Major(s) News & Notes January 23, 2025

• Days to The Masters’ Honorary Starter’s tee shot: 77
• Days to the Chevron Championship start: 91
• Days to the PGA Championship’s first tee shot: 112
• Days to the U.S. Women’s Open first tee shot: 126
• Days to the U.S. Open’s first tee shot: 140
• Days to the Women’s PGA Championship: 147
• Days to The Open’s first tee shot: 176
• Days to the Women’s Open first tee shot: 189
• Days to the Walker Cup flag-raising ceremony: 225
• Days to the Ryder Cup opening session: 246

The Open is headed back to St Andrews, the USGA offers an update on 2025’s toughest ticket, the immediate past and present PGA of America CEO’s talk, and plenty more in a busier-than-most News & Notes.

The Open Returns To St Andrews In 2027

The R&A has announced that The 155^th Open will be played at St Andrews from July 11-18, 2027. This keeps the championship on an every-five-years plan of playing the Old Course.

The Championship will return for the first time since Cameron Smith’s final round 64 and 2022 victory. In announcing The Open, the R&A noted that 2027 marks the 100th anniversary of amateur Bobby Jones winning The Open by six strokes over the Old Course.

“I’m hugely excited to be making this my first announcement at The R&A,” said new CEO Mark Darbon. “I’m looking forward to The Open’s return to St Andrews every bit as much as the fans and the players. There is something incredibly special about The Open being played on the Old Course and so many of the great champions have walked these fairways since the first staging here in 1873.”

It will be the 31st time at the Old Course dating to Tom Kidd’s 1873 win.

The Open will be the last major played under the current golf ball testing rules prior to 2028’s expected attempt at reigning in distance which makes multiple holes play shorter for the field, causing brutal logjams that resulted in rounds over six hours in 2022.

There had been conjecture and reports that the R&A might not stick to the five year rotation. However, The 150^th Open at St Andrews generated over £300 million in economic benefit for Fife and Scotland while setting a new attendance record.

Issue 8 of McKellar is out and offers the usual smart array of lively and original reads you won’t find anywhere else. Quad subscribers get 20% off the latest issue using Quad20 at check out.

Walker Cup Ticket Update

The USGA has announced a “random selection process” for a limited ticket offering to this September’s matches at Cypress Point.

The combination of property limitations and limited number of matches means the attendance will be “capped to an appropriate and manageable number each day.”

All single-day public tickets will be sold in advance via an online application available this spring. No number has been given on the total attendance allowed onto the property for the three-day event. Prices:

• Practice Round – Friday ($100/ticket – includes Flag-Raising Ceremony)
• Match Day 1 – Saturday ($200/ticket)
• Match Day 2 – Sunday ($200/ticket)

Notably and refreshingly reversing a lousy trend, each adult applicant will have the option to apply for one complimentary junior (17 years old and under) ticket per day.

The landing page for Walker Cup ticket information.

The page for submitting contact information to be notified when additional ticket information becomes available.

Waugh Opines On Multiple Topics

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