Oakmont Country Club

Site of nine U.S. Opens (with number 10 coming in the summer of 2025), six U.S. Amateurs, two U.S. Women’s Opens, and three PGA Championships, Oakmont is the most decorated championship golf course in the United States. Difficulty has always been at the heart of Oakmont; founder Henry Fownes set out to build his own course after deciding his nine-hole club, Highland Country Club, was too easy. When Oakmont opened for play in 1904, it measured 6,406 and played to a par of 80. 

The property features two high ridges that feed into a central basin where the Pennsylvania Turnpike now sits. The routing explores the property in a compelling way, playing straight up and down slopes, as well as along and across them, with each hole always working in a slightly different direction than the last. The speedy fairways are draped across the slopes, forcing players to execute properly worked shots to keep balls from running into poor positions. The greens, which can regularly top 13 or 14 on the Stimpmeter for member play, feature heavy natural cants and stout internal contours.

Although Oakmont was originally the vision of Henry Fownes, his son William was instrumental in the evolution of the course, consistently making adjustments to the site, especially after the death of his father in 1935. He took the penal nature of the course to a new level, adding approximately 200 bunkers, including the now-famous Church Pews; digging deep, grassy ditches; and pushing the limits of green speeds at the time. 

The most significant change to the course occurred shortly after William’s death in 1950. During the 1953 U.S. Open, a comment by writer Herbert Warren Wind, in which he called the site an “ugly, old brute of course,” led to a beautification project and the planting of over 5,000 trees. Over the next few decades, the property, which was generally a treeless tract of pasture land when the course was built, became choked into narrow corridors. Unsurprisingly, turf conditions declined, and over 10,000 trees were finally removed around the turn of the century. 

Continued tree removal since then has created a vast, open feel to the site, giving the course more of the British links aesthetic that Henry and William Fownes set out to create. The club hired architect Gil Hanse to complete a major renovation project in 2023, which included green expansions, ditch restoration, and the reconstruction of every bunker. 

Take Note...

Turnpike. The infamous par-3 eighth hole, which can play to a length of around 300 yards, had to be changed when the new Pennsylvania Turnpike was constructed in 1940. The green, which once sat close to where the current crossing bridge now starts, was moved about 10 yards to the left. 

The Lost Hole. The long par-3 16th originally played to a green back and left of its current position and much closer to the 17th tee. Stretching to 226 yards for the 1927 U.S. Open (which Tommy Armour won with a score of 301), the hole featured a massive bunker extending from short right of the green back towards the tee, as well as a long trench bunker that protected almost the entire left side of the hole (and which Gil Hanse recently restored). When the club rebuilt the 16th, the 15th green was moved to the right, creating one of the great par 4s in championship golf. 

Fownes vs. Darwin. William Fownes was one of the greatest players of his time, winning eight Western Pennsylvania Amateur titles and playing in 19 U.S. Amateurs, with a victory in the 1910 edition. In 1922, Fownes captained the U.S. Walker Cup team and found himself playing a singles match against the 45-year-old golf writer Bernard Darwin, who had taken the place of the British team’s captain after he fell ill. Darwin, who was only supposed to be covering the event as a writer, lost the first three holes but eventually flipped the match, beating Fownes 3&1. 

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