Jamie Baxley
Last year's U.S. Open, held at the Los Angeles Country Club, was by most standards a low-key affair: The relatively small size of the venue limited attendance to just 22,000, a stark difference from past attendance figures for the long-running golf championship.
But that won't be the case this month when the tournament returns to North Carolina for the first time since 2014. About 240,000 fans are expected to descend on Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in Moore County between June 13 and 16, according to a U.S. Golf Association spokesman.
If that estimate is correct, the number of visitors during the three-day event will easily outnumber the residents. Moore County, located 75 miles southwest of Raleigh in the state's Sandhills region, has fewer than 100,000 residents, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
Moore County Deputy Public Safety Director Scott Brooks said local, state and federal agencies have spent months developing a “very extensive, comprehensive plan” to handle the influx of travelers. He said the plan covers a range of concerns, from routine to hypothetical.
Some of the most pressing concerns relate to the health of participants: medical workers and emergency responders may face an increase in patients needing treatment for heatstroke.
Preparing for the unknown
At a large outdoor event like the U.S. Open, some hazards can be difficult, if not impossible, to predict.
Brooks said the weather could pose a “big challenge” because thunderstorms tend to “pop up quickly” in the Sandhills this time of year.
“You don't want to have hail, lightning and high winds with around 50,000 people on the course with nowhere to shelter,” he said.
Storms aren't the only weather concern: Catherine Newell, an emergency physician and associate medical director at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, said the sweltering heat on the 18-hole course has been known to cause heatstroke, dehydration and sunburn among visitors.
FirstHealth of the Carolinas, which runs the hospital and is the county's largest health care provider, will staff tents with volunteers during the course to help participants with “mild symptoms,” Newell said. The hospital will also set up a “multidisciplinary team” command center to handle an expected surge in patient visits, he said.
“FirstHealth has also developed several surge plans that we can respond to if necessary,” she said of the hospital, “and we also have several primary, secondary and tertiary locations ready in case we experience a significant increase in patient volume.”
The 402-bed facility wasn't even close to full capacity the last time the U.S. Open was held in town 10 years ago. That championship took place just days before the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst, and attendance for the two consecutive tournaments totaled more than 340,000.
At this year's event, FirstHealth will be handing out discount codes for telehealth services. Newell said the promotion, which will be available to visitors and residents, is aimed at preventing hospital emergency departments from being overwhelmed with patients with illnesses that can be treated remotely.
Still, Brooks said police department employees have a tough job ahead of them.
“With this volume of foot traffic, trips, slips, falls and related injuries are commonplace,” he said. “Heart attacks and strokes are possible. Some of the people who come are not the healthiest people in the world, and they bring their own medical conditions with them.”
Brooks said emergency personnel will have bikes and golf carts to travel around the 196-acre course, and special routes will be set aside for ambulances to quickly transport patients to hospitals within two miles.
Lessons learned
A lot has changed since German golfer Martin Kaymer won at Pinehurst in 2014.
At the time, players weren't allowed to use their cellphones to meet virtually with FirstHealth doctors, or even bring them onto the course — a restriction the USGA lifted for the 2015 championship in Washington.
Large, non-transparent water bottles are also banned, largely due to safety concerns following the recent Boston Marathon bombings. USGA senior director of U.S. Open championships Eric Steimer said the unpopular policy has led to on-course aid stations being “inundated with people wanting water.”
The USGA has learned from that experience, he said: Colored water bottles of 32 ounces or less will be allowed at the upcoming championship, and fans will be able to refill their bottles at water stations set up along the course.
“There's a little more flexibility in terms of what you can bring so you can plan your day properly,” Steimer said, “and we encourage fans to bring their own Corkcicles or Yeti water bottles if it looks like it's going to get hot.”
Focus on security
The terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon ushered in an era of heightened security at outdoor sporting events, and their legacy is reflected in the U.S. Open's comprehensive security plan.
“In terms of off-course security, we have concerns about traffic and traffic flow, detours, efficiency and safety of buses getting on and off the course,” Brooks said. “From an on-course standpoint, we have concerns about the possibility or threat of any sort of protest or violent situation — someone coming on to the course with the intent to do harm.”
Historically, the risk of such an attack appears to be low: no violent incidents have been recorded in the past three U.S. Opens held at Pinehurst. In fact, there have been no major violent incidents recorded at the U.S. Open.
But the possibility, however remote, has not been ruled out by authorities: Steimer said agents from the FBI and the State Bureau of Investigation will be conducting surveillance during the event.
“Those two groups really support us intelligence-wise in terms of understanding any kind of threat that exists outside,” he said, “not necessarily threats that are specific to our championships, but maybe threats that are specific to Pinehurst or the state or, frankly, maybe the sports industry as a whole given all the geopolitical concerns that are going on right now.”
Still, Steimer acknowledged there's only so much the USGA can do to keep players and spectators safe. Ultimately, he said, “we really need a strong public safety community here to come together to host this tournament.”
“Pinehurst has a small police force and we have to worry about the community as well as the championships,” said Steimer, who lives in the area. “It really takes the whole village to host an event like this and we're very dependent on state and county support to make this happen.”
Brooks said representatives from the organizations that supported the 2014 U.S. Open sat down after the tournament to discuss their performance, something he said happens after every major golf championship in Moore County.
“We come together as a larger group and do what we call a postmortem and create an improvement plan,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity to examine any gaps we had and then we can spend a couple of years trying to close those gaps.”