Lancaster Country Club Shines with LPGA U.S. Open

It is clear, not only can Lancaster’s course test the best players in the game, but that the community provides the thrilling atmosphere needed to sustain elite championship golf.

So while Lancaster’s next potential opportunity to host the most prestigious event in the women’s game can’t come until at least 2037, the club can and should be part of the championship rotation for years to come afterward. Earlier in the week, Whan said discussions for future events were ongoing and it was a “safe bet” there will be future USGA events at Lancaster.

After the success of the 2015 Women’s Open, the club wasn’t awarded this year’s event until 2018. However, the USGA has been building out its U.S. Open schedules for both men and women well in advance, with the latest currently scheduled for 2048.

But the club has grander plans than just more U.S. Women’s Opens, and I don’t mean hosting men’s U.S. Opens or men’s U.S. Amateurs.

“We have made a very deliberate decision to hold ourselves out as a home for the women’s game at the championship level,” Lancaster Country Club board member and Greens Chair Rory Connaughton told GOLF in an interview Tuesday. “Whether that’s amateurs or professionals, juniors or seniors or mid-amateurs, we see ourselves as a unique place in the game in that regard.”

At just a skosh under 6,950 yards from the tips, Lancaster isn’t long enough to host today’s longest hitters in the men’s U.S. Opens, or U.S. Amateurs, or even U.S. Juniors. It plays longer than the card, owing to its par 70 and many uphill approach shots, but even the Women’s Open had many par-4 tee boxes tipped out last week.

Connaughton, who has been a member of the club for nearly three decades, said there was an opportunity years ago for LCC to build heritage like its fellow Pennsylvania clubs Oakmont and Merion, which have hosted the most and sixth-most men’s U.S. Opens, respectively, but it was passed on.

Now that the pool of courses that can host those men’s events has shrunk, it likely will never have that chance again.

“We’re not ever going to compete with the men’s championships hosted by Oakmont or hosted by Merion in Pennsylvania or, or by any of the other great clubs that are on the shortlist,” he said. And that’s OK with him and the club.

Lancaster’s location also presents a unique opportunity. While the city itself was just shy of 60,000 residents as of 2018, the metropolitan area is more than a half million people. The adjacent metro of Harrisburg-Carlisle has nearly 600,000 residents. Within an hour-and-a-half’s drive, you have the majority of the 7.366 million in the Philadelphia metro area. Double that drive, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are all within a reasonable day trip.

Then there’s Lancaster itself, which has no major professional sports team, or even minor league baseball. But the area has become devoted to women’s sports, Connaughton says. High school field hockey and girl’s lacrosse games draw thousands of fans and Lancaster County has been home to top national high school teams in field hockey.

When the Women’s Open comes to Lancaster, it’s the “only game in town,” which Connaughton thinks is a big reason for the attendance records and why the community supports the event so well.