PGN FEATURE: New Book Highlights Oakmont’s Major-Laden History

David Finoli has written and/or co-authored more than 20 books on Pittsburgh sports history.

David Moore has made a career out of curating the historical collections of several of the best local golf courses.

So, with another U.S. Open looming at Oakmont Country Club — where Moore has served for nearly a decade — and Finoli calling the Open his “favorite event in Pittsburgh,” it made too much sense for the two men to collaborate.

The result was the new book ‘Battling the Church Pews: The History of Golf’s Premier Events in Western Pennsylvania,’ co-authored by Finoli, Moore, Tom Rooney and Chris Fletcher.

“Probably since 2016 it’s been on my radar to do it,” Finoli told me over the phone last week. “Probably not in the expansive way we ended up doing it, but certainly at least a history of the U.S. Open was on the radar here.”

‘Expansive’ is definitely an accurate description of the book, which contains 66 chapters and 482 pages, with 31 of those chapters dedicated to Oakmont and its various major national tournaments — nine U.S. men’s Opens, two U.S. women’s Opens, six U.S. Amateurs and three PGA Championships.

Moore handled several of the Oakmont-based chapters himself, the product of Rooney’s introducing Moore and Finoli as this project got off the ground late in 2023.

“David (Moore) really helped out bringing a complete aspect to his book,” Finoli said. “He just brought such unique angles. This wouldn’t be anywhere near as good of a book without him.”

Moore, who also works in curation and consulting with Allegheny Country Club, the Pittsburgh Field Club and other prestigious Pittsburgh clubs, was game to give some of his time and expertise to the book, even as he prepared for the blitz of media attention that precedes the U.S. Open.

Also, the Oakmont CC board had to give Finoli and Co. access to the club’s archives of photos and other memorabilia.

“They wanted to do the book, but if they couldn’t get access to the archives, it really wasn’t worth doing,” Moore said. “Once they got that approval, it got thrown down to me. I’ve always wanted to do something like this. It kind of seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Moore said the collaborative writing process involved a focus on ‘color’ pieces that could flesh out the details from some of the better-known championships at Oakmont, along with thorough coverage of the other western Pennsylvania gems that have hosted major championships.

Ironically, the guy who was seen as the conduit for the Oakmont treasure trove actually helped open up the project to not just the Field Club and Allegheny CC, but also Sewickley Heights CC, the now-defunct Churchill Valley CC and even Kahkwa Club up in Erie.

“They sent me the table of contents and I said, ‘We have a problem,’ ” Moore said. “We had everything for Oakmont and everything for Laurel Valley (Golf Club) and Fox Chapel (Golf Club), but we were probably missing 15 championships. I said, ‘This is not one of those books where you can afford to leave somebody out because somebody will be upset about it.’ ”

No worries on that account, as the book includes details on (deep breath) U.S. Women’s Amateurs, U.S. Senior Opens and Amateurs, U.S. Senior Women’s Opens and Amateurs, Senior Players Championships, LPGA Championships, a Ryder Cup and a Curtis Cup.

On top of that, readers can find introductions to each of the aforementioned clubs, plus chapters on the Longue Vue Club and St. Clair Country Club, Moore’s list of the top 10 western Pennsylvania golfers of all time, and the powerful primordial connection — previously unbeknownst to this reporter — between Carnoustie, Scotland and Pittsburgh golf.

“Almost 20 or 30 guys from Carnoustie ended up being pros at one point or another in western Pennsylvania,” Moore said. “There were a couple of them at Oakmont. Apparently in one Pittsburgh newspaper it said something along the lines of, ‘Your club isn’t a club if it doesn’t have a Carnoustie pro.’ ”

The Oakmont section of the book alone contains miscellany such as Fletcher’s unforgettable nine holes alongside Myron Cope(!), Rooney’s rundown of former Oakmont head pro Bob Ford’s remarkable career, and a feature on that infamous Church Pews bunker that divides the third and fourth holes.

And if you’ve read Finoli’s offerings in the past, you realize his passion for the research shines through in the copy.

“I probably was shooting for about 250 or 300 pages, but we came out at about 480,” Finoli said. “You want to make sure you’re telling the stories properly, so it ended up taking a little longer than I wanted, but in the end I thought it was worth the extra efforts.

“I mean, the fun part of these isn’t writing the books. It’s doing the research that I just enjoy the hell out of.”

Whether Finoli and friends are relaying the stories of Bobby Jones, Johnny Miller and Paula Creamer or regional heroes Arnold Palmer and Carol Semple Thompson, the reader can be assured there’s a journalistic responsibility behind the effort.

“One of my inspirations is … honoring the subjects in a way that would hopefully make them proud to read, but doing it in a truthful manner,” Finoli said. “If something happened that wasn’t necessarily positive, I want to make sure I’m telling that story, too, so the reader is getting the full breadth of what the story was.”

As digging into ‘Beyond the Church Pews’ reveals, there’s surely no shortage of western Pennsylvania golf stories to tell. Oakmont is just the beginning.