ECC gave USGA Open invitation.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Eugene County Club will be on golf's biggest stage for a few days next summer, nearly 40 years after its members first dreamed of hosting one of golf's biggest events.

The 108th U.S. Women's Amateur tournament, to be held Aug. 4-10, 2008, was awarded to the Eugene course by the United States Golf Association in 2005.

The Golf Channel will broadcast the action to a global audience (the event is expected to draw entries from more than two dozen nations), making it the biggest golf event held in Eugene.

Amazingly, however, Eugene Country Club was once in the running to become the first club in the Pacific Northwest to host the USGA's biggest tournament of all - the U.S. Open.

The seed for that improbable idea was planted by P.J. Boatwright, executive director of the USGA, according to "Breaking 100: Eugene Country Club's First Century, 1899-1999" by Jeff Wallach and Todd Schwartz.

Boatwright reportedly not only said ECC was one of the best courses he had ever played, but told superintendent John Zoller that it would make a marvelous site for the 1972 U.S. Open.

"John, we could ring the bell tomorrow, you've got this course in such fine shape," Boatwright was quoted as saying.

A committee was formed and letters were written - including one by Gov. Tom McCall - and a bid was submitted in August 1969. Representatives of the USGA spent 2 1/2 hours touring the course on Aug. 13 and, according to a Register-Guard account at that time, "were taken by helicopter for an aerial view of the course and parking facilities, which were to be used at Autzen Stadium."

Alas, Eugene did not make the list of finalists. The 1972 event was eventually awarded to Pebble Beach, where Jack Nicklaus won his third Open crown.

In announcing that ECC had been dropped from consideration, members of the USGA's executive committee cited "physical limitations," including cramped gallery space on some key holes and a shortage of amenities such as hotel rooms in a city whose population at the time was only 77,000. The Open had never been hosted by a city smaller than 400,000.

A letter from executive committee member Henry Russell, quoted in the R-G, said "... despite the desire of the Executive Committee to have the 1972 Open in the Pacific Northwest, the Championship Committee and the Executive Committee believe that the physical limitations at Eugene would seriously hamper our ability to successfully handle the 20,000 or more spectators. The parallel layout and the Par 3 water hole (7th hole) constituted a problem which we did not think could be solved by the proposed walkway."

Nonetheless, ECC had its supporters on the executive committee, including the USGA's national director, Robert Dwyer, of Portland, who continued to push a Pacific Northwest venue.

"I think ECC is a magnificent golf course and a good test of golf," Dwyer said in September 1969. "It is the only course north of San Francisco strong enough to hold the Open.

"We are going to keep trying," he said.

True to his word, Dwyer brought six of the 15 national board members to play the Eugene Country Club in 1970, with an eye toward lining up support for the 1976 U.S. Open.

"This course is so beautiful it startles these Easterners," Dwyer told The Register-Guard during the 1970 visit.

"Wouldn't this be something on national television?" one visiting board member said of the picturesque setting.

"This is one of the finest courses we have ever seen," Dwyer said, "and it remains a possible site for future USGA championships, either the Open or the Amateur."

By this time next year, the Eugene Country Club course will have been on international television, and have hosted one of the USGA's big three events.

"It's a big deal," said ECC board member Cordy Jensen, the club's immediate past president. "We're doing some things to the club to accomodate it. One is new white sand in the traps, which is well over $100,000 just to do that."

The Women's Amateur won't be the last big event hosted by the club. The men's Pacific Coast Amateur returns in 2010.

"Our goal is to have a major tournament every three to five years," Jensen said.