Lee Trevino once famously said Oakmont Country Club is so difficult, it’s the only course in America that could hold the U.S. Open on a moment’s notice. Mike Davis, the USGA’s former chief executive officer, routinely referred to Oakmont as the “gold standard” of U.S. Open venues, a course that tested and tormented every aspect of a player’s game — even when there wasn’t a tournament.
So why would anyone want to tinker with that?
Why would Oakmont bring in architect Gil Hanse, who has restored many of the recent major-championship venues, to make some alterations and design changes to prepare for the 2025 U.S. Open?
While most of the work will involve refurbishing every one of the 185 bunkers and replacing the 25-year-old irrigation system, several changes will nonetheless be among the most drastic since Oakmont removed all the trees before the 2007 U.S. Open. They involve lengthening the back tees on at least seven holes and restoring a cross hazard and fairway contours from the original Henry Fownes design on two other holes.
“When you look back over the history of Oakmont, it has always evolved,” said Oakmont head professional Devin Gee. “The reason it remains so relevant is it has constantly evolved, whether in the Fownes era or all the way up to present day.”
One thing that won’t be altered: the slope and contour of Oakmont’s greens, which might be the most famous and fastest in the world. They are never to be touched, much like a Rembrandt painting.
“The things that haven’t changed at Oakmont are the greens and the routing,” said Gee, who replaced Bob Ford as head professional in 2013. “Those things really aren’t negotiable at Oakmont.”
Oakmont is just the latest of America’s historic venues to be restored by Hanse and his partner, Jim Wagner. He was brought in to pump new life into Southern Hills, site of the recent PGA Championship; and did a restoration at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., to get ready for U.S. Open. He also did work at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course to prepare for the 2023 U.S. Open
Hanse unveiled his master plan to a group of Oakmont officials and members a couple weeks ago. The work will begin next spring.
“When you listen to him talk about this renovation, it’s very exciting,” Gee said. “Gil pointed out that of all the great historical renovations he’s done at these courses, none has evolved as much as Oakmont.”
Some of the changes at Oakmont will be subtle. Several elevated tees, such as the ones at Nos. 4, 7 and 18, will be lowered and pushed backward to create more length. Others, such as Nos. 3 and 11, will be moved back and to the right, creating different angles into the fairway. Several greens will be expanded to their original size.
Other changes, though, will be very noticeable.
The most dramatic on the front nine will come at the 479-yard seventh, where the back tee will be lowered to create more distance and the uphill fairway will wrap around the front of the right bunker, approximately 290-300 yards away. That’s the way the hole was originally designed when Oakmont was built in 1903.
But the hole has famously undergone several changes over the years, sometimes overnight.
In a 1945 War Bond exhibition tournament, Sam Snead hit his tee shot over the right fairway bunker, back when the hole played shorter, and made birdie. After the round, Oakmont professional Emil Loeffler phoned club chairman W.C. Fownes, son of Oakmont’s founder, and told him what Snead did.
Fownes was not amused. He told Loeffler, who was also Oakmont’s superintendent, to put in a bunker overnight in the exact spot where Snead’s ball landed. Loeffler did, and the next day Snead hit his tee shot in the newly installed bunker and made bogey.
“Everything in this plan was at one time on the golf course in the Fownes era,” Gee said. “This is a Fownes golf course.”
The most significant alteration on the back nine will come at the 462-yard downhill 10th, where a grassy ditch that runs along the right side will now cut across the fairway and serve as a cross hazard for bounding tee shots. The ditch will not be considered a penalty area and players will have the ability to play from the grassy area. However, the lies will be less than ideal.
Also, to prevent players from doing what happened at last year’s U.S. Amateur, a new tee will be built back and to the right at the 379-yard 11th to keep players from purposely hitting their tee shots into the No. 10 fairway. However, the strategic likelihood of that occurring at a U.S. Open, where fairways are lined with spectators and sometimes grandstands, is fairly remote.
“Oakmont has always been willing to meet the challenge of the day,” Gee said. “If you go back to W.C. Fownes, his mantra of ‘a shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost’ has been the culture here from Day 1. To this day, ask any member — the course is Number 1 and being the best test in the world is right there with it. That’s why we do this.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: June 17, 2022, 10:23 a.m.
Updated: June 18, 2022, 1:00 a.m.
