BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS | On a cool, gray May Monday, the sound of moving equipment, the crack of hammers and the occasional sound of steel pipes banging together could be heard across the otherwise pastoral grounds of The Country Club, where the 122nd U.S. Open golf championship will be played in six weeks.
It has been 34 years since the American national championship was played here, a U.S. Open won by Curtis Strange, who beat Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff back when the USGA believed in settling championships that way.
The long wait for another U.S. Open at The Country Club, one of the five founding USGA clubs, is nearly over and the buildout is in full force, dotting the rolling and rock-strewn landscape with grandstands and hospitality chalets in various stages of completion.
It is a classically New England setting, the layout bordering on rugged in spots with its rocky outcroppings and rough-around-the-edges aesthetics, all set off by the sprawling yellow clubhouse that sits just to the right of the 18th green.
If...
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