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COVERAGE: Oakmont Showcases Course Changes at First-Look Event

Published

2 weeks ago

September 23, 2024

Zac Weiss

Photo credit: Hunter Hensel

OAKMONT, Pa. — Scott Langley brought his clubs along as he led an inside-the-ropes tour of Oakmont Country Club, when his cart stopped on the par-3 13th hole.

Langley, the USGA’s senior director of player relations, calmly retrieved a sand wedge from his bag, prepared to showcase a potentially new pin placement and how a green most impacted by the Gil Hanse restoration — which took up a significant portion of 2023 — could be attacked come the 2025 U.S. Open.

As Langley hit a few shots from the bunker, Oakmont grounds superintendent Michael McCormick placed a pin in a makeshift location, with Langley ultimately unhappy with each shot to the point of dropping a few more balls in the sand.

Regardless, the point made remained the same. Oakmont Country Club is hard.

“First reaction was this place is really hard, you have room to drive it, but you’ve got to drive it well and if you don’t, by and large you’re not going to reach the putting greens in regulation,” Langley stated.

“That’s where I go back to (the idea that) this course can bogey you to death.”

In total, 24,000 square feet of green expansions were done throughout the golf course, with the largest being 2,500 on the third hole and the sixth serving as the smallest expansion.

McCormick had a smile on his face when he explained that all of the work on the golf course proper was 100 percent complete with work around the property’s perimeter well underway to enhance both the player and spectator experience. Oakmont last hosted the U.S. Open in 2016 and also held the men’s U.S. Amateur in 2021.

“We’re ready to rock,” offered McCormick. “We just have to grow the rough up a little bit. The nice thing about the U.S. Open at Oakmont is from a turf, playing-surface perspective, greens, approaches, fairways, tees, we really don’t do anything much different. Next spring we will start growing the rough up, so it will be a lot more penal than what the membership sees on a daily basis.”

McCormick noted that the biggest challenge surrounding the renovation was that most courses receiving similar projects have 36 holes, allowing for 18 to close while the other 18 were playable.

Oakmont Country Club was unique in that there are solely 18 holes on property and a very passionate golf membership.

During the work, over 80 people worked together from early March through November of last year and never closed the course, which affected things logistically and scheduling wise.

Considering the greens overhauls, McCormick also highlighted that they are probably the closest thing that will be seen to 100 percent poa annua.

“That poa is a very perennial type of growth happening, where it’s very tight and allows us to mow extremely low heights,” he explained. “You can’t seed poa, so there’s one place in the country that grows poa sod and it’s out in Western Pennsylvania. They came in and harvested all of our aerification plugs from our aerification procedures, took them to their sod farm, grew them in and we used that sod to expand not only our greens but our approaches and fairways, so the grass we were expanding our surfaces with is actually Oakmont grass.”

As far as the project goes, McCormick and others looked at the clubhouse’s past history and aimed to replicate the past with how the Fownes brothers originally laid the course out.

“I think what the Fownes did at Oakmont is special,” said McCormick. “It was the only golf course they ever built and it’s stood the test of time, over 120 years now. Being a small part of that and getting to work with people like Gil Hanse, working with our own Oakmont grounds team, working with over 80 contractors, (it was an) unforgettable experience.

“You have to put a lot of things together (at the) right time, right place, make a lot of decisions along the way that ultimately benefit the membership as a whole and play a role in future championships.”

Though Langley has played Oakmont just once to date, he has been through the 18 holes many of times and reached the same conclusion each time, he would have liked the Fownes family.

“They just loved difficult golf,” he offered. “That’s just been my sort of style. The U.S. Open has always been my favorite championship to play because it’s so difficult. It asks so much of you, and that’s what Oakmont does every day, so it’s my type of place. It’s been fun getting to know the staff here, membership, the golf course, reading up on the Fownes family and their point of view on things. It’s magnificent.”

The changes to these greens open up the opportunity for several new hole locations, of which the USGA will convene at Oakmont to start building framework for determining hole locations come tournament week in June.

Back in July, at the Kaulig Companies Championship on the PGA Tour Champions, 1994 U.S. Open champion Ernie Els was asked about his memories of the course.

“The course I played in 1994 was a relic compared to what it is today,” the South African opined while signing pin flags. “There’s no trees and they’ve done the second renovation on it. It’s iconic, both as a golf course and a club.

“If you walk through their club, nothing much has changed over the many years. It’s one of the true treasures of American golf.”

HOLE TOURS

In his role, Langley enters Year 2 replacing Jason Gore, who was the first to take a position which was aimed to be a conduit between the USGA’s objective and the golfers who have been critical of past setups.

The results thus far have led to some of the most consistent and fair setups in recent memory, at least according to most tenured observers.

“Jason and I are close, and it’s been awesome to have him in my corner sharing his experience with me,” Langley said. “He’s come along with us on a few set up days during U.S. Open week the last two years, which has been great. In instills a vote of confidence in me being alongside him and hearing his perspective. I’ve taken a lot away from my conversations with Jason and the friendship that has now been in both of our lives for a long time.”

Langley was the one who led the tour for everyone at the first-look event and the following are notes from said experience.

No. 2 – Par 4, 341 yards

Langley called some of the changes to holes a “multiple choice” and that begins with this second hole, where three options await off the tee.

The first option is to hit a 200-yard layup shot short of the ditch. This option would leave a second shot in against a severe green. Option B is to hit a 275-yard tee shot which allows you to land over the bunkers on the right side. Choice C is to hit a shot with 310 yards of carry up to the wider, yet shallower part of the fairway.

There would be bunkers in play, the ditch extends and the risk is that it is easier to get out of position. Langley stated that he would take the second choice.

No. 3 – Par 4, 426 yards

This hole infamously is the first where the Church Pews come into play, which fits the Fownes vision of “a shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.” If a tee shot is decent but off line, it will be in the bunker but unimpeded. If the tee ball is short and off line, then it is a dropped shot and it would be very difficult to hit the green.

Each bunker, of which there are approximately 200 on the course, was rebuilt, as the drainage structure was reconfigured. It was at this portion of the tour where McCormick explained that these bunkers will be far better to handle rainfall versus 2016, when three inches of rain fell early in the weekend.

Given the tree removal program across the course, fans beside the third fairway can see 16 of 18 holes and the property also dries out quicker. As USGA Director of Championship Agronomy Darin Bevard explained, “Gil (Hanse) has brought the angles back.”

No. 7 – Par 4, 485 yards

Hanse has introduced strategic width to a hole that previously was considered a “single lane”.

Again, there are multiple plays off the tee which includes a play down the right which is shorter with a carry in the low 200-yard range. While this option is safer, it would leave a longer second shot behind bunkers with a blind shot to the green.

There is a more aggressive option which is 300 yards from the back edge of the teeing grounds. There is more runway but there is a narrow ditch on the left side. If the shot lands successfully, there is a clear view of the green and the face of the greenside bunker was lowered by four feet, where now the entire putting surface can be seen.

This hole is one where the greens were impacted the most, with a potential middle-right hole location a very challenging possibility.

No. 13 – Par 3, 182 yards

While the seventh green was impacted quite a bit, No. 13 might have been even more so with layers of sand peeled back to where native soil was hit. The original profile was found.

Photos from the 1920’s and 30’s were used as a reference. In terms of the interior, a quarter to a third of the green was untouched, but with the changes, pin placements in the front right, middle left, behind the bunker and plateau on the left all are in play.

With a back-right location, there is a bowl where shots can work towards the flag. And simply put, the greenside bunker is extremely undesirable.

No. 18 – Par 4, 484 yards

Finishes off a demanding a dramatic stretch as preceded by the par-3 16th at 236 yards with plenty of trouble and a par-4 17th measuring 312 yards, which could be a turning point with more trouble around a narrow-angled putting green and deep bunkers.

Langley called this a U.S. Open finishing hole, where ditches are in play and there is a fairway bunker in play. It is another do-or-don’t hole with the clubhouse in the background. There will be a proper stadium feel to 18 and fans can see 10, 14 and 15 from there, meaning there will be no lack of energy.