There will be no spectator parking at or even near the course. St. George's School will be the main parking area. Middletown High School and the Middle Schools also will be used.

05:22 PM EDT on Monday, June 26, 2006

BY PAUL KENYON
Journal Sports Writer

NEWPORT -- Anyone who has been to Newport in the summer knows that getting there is not half the fun.

Often, it's not any fun at all. Once you get there, it's wonderful. The worry is fighting the traffic. And then finding a place to park.

It should not be a surprise, then, that one of the major concerns for the 61st U.S. Women's Open -- among the areas where tournament organizers have worked hardest -- is parking and traffic control.

The event at Newport Country Club will be held on the first big weekend of the summer, Fourth of July week. The tournament runs from today to July 2. Even without the golf tournament, it is hard to get around the City by the Sea during Fourth of July week. Add the more than 100,000 visitors expected for the Open and it could be extremely difficult, both for golf fans and those hoping to spend time downtown or along Ocean Drive.

To ease the situation, organizers have decided to keep as much golf traffic as possible away from the city.

"We've been working with everyone, state and local law enforcement on all sides," said Joe Butz, the tournament's executive director. "From Portsmouth and Middletown to Jamestown on the other side, everybody's been involved from the get-go.

"We have a group of about 25 people who have met six to eight times over the last year and a half," Butz added, "and they're continuing to tweak it, throw darts at it and say, 'Does this really work?' We've gotten everybody's opinion. We came in here with no preconceived ideas on how it was going to work.

"We looked at good models like the Tall Ships and the Jazz Festival and kind of patterned off that. We know we are a bit of a different animal than those in that we're providing free parking and free transportation. We're doing all we can to get everything out on the table and plan as well as we can," Butz said.

There will be no spectator parking at or even near the course. St. George's School in Middletown will be the main parking area, and the Middletown High School and Middle School facilities also will be used.

"We want to keep the traffic out of downtown Newport, basically keep it on the perimeter, and then bring bus traffic in," Butz said. "Instead of bringing 10,000 cars to this choking point in downtown Newport, we basically have limited it to 140 buses."

The plan is not unique. Butz and the Bruno Event Management Team, which he heads, is in its third year of managing the Women's Open for the United State Golf Association. In each of the previous two, at The Orchards in South Hadley, Mass., two years ago, and at Cherry Hills outside Denver last year, off-course parking was used for spectators. It worked quite well.

"Thursday in South Hadley (the day of the first competitive round) we had a 15-minute backup," Butz said. "After that we had no problems."

There will be highway signs with directions, both coming over the bridge from Jamestown and driving up Aquidneck Island from Portsmouth.

"We will have signage that will start as far out as Route 4 and take everyone basically all the way in letting people know," Butz said. "If I'm a volunteer, there will be signs leading me to the volunteer lots. If I'm a spectator, I go to this lot. We'll have a significant amount of buses moving throughout the week so the wait time should be fairly minimal."

Players, media, tournament officials and volunteers will park within a half mile of the course. At least 4,000 parking spaces, at Hammersmith Farm, Brenton Point and Fort Adams, among other sites, will be made available. Players, media, officials and volunteers will then be shuttled to the course. Corporate sponsors will use the area at Chateau Sur Mer and be shuttled from there. Officials know there will be traffic. They hope to deal with it as best as possible.

"Parking is free and transportation in is free," Butz said. "If you are going to any other event in Newport, you would probably expect to spend $15 to $20 for parking.

For most of those involved in the Open or visiting Newport, money is not likely to be the biggest concern on Fourth of July week. Being able to get around could be.

pkenyon@projo.com / (401) 277-7340