gets closer to the Open, USGA officials begin to inspect the site on an increasingly frequent basis, looking for problems, checking to see that their recommendations have been addressed, and ensuring that the course is in top condition.

Within weeks of the Open, the host course and USGA officials mutually decide on hole locations on each green. Because the Open is a four-day event, excluding practice rounds, each green must have a minimum of five hole locations. These locations are taken seriously; the USGA uses a digital level to calculate the percentage slope around each option. Wind conditions and direction are also taken into consideration because wind can affect both ball movement and how quickly the ball stops past the hole. Excessive slope can lead to difficult putting conditions and potentially embarrassingresults for players, who might blame the USGA's location decisions for bad results. For example, in 2004 at an Open at Shinnecock Hills, the USGA "over-stressed" some greens by allowing them to become dry and fast, making some holes nearly unplayable. Ever since then, hole location and green conditions have remained a critical concern of the USGA.

The week before the event, grandstands are erected, food and beverage concessions are set up, hospitality tents are constructed, and vendor areas are cleared and stocked. Volunteers are assigned their duties and trial run-throughs are undertaken to make sure everything is operating smoothly. This step is the last chance to find problems with the site plan or preparations, both for the course and the tournament hosts.

Planning and preparing for a major sporting event such as the U.S. Open is a project management challenge. Multiple stakeholders and constituent groups have to be consulted and satisfied, all necessary aspects of the course including its location and conditions must be addressed, and every necessary step must be prepared in advance. Schedule management is critical. When the first golfers step up to the #1 tee on Thursday morning, millions of TV viewers around the world are expecting an entertaining event. The steps that go into making that expectation a reality involve hard work, multiple people doing their jobs, and project discipline.