Men's, Women's U.S. Opens Featuring Three Logos, Massive Merchandise Pavilion

The 18-day “sales extravaganza” at Pinehurst No. 2 for the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens this June will “feature three logos,” according to Doug Ferguson of the AP. The men's logo is the ''Golf Lad'' character hugging the U.S. Open trophy, while the women's logo “features a cardinal on the branch of a pine.” A third logo figures to be the “most popular because it has both trophies -- the hat of Golf Lad on the men's trophy, and the cardinal on the women's trophy with 'U.S. Open Championships' across the top.” U.S. Open Senior Dir of Licensing & Merchandising Mary Lopuszynski said, ''The main logo is the joint logo. That's what is special about this year. We're treating it as two championships and one event, and we're also doing that with our merchandise. We're trying to celebrate the joint logo.'' There are shirts, hats, towels and accessories with “each of the three logos." But Lopuszynski said that the “majority of items have the joint logo.” Meanwhile, the primary merchandise tent for the U.S. Women's Open will be "about triple the size of any merchandise pavilion in the 68-year history of the event." But it will be 28% "smaller than the pavilion a week earlier for the men's U.S. Open," which will measure out to 39,000 square feet. Lopuszynski said that the pavilion "will be shrunk to about 28,000 square feet" following the men's championship. She said that the merchandise tent for the U.S. Women's Open is usually "about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet." Lopuszynski: "We're going to move a wall to reduce the size of the square footage of the sales floor. We won't have as much product. My goal is for the merchandise to look great and to have no empty spaces. We want it to look fantastic for the Women's Open" (AP, 4/29).