four to five inches (10-13cm) in height. Glazed greens and penal bunkers may be constants at Oakmont, but that doesn’t mean the course never changes. For almost 45 years after it opened in 1903, founder H C Fownes and son W C Fownes (pronounced “phones”) shifted greens and added hazards with almost religious zeal, marshalling it from an open, countryside course with no bun- kers to one that at its height had some 350 of them (W C famously insisted that
isn’t mowed, and the greens are barely watered, making them even firmer than usual. The club does, however, cut the greens – Oakmont’s are often so fast that they need to be slowed down when the professionals come to town. But, a fortnight later, you have the country’s most established US Open course, host to nine previous tournaments dating to 1927 (as well as another three PGA Championships, two Women’s Opens and six US Amateurs).
The core ingredi- ents that combine to make Oakmont the most prolific and most exacting US Open test have been immutable for 100
SAY YOUR PRAYERS The par-4 third remains a monster despite its changes.
years, namely a legendary set of formi- dable greens that play like tilted bas- ketball courts, urn-like fairway bunkers forbidding players from advancing the ball very far and wrist-breaking rough,
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEFF MARSH
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 55
JUNE 2025
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