News

Mike Davis will no longer be in charge of U.S. Open course setups

Published

7 years ago

Jan 4, 2019

After 13 years in the role, CEO of the USGA Mike Davis is stepping down from his position as head of course set up at the U.S. Open.

Speaking to Jaime Diaz at Golf Channel, Davis was quick to stress that the voluntary decision had been made before last year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, which saw a baked-out course in windy conditions during the third round of the event wreak havoc on a day where several players vehemently complained about the unfairness of the test.

“This decision has been in the works for more than two U.S. Opens. Whether people want to believe that or not, that’s for them to decide.”

Shinnecock Hills is not the only U.S. Open where Davis has come under fire in recent years. At the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, the shocking conditions of the greens were brutally criticized by players who compared the putting surfaces to “broccoli” and “cauliflower.” While at Erin Hills in 2017, Davis’ late decision to shave the rough down caused controversy, leading (in part) to the joint lowest winning U.S. Open score in history.

For Davis, it was that U.S. Open at Erin Hills which proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I was frankly stretched too thin, and especially stretched too thin U.S. Open week for other things I needed to be doing in my position.”

Despite stepping down from his role as head of course setups at the U.S. Open, Davis plans to move further into his CEO role of the USGA, and he will still be involved in the course set up team, though just in an advisory role.

Davis’ successor in the role will be John Bodenhamer, who will run all 14 of the organization’s national championships, including taking charge of the course set up for next year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

While talking to Golf Channel, Bodenhamer stressed how in his new role, he would be aiming for better communication with the players, while attempting to break the recent tradition of the golf course being the main story of the U.S. Open.

“We aren’t going to make all of them happy, but they should understand that we aren’t trying to trick up the course or make it ridiculously hard. As set-up people, the last thing we want to be is the story. The last thing. We want it to be about the players and the golf course.”

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Gianni Magliocco

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com

9 Comments

IMO

Jan 8, 2019 at 12:44 am

ABOUT TIME!!!

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Sedge

Jan 7, 2019 at 3:47 pm

[disclaimer: this rant is a bit of a tangent to the original article, I understand]

It begs the question as to why these courses need to be [in the words of Zach Johnson] “manipulated” in such a way that the benchmark for winning a golf tournament is EVEN par. I think that the USGA ought to break down their previous model for setting up a golf course with the uniform idea of level par winning the Open and starting rather with the players in mind and putting together a setup that is married to the course through the use of data in this era of abundantly useful “strokes-gained” metrics. From there, let the winning score be what it is, so long as the winner is clearly the best that week.

It’s such an unenviable task to say the least and to be in an executive role, no-less the CEO of the USGA AND have to set up the golf course is bizarre. Well, I say “have to” when in fact this is clearly something that should have been delegated by Davis a long time ago.

That said, playing devil’s advocate to my aforementioned rant is this. If the goal of the US Open is to have the greatest of champions, let’s look at the last 8 winners: Brooks Koepka x 2, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy. Not a bad group.

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Dill Pickelson

Jan 6, 2019 at 7:41 am

The clown show at the USGA will still figure out a way to mess up the course setup.

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2putttom

Jan 5, 2019 at 11:44 pm

John Bodenhamer, he’s a good guy

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Peter

Jan 5, 2019 at 6:03 pm

I didn’t watch the US open last year for the first time in 15 years. It is by far my least favourite major. Instead of doing their job they let the equipment manufactures run the game and now that the ball flies crazy long distances, the USGA now tries to combat it by making their set-up unplayable. They should have done their job and not let the equipment manufactures ruin our great game.

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scooter

Jan 5, 2019 at 12:57 pm

“Stupid is as stupid does” … Forrest Gump

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Speedy

Jan 4, 2019 at 2:21 pm

What took them so long?

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A. Commoner

Jan 4, 2019 at 1:35 pm

Hey boss, the kitchen gets awfully warm, doesn’t it? True; especially for those ‘who stay too long.’

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Patricknorm

Jan 4, 2019 at 11:46 am

Good news if you’re a fan of golf , especially the U.S. Open and most certainly for those competing as an amateur or pro. A major golf tournament shouldn’t be a test to see who hand handle unplayable conditions which were brought upon by a committee. And why does the USGA think that par is the benchmark of good golf? Shine o i is one of the best courses in the world, yet I’ve never seen how good it can be because the course was baked out by the committee. Ideally, the USGA should let the PGA Tour assist in the U.S. Open set up. I am allowed to dream.

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News

Testing Lorem Ipsum

Published

1 hour ago

May 13, 2026

Pro Shop

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News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

1 day ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.