I've been at the U.S Open the past few days and have many things to share with you.
- The merchandise tent was 36,000 square feet, which I think was bigger than the main
- Super Bowl merchandise spot at the NFL Experience in Miami. Pretty impressive considering it was pretty much all Oakmont stuff. Just like the tennis version of the U.S. Open, its astonishing how there is virtually no player branded merchandise. Think about that. That's like only having merchandise with Giants Stadium on it instead of merchandise with the players on it.
I know what its all about -- the licensing programs for individual players are horrendous in both tennis and golf -- but you've got to think that people would love to buy something with their favorite golfer on it.
- There are 4,000 pounds of beef and 700 gallons of guacamole and 20,000 cupcakes of each kind. But I was partial to the jalapeno stuff pretzel. Nice work on that.
- The last time the U.S. Open was played at Oakmont in 1994, Ernie Els took home a winner's check of $320,000. This year's winner will likely make around four times that.
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