WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - The aura that surrounds Jim Justice is larger than his 6-foot, 7-inch, 350-pound frame.
He saved America's Resort, persuaded the PGA Tour to award the Greenbrier one of its tournaments, managed to get the property's signature course, the Old White, endorsed as a Tournament Players Club (TPC) and changed how the state looks at the former downtrodden resort in Greenbrier County.
Then there's the football facility across the road that houses the New Orleans Saints' training camp and, at the rear of the Golf Club, the pearly-white clay-surfaced tennis kingdom, Center Court at Creekside. Justice has Pete Sampras as his tennis pro emeritus, he welcomed Andre Agassi to the site last month and has James Blake and former world No. 1 Jim Courier coming in September.
He cut ties with Tom Watson and brought in Lee Trevino, one of the most personable figures ever on the tour, to be his pro emeritus.
Essentially, the Old White hotel, the Old White golf course and a 54-year-old unused bunker is all that remained at the Greenbrier in 2009 prior to Justice's purchase.
Six years later, he has four World Golf Hall of Fame members designing a 7,500-yard mountaintop course in a quest to host a U.S. Open. Rest assured, the collaboration of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Trevino will be spectacular and an opportunity the United States Golf Association cannot ignore.
The buzz around the grounds during the sixth Classic the last four days ranged from "Why not?" to, "There's no way."
Bubba Watson says the former.
"Jim does a lot of things, so I guess it could be," Watson said. "Nobody thought that Chambers Bay was going to have a U.S. Open, but it did."
What about that enclave in Washington? It's perhaps the shining example of why small-town USA can host a major.
A public course, Chambers Bay is a former sand and gravel pit that was mined for the first time more than 100 years ago. Much of the gravel was removed to create the 7,165-yard track.
Chambers Bay was the first course designed "specifically to host a U.S. Open."
One near Oakhurst could be the second.
It's hard to tell whose personality will put the biggest stamp on the project, but I figure Player will make sure it doesn't resemble Chambers Bay, which he called "virtually unplayable" for the weekend golfer and "a tragedy."
Interesting that shortly after his rant it's revealed that he's helping to design the new course at the Greenbrier. I'm not sure Chambers Bay will get back into the rotation, but we know how Player would vote.
The tournament is contracted through its 123rd edition in 2023 when the Los Angeles Country Club will host for the first time. That's two years after the Greenbrier Classic's current contract runs out and the year Justice turns 72 years old, but it's also plenty of time to prepare a golf course they expect to open by the end of 2016.
It's not up to Justice to bring the Open to the Mountain State. That task falls on the United States Golf Association. After some research, I went right to the source, director of championship communications Pete Kowalski, to learn what it takes to host the Open.
Here is the emailed response:
"Please note that the two most important items in choosing a course for the U.S. Open are the quality of the course itself and a desire by the host club/course with a commitment from the local community to host the U.S. Open given its complexity and need for proximate infrastructure support."
The requirements by which a site is chosen are pretty general:
"The identification and potential selection of a U.S. Open site begins with an expression of interest from a potential host site, followed by a process of visits, discussions and analyses, and assuming everything aligns, eventually an invitation from the host club. The USGA Championship Committee reviews all invitations and after a thorough vetting, makes recommendations to the USGA Executive Committee who ultimately decides on future U.S. Open sites."
That's remarkably arbitrary, but it also tells me that the Greenbrier, in fact, could be in line to host the U.S. Open, although "commitment from the local community" raises some questions. Other particulars also make it a tough sell.
Accessibility - Some of the top Open venues are off the beaten path. Oakmont isn't exactly the most accessible location and neither is Pinehurst. Traveling a two-lane road for three miles between White Sulphur Springs and Interstate 64 is no big deal.
Volunteers - The Greenbrier Classic sought more than 1,400 and wound up with around 760. The 2015 Open at Chambers Bay was seeking more than 4,500 and had 5,200. This is also a one-time experience, making it more appealing to the locals. The allure would certainly help, but probably not that much.
Lodging - There were expected to be more than 200,000 visitors in and around Chambers Bay the week of the Open. There are about 100 hotels, motels, resorts, bed and breakfasts and other lodging within a 90-minute drive of the Greenbrier, which also has the Old White Hotel. I'm not sure if that includes volunteers, but let's be conservative and add another 3,000 for those.
Community involvement - Enlisting help from the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau would be paramount to putting on such a massive production. While the state capital is a two-hour drive, creating a long day for many spectators, workers and volunteers, the lodging is needed and shuttles to transport people to and from Charleston would help. Besides, how many more potential volunteers would he have if transportation was provided to and from one of the state's largest cities?
POLITICS - Literally. If Justice is elected governor in 2016, he'll be in good position to glad hand but potentially create enemies who would want nothing better than to see him fail.
Chambers Bay was criticized relentlessly for everything from sight lines for spectators to the layout, giving the designers of the Greenbrier's new course a healthy baseline from which to start.
But, can they meet the criteria that Justice and his guys can't control?
I came to the same conclusion everyone else has: Who knows?
Which returns us to the most-common anecdote to describe Justice, reiterated by Bubba Watson.
"There's a lot of things that go into building a U.S. Open golf course and that's usually time and history," said Watson, who has become closer to Justice since buying a house on the property. "But, you never know. He can do it. If he says he wants to do it, he can probably do it."