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Oakmont Country Club To Host Numerous Future USGA Events Including U.S. Open

August 11, 2021 / 11:48 AM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

OAKMONT, Pa. (KDKA) --  The USGA has announced a long-term relationship with Oakmont Country Club that will bring several championship golf events to Western Pennsylvania over the next two decades.

The news was announced Wednesday morning at the U.S. Amateur Championship, which is being co-hosted this week by Oakmont Country Club and the Longue Vue Club.

Oakmont Country Club had previously been designated as the site for the 2025 U.S. Open, but the tournament will also be returning to the historic venue in 2034, 2042, and 2049.

The U.S. Women's Open will be played there in 2028 and 2038.

The venue will also host the 2033 Walker Cup Match and the 2046 U.S. Women's Amateur.

This new relationship between Oakmont Country Club and the USGA will make Oakmont the second U.S. Open anchor site, meaning championship golf will return to the venue every five to six years.

Prior to this week's U.S. Amateur Championship, the venue hosted the U.S. Open in 2016 and 2007, and the U.S. Amateur in 2003.

For more information, click here.

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Usga declares oakmont a second anchor site, unveiling stout lineup of future championships in pennsylvania, share this article.

OAKMONT, Pa. — Talk about a major announcement.

On Wednesday morning at Oakmont Country Club, host of this week’s 121st U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Golf Association held a press conference to lay out its future plans to continue its commitment to bring both men’s and women’s major championships to the nation’s most iconic venues. Get ready to see a lot more golf in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Oakmont, the famed course near Pittsburgh, will be a second “anchor site” for future USGA championships and will host the U.S. Open in 2025, 2034, 2042 and 2049. Across the state just outside Philadelphia, Merion Golf Club in Ardmore was also awarded the U.S. Open in 2030 and 2050.

Pinehurst Resort was named the USGA’s first anchor site last year .

Both clubs will also host a handful of U.S. Women’s Opens, allowing the best female golfers in the world to showcase their talents on iconic venues and etch their names in history alongside the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and more. Oakmont will host in 2028 and 2038 with Merion hosting in 2034 and 2046.

Two iconic venues in the commonwealth! Oakmont Country Club ▫️ #USOpen : 2025, 2034, 2042, 2049 ▫️ #USWomensOpen : 2028, 2038 ▫️ #WalkerCup : 2033 ▫️ #USWomensAm : 2046 Merion Golf Club ▫️ #CurtisCup : 2022 ▫️ #USAmateur : 2026 ▫️ #USOpen : 2030, 2050 ▫️ #USWomensOpen : 2034, 2046 pic.twitter.com/3ylbfm7kLM — USGA (@USGA) August 11, 2021

“Oakmont and Merion are iconic in every sense of the word – they’re in rare company in golf and continue to test the best in the game,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director of championships. “We’re making history and kicking off a new era for our national championships in Pennsylvania, and we couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead.”

But that’s not all.

The 2033 Walker Cup and 2046 U.S. Women’s Amateur will be played at Oakmont. Merion was also previously named the host for the 2022 Curtis Cup and the 2026 U.S. Amateur.

Both Ed Stack, president of Oakmont Country Club, and Buddy Marucci, championship chair for Merion Golf Club and a former U.S. Walker Cup captain, were on hand for the announcement, as well as Pennsylvania Senate Pro Tempore Jake Corman, state Sen. Jay Costa and state Rep. Carrie Lewis DelRosso.

“Our members and all of Pittsburgh are so excited to host the USGA and the best players in the game at Oakmont, which we believe is one of the most exacting tests of golf anywhere in the world,” said Stack. “It is the perfect venue to identify the best golfers around the globe, in concert with the USGA’s mission for championship golf. The new champions that will be crowned over the next 30 years will join a distinguished list of past champions and etch their names in golf history. We are proud and humbled to showcase Oakmont Country Club, Pittsburgh, and the State of Pennsylvania with a number of USGA championships through 2049.”

Added Marucci, “Starting with its formation, the desire to host significant championships has been at Merion’s core. It is no wonder Merion has hosted more USGA championships than any other club in America. Our friendship with the USGA dates to its first decade and has produced some of the most incredible moments in golf history. We are thrilled to celebrate those moments by announcing four more Open championships, and we look forward to bringing the best players in the world to compete on Hugh Wilson’s timeless masterpiece.”

A view of the 15th hole at Merion from the side of the tee box.

Future USGA championships in Pennsylvania

Oakmont country club.

2021 U.S. Amateur* 2025 U.S. Open* 2028 U.S. Women’s Open 2033 Walker Cup Match 2034 U.S. Open 2038 U.S. Women’s Open 2042 U.S. Open 2046 U.S. Women’s Amateur 2049 U.S. Open

Merion Golf Club

2022 Curtis Cup Match* 2026 U.S. Amateur* 2030 U.S. Open 2034 U.S. Women’s Open 2046 U.S. Women’s Open 2050 U.S. Open

*denotes previously announced USGA championships.

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Oakmont Country Club named second anchor course for U.S. Open; nine future men's and women's Opens to be held in Pennsylvania

• Associated Press

Already identified by its U.S. Open heritage, Oakmont Country Club was named the second "anchor" course for the U.S. Open in an announcement Wednesday that includes bringing nine U.S. Opens for men and women to Pennsylvania.

Four of them will be at Merion, which was chosen to host the 2030 U.S. Open. That will be the 100-year anniversary of Bobby Jones completing the Grand Slam. The final piece of what was called the "impregnable quadrilateral" in 1930 was the U.S. Amateur at Merion.

The USGA announced the future sites during the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont, the course outside Pittsburgh with a reputation as being among the toughest in America. It already has hosted a record nine U.S. Opens, most recently in 2016 when Dustin Johnson won his first major.

The USGA is moving toward a rotation of golf courses that will get a U.S. Open every five or six years, similar to the British Open rotating to links but different in that it allows other courses not in the rotation to be used.

Pinehurst No. 2 was selected as the first anchor site last year when the USGA decided to move its testing center and museum to the North Carolina Sandhills region.

Pebble Beach, Shinnecock Hills and Winged Foot also are in the discussion to be anchor sites.

Oakmont was an obvious choice. It will host its 10th U.S. Open in 2025. It also will have the U.S. Open in 2034, 2042 and 2049, along with hosting the U.S. Women's Open in 2028 and 2038. Oakmont previously held two U.S. Women's Opens, most recently in 2010 when Paula Creamer won her only major.

Merion, while historic, was thought to not have enough property to host the infrastructure of a U.S. Open. The USGA pulled it off in 2013 when Justin Rose won his lone major.

It now gets two more U.S. Opens, the other in 2050. That will be the 100-year anniversary of Ben Hogan winning the U.S. Open just over a near after a near-fatal car crash. Merion is the site of the iconic photo of Hogan hitting 1-iron into the 18th green during regulation.

Merion also will host the U.S. Women's Open for the first time, in 2034 and 2046.

Both clubs also were awarded some of the USGA's elite amateur events -- Oakmont gets the Walker Cup (2033) and U.S. Women's Amateur (2046), while Merion has the Curtis Cup next year along with the U.S. Amateur in 2026.

The U.S. Amateur this week is the 88th USGA championship in Pennsylvania, the most of any state. Pennsylvania courses have hosted the U.S. Open 17 times, second to New York (20).

Where Is The 2025 US Open?

The 2025 edition will see it take place at a venue that has hosted the Major more than any other

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The US Open has been held on 52 different courses, and for the 125th edition, coming in 2025, one of the most well-known of all the venues for the Major will once again be the host. 

No other course has held the US Open more than Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, with nine editions being played there between 1927 and 2016, and it will become the first venue to reach double figures when it does so again for the 2025 tournament.

Over the years, Oakmont has been the scene of some truly memorable moments in the US Open. In 1953, one of the game’s all-time greats, Ben Hogan, claimed the second of three straight Major victories there, and he did it in style, too, cruising to victory by six shots.

Nine years later, Jack Nicklaus served a notice of an astonishing career to come when he won the first of his 18 Majors in a playoff against Arnold Palmer.

In 1973, Johnny Miller then set a new low-scoring record with a final round of 63 to claim the title.

Fast forward to 1994, and Ernie Els lifted the trophy after a playoff win against Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie, while most recently, Dustin Johnson won the first of his two Major titles thanks to a three-shot win over a trio of challengers.

Dustin Johnson won the US Open at Oakmont in 2016

So, just what is it that keeps the USGA coming back for more? Clues can be found in some of the praise it has earned from many of the world’s greats, including six-time US Open runner-up Phil Mickelson , who has described it as a “special place,” and Miller, who once described it as “the greatest course I’ve ever played.”

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The course was the only one designed by Henry Fownes and opened in 1903. Today, it is known for its brutal greens, which are large, undulating and lightning-fast. One of its most recognizable features is the Church Pews bunker across the third and fourth holes, which measures 100 by 40 yards and has 12 ridges that, as its name suggests, resemble church pews.

The Church Pews bunker is one of the best-known landmarks at the course

The course began as an inland links-style affair, but eventually, thousands of trees were added, which transformed it into a parkland setting. However, some 15,000 were then removed, starting after the 1994 US Open, and today it is once again almost treeless, as it was returned something approaching the feel of Fownes’ original design - with the emphasis on its many bunkers and dramatically sloping fairways and greens.

After the 2025 tournament, it will be some time before Oakmont hosts another US Open venue, but rest assured, it is still guaranteed to play a big part in the future. Indeed, it has already been confirmed for the editions in 2033, 2042, and 2049.

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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USGA announces U.S. Open will return to Oakmont in 2025

With the 116th U.S. Open currently underway at Oakmont Country Club, USGA president Diane Murphy announced Saturday that the championship will return to Pittsburgh for a record 10th time in 2025.

"Bringing the U.S. Open Championship to Oakmont for the 10th time in 2025 is testament to the quality of this fine golf course and the longevity of the strong relationship the USGA has with the club," Murphy said. "It is an honor to make this announcement during the 116th U.S. Open when everyone here can celebrate the U.S. Open's return to this iconic course in nine years."

Past U.S. Open winners at one of America's most difficult courses include Angel Cabrera (2007), Ernie Els (1994), Johnny Miller (1973), Jack Nicklaus (1962), and Ben Hogan (1953).

The USGA also announced the 2026 U.S. Open would be held at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which will also host the championship in 2018.

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Oakmont Country Club reopens gift shop, features 2025 U.S. Open merchandise

Whether they’re into golf, Oakmont or squirrels, there’s plenty of merch for lovers of all of the above at the Oakmont Country Club’s gift shop.

Merchandise for the 125th U.S. Open Championship, which the country club will host in June 2025, is already for sale at the shop in Plum.

“I was excited to hear stuff was on sale,” said Robert Miller, who lives north of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is in the area visiting family. “The fact you can get stuff this early is really great.”

Miller grabbed a couple of shirts for himself Saturday, a rainy day decidedly not good for golfing.

“It’s hard to figure out what to get,” he said. “There’s a lot of nice stuff.”

After having been open around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the gift shop is now open regular hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, said Peter Macadam, an assistant caddy master and member of the professional staff.

The shop, accessible directly from Coxcomb Hill Road across from S&T Bank, offers more than 1,000 items from more than 20 brands, featuring the 125th U.S. Open Championship logo, including hats, polo shirts, outerwear, golf club head covers, golf towels, glassware and signage.

Next year will mark the 10th time that the open has been held at Oakmont. The logo features a squirrel, as it has several times before.

A collection of ball markers features the logos for all 10 events.

“There’s some giftware that honors (Oakmont Country Club’s) history of hosting the U.S. Open,” said Annie Vanzant, director of merchandise at the club. “We have some merchandise with a list of all of our past champions on it like glassware and wooden pub signs.”

Customers don’t have to worry about anything being sold out because there are daily deliveries daily to restock the store, Vanzant said.

“We’re going at full throttle for the next 18 months until the championship,” Vanzant said, adding there has been a notable increase in foot traffic.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” she said.

Hats and smaller accessories with the logo have been popular, Macadam said. Keeping up with trends, there are “sport tech” hoodies that golfers can play in and “comfort” ones for relaxing.

“Local people are really enjoying the ability to come in here for the smaller setting where they can get one-on-one attention and help,” Macadam said. “It’s a slower pace and there’s not as many crowds before hundreds of thousands of people are here in 2025.”

Nick Walshak of Mt. Lebanon was in the area Saturday and heard the shop was open.

“I just wanted to see everything, see the new logo,” he said. “I’m sure eventually I’ll pick up some stuff.”

According to Jonathan Coe, assistant director of championship communications at the United States Golf Association, beginning on June 17 — the day after this year’s U.S. Open ends — there will be a preview collection available on usgashop.com. It will be followed with a full fall holiday collection in September.

“Oakmont has had an over-100-year tradition of hosting the championship, and we’re excited for it to come in 2025,” Vanzant said. “Oakmont has made a commitment to the USGA, and the USGA has made a commitment to Oakmont to keep hosting the championship.”

In addition to next year’s U.S. Open, the club will host the 2028 and 2038 U.S. Women’s Opens.

The men’s U.S. Open is scheduled to return in 2034, 2042 and 2049.

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U.S. Open Championship merchandise Where: Oakmont Country Club gift shop Address: 301 Coxcomb Hill Road, Plum, across from S&T Bank Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday

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US Open: Look Inside Oakmont Reveals Members With Respect for Game

The Fox golf gang, various USGA bluecoats, Jordan Spieth and his touring brahs, they’ll all tell you the same thing: Oakmont is hard –hard but fair!–most likely the hardest course in America, quite possibly the hardest course in the world.

That doesn’t mean it has to be. If you gave Oakmont some kind of golf course tranquilizer—mowed the rough, grew the fairway grass, watered the greens—you’d have another curvy, old-line, private-club course that would stand alongside dozens of other curvy, old-line, private-club courses in the affluent suburbs of Pittsburgh (where Oakmont sits so proudly), Philadelphia, New York City, Rochester, Boston, Chicago and some other cities that enjoyed turn-of-the-last-century megawealth.

But don’t hold your breath. Oakmont’s not getting that makeover. Not now, not ever. Throughout golf, people are talking about making the game kinder and gentler. Everywhere, that is, except Oakmont. Here’s the Oakmont view of the world: First there was Calvinism, then there was golf.

The club’s founder and guiding light, Henry Fownes, believed in hard as a traditional golfing value, and his spirit has pervaded the course ever since its 1903 opening—as a par-80. Hard in every sense: firm (weather permitting) and, more significantly, resistant to scoring. That’s why Johnny Miller’s Sunday 63 in the 1973 U.S. Open is widely regarded as the greatest round ever played. Arnold Palmer, who lived 35 miles down the road in Latrobe, was tied for the lead through three rounds. Miller posted early and watched Palmer play in on TV. Writing about his win years later, Miller said, “When Arnie missed that [four-foot] birdie putt on number 11, it was clear: He couldn’t catch me. He couldn’t shoot one under to tie me or two under to beat me—not at Oakmont under U.S. Open pressure.” Not at Oakmont.

For next week’s U.S. Open, Oakmont will play as a par-70. (It’s a 71 for the members.) Despite a wet spring, the sloping greens—the course’s trademark and ultimate defense—are as hard as a dance floor. Bubba Watson’s moonshot 9-irons will land on them with an astounding thud , and you’ll seldom see guys reaching for their ball-mark repair thingies. If some golfing god—Louis Oosthuizen, Zach Johnson, Danny Willett and other experts in on-the-ground golf—should somehow break 280, you will see your share of despairing members in the creaking clubhouse in the dusk of Father’s Day. “If you’re not a sadist when you join the club, you are after a couple of years here,” says Bob Ford, the club’s mild-mannered and longtime pro.

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Fownes, a Pittsburgh iron manufacturer, felt that hard golf built character. Golf to him was not a game that one played . (It was his son, W.C., who famously said, “A shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.”) In the Fownes era, and ever since, people joined Oakmont seeking punishment, and to this day members don’t want to see their guests with big smiles on their faces. They want them to go forth into the world and spread the word: Hardest course I’ve ever played. The club hires superintendents who understand that tough but fair is as important to Oakmont as trust but verify was to Ronald Reagan. You’ve never seen a halfway house with a better selection of hard stuff.

There are no shade trees at Oakmont. There are next to no trees at all. (Good luck finding something to aim at. It’s Scotland on the Allegheny in stifling heat and, often, no breeze.) Let-up holes? Oakmont doesn’t do let-up holes. You want to go around the course with one ball? Then drive it in the fairway, as Hogan did with his eagle eye and no-glove grip, en route to winning the Open in ’53. (Here are some other winners of major events at Oakmont: Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Larry Nelson, Ernie Els and, at the 2007 U.S. Open, Ángel Cabrera, the future Hall of Famer.) Can’t get your ball up fast enough to escape the Oakmont drainage ditches? Dig a ditch in your backyard and learn the shot! Your fourth putt is longer than your third? Welcome to the Oakmont power lip-out, folks. Oh, and whatever you do, do not hold up the group behind you! How about a little common courtesy, people, courtesy being one of the hallmarks of the game?

Oakmont is nothing if not traditional. That’s one of the reasons the USGA has taken its flagship championship, and the hardest event in golf, to Oakmont more than any other course. Oakmont and the USGA—it’s a perfect match! This 116th U.S. Open will be the ninth in the borough of Oakmont, Pa.

Bob Friend, the longtime pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, retired from baseball in 1966 and joined Oakmont five years later. “I’ve been shellacked by Willie Mays, Hank Aaron—some of the greatest hitters ever,” says Friend, now 85. “I’ve been shellacked by Oakmont a heck of a lot more.”

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The righthander’s son, Robert, who played the PGA Tour in the 1990s, grew up caddying and playing at Oakmont, but he entered the club championship only once, as a 21-year-old amateur. He won by 13 shots. “The next year Mr. Ford basically said that I shouldn’t enter, shouldn’t defend my title, that I had moved on,” Robert says. The unspoken part was this: A 13-shot win isn’t Oakmont . You don’t want to send out the wrong message. You know, that golf (for some people anyway) is easy. Oakmont doesn’t do easy.

Oakmont is a country club in name only. It’s not la-di-da. Alex Lawson is a fourth-generation member and the reigning junior club champion. His maternal grandfather, John Birmingham, has been a member for 61 years, and at 76 he shoots or breaks his age routinely. The grandson, now 17 and finishing his junior year at Fox Chapel Area High, can drive the ball 320 yards. He shot 78–66 last year to win the junior title and get grillroom paint, his name in black letters on a gold-tinged wooden board. Do you think his victory got him any respect from the other Oakmont juniors? Not according to Alex: “I bogeyed the last two and they’re like, You choked!” Sixty-six! Tough crowd.

Alex’s sister, Emilie, graduated from South Carolina last month. Alex tells a story, with unmistakable glee, about being on the range with Emilie and their grandfather. Emilie was 14, and she and her grandfather were playing closest-to-the-pin to five flagsticks on a mown green surrounded by a firm, fast runoff. The shots were maybe 30 to 70 yards long. Emilie was hitting open-faced wedges, à la Paula Creamer, winner of the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open at Oakmont. Gramps was hitting hooded bump-and-runs, à la Sam Parks. (Birmingham logged many, many rounds with the winner of the ’35 Open at Oakmont.) One bounce and here come the brakes. As Alex tells the story, Grandpa hit it inside Emilie nine of 10 times and said, “‘I’ll beat you nine out of 10 every time if you keep playing shots like that.’ And my sister started crying. Grandpa made her cry!”

Birmingham, who played in the 1968 U.S. Open at Oak Hill but missed the cut, doesn’t deny it. But he has an addendum. “She became a very good player,” he says. “Did you know she won the women’s club championship twice?” Grillroom paint. Alex didn’t include that part. Tough crowd.

By the way, you know how some country-club kids think golf balls grow on trees and give up their searches for strays at about the 42-second mark? Alex is not like that. No Oakmont member is like that. If he hits his ball in the rough—and you are going to hit your ball in the rough at Oakmont—he’s going to find it. When he played the other day, 100 or more Oakmont crew members were on the course, in their khaki pants and white shirts, many of them tending to the rough. That is, watering the rough, measuring its length, looking for thin spots that needed attention. Over the green on the shortish par-3 6th hole (194 yards from the back tee), Alex nodded approvingly as two men raked the long grass in front of the bleachers toward the green. “That’ll make balls bury even deeper!” he said merrily. The kid’s a sadist. He’s an Oakmont member.

Before that after-school round Alex visited with John Zimmers, the Oakmont superintendent, in his office at the back of the range. Like almost everybody at Oakmont of a certain age, Zimmers venerates Palmer and has pictures of him on his walls, some of which were made from felled Oakmont pin oaks when thousands of trees, not part of the original design, were removed from the course between the 1994 and 2007 Opens. When Arnold was a teenager, his father, the course superintendent and head professional at Latrobe Country Club, was offered the job as Oakmont’s superintendent. Arnold was beside himself with excitement. Oakmont! But in the end his father turned down the job, telling his son, “We have everything we need right here.”

MORE: The History of the Stimpmeter Starts at Oakmont

You can draw a straight line from Palmer to Oakmont, including Arnold’s keen appreciation for tough courses and his understanding of heartbreak’s important role in golf. He played in his first U.S. Open at Oakmont, as an amateur in 1953. He played his final U.S. Open at Oakmont, as the game’s most celebrated figure, in 1994. He missed both cuts. He lost the ’62 U.S. Open to 22-year-old Jack Nicklaus in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont. In ’73 he was in the hunt until late on Father’s Day. Zimmers points to a 2007 picture and says, “This is from Arnold’s last visit here.” You can hear the sadness in his voice.

But before long Zimmers has his game face back on. “Where else is somebody going to shoot 115 without losing a ball!” he says. He’s a wiry man with a shaven head and a good sense of humor. He says, “I like to see people suffer.” His bosses, the club membership, feel the same. “The members will get upset if their guests go home and did not have a miserable time!” Zimmers adds.

Then, with a certain solemnity, he shares the memorable words that Palmer passed on to him: “Let Oakmont be Oakmont.” What sage advice.

Alex was listening intently. He doesn’t come to Oakmont to hang out. He comes to work on his game, to play the course through dusk and, this summer, to caddie. The Oakmont mystique for him is not Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. He’s like every kid you know, living in the here-and-now. He tells Zimmers, “I’m walking through the locker room, and there was Jim Furyk!” Alex is a Rory man himself. His buddy is a Jason Day guy. They fight about who is better all the time. They haven’t come to blows—yet.

Bob Ford—Mr. Ford to Alex and every young person at Oakmont—is retiring at the end of this year, after 37 years on the job, though he will stay on as director of golf. (In the winter he’s the head pro at Seminole Golf Club, in South Florida.) Ford is a superb player, but the pleasures of Oakmont for him are not the many good scores he has made there but things that are far more amorphous. He speaks of pleasures of a kind : “The view from the back tee on 4, the highest point on the course. Now, with the trees out, you can see practically the whole course from there. The 25 years we lived in the pro’s cottage behind the shop, raising our three kids there.” He goes on in that vein.

Other members and guests and employees cited things that had nothing to do with the brutal nature of the course. Alex talked about Oakmont at sunset, “when the sky turns red and you can see all the humps on the fairways.” (Touch of the poet there, kid!) An employee talked, with a kind of pride, about how you cover up your tats when you come to work “because Oakmont just isn’t a tattoo kind of place.” A caddie, Jeromie Meabon, described being out for two recent practice rounds with Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman, “looking at them looking at the course, trying to figure it out, trying to find a way to get in the mix.” Zimmers talked about the beauty of the course’s drainage ditches once the club decided to clean them up and clear out the growth early in his tenure. Mike Davis, the executive director of the USGA, remembered hearing his father talk about how in the 1940s he would play the public course that used to be right next door, “and how he would look at Oakmont’s 2nd green through the fence and just be in awe of its speed.” Birmingham talked about being in the locker that his father started using in 1938. Robert Friend talked about playing in the Druckenmiller Cup, an annual event started by a longtime member and successful investor, Stanley Druckenmiller, and how “after dinner we play shots off the porch teed up on dinner rolls to the 18th green.” Bob Friend talked about bringing his old Pirates teammates—Dick Groat, Ralph Kiner and Bill Mazeroski—to the course. It didn’t matter if everybody shot 100. They were playing the course where Jones and Hogan and Nicklaus had won, and where Palmer did not. Golf, like baseball, is about futility.

Oakmont is not resting on its laurels and its sepia-toned past and the fact that the Stimpmeter was inspired there. (The greens will Stimp at around 13 for the Open. They will be faster for the Druckenmiller Cup.) This is not a club on permanent rewind, not at all. The most famous photograph ever taken at Oakmont is the black-and-white shot of Arnold and Jack coming off the 18th green after their playoff in ’62. Arnold is looking squarely at Jack, who came to Oakmont as both a newly minted pro but also as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. They’re walking and shaking hands and heading off to some great, unknown future. Alex Lawson has walked by that photograph on a clubhouse wall a thousand times, but he took eight seconds to identify Nicklaus and needed “half-and-half” as a hint to come up with Palmer’s name.

It doesn’t matter. The kid, like all kids, is all about the here-and-now, the here-and-now, the here-and-now. His here-and-now is the U.S Open—at Oakmont. “My buddy’s got an inside-the-ropes pass,” Alex says. “O.K., he claims he does. I’m taking Rory. I just think it’s gonna be Rory.” He’s seen McIlroy on TV plenty, and his grandfather has seen him at Seminole. Now Alex is going to get to watch Rory McIlroy, his golfing hero, live and in person for the first time. His voice is actually quivering.

Yeah, well—what would Rory pay for Alex’s second-round 66 from last year’s junior championship? Plus, grillroom paint.

John Deere Classic

TPC Deere Run

This heartfelt story will have you rooting for Oakmont's unknown U.S. Amateur medalist

Mark Goetz hits his tee shot on the 10th hole during the second round of stroke play at the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club.

Justin Aller

OAKMONT, Pa. — The question washed over Mark Goetz as he stood on the terrace outside Oakmont Country Club late Wednesday morning, a handful of reporters interviewing the newly minted medalist at the 121st U.S. Amateur Championship as darkening skies swirled in the distance.

“What’s the biggest tournament you’ve ever won?”

The 23-year-old senior-to-be at West Virginia University paused a few beats, his wrinkled eyebrows an outward sign of the gears grinding inside his head. The effort wasn’t because Goetz has an abundance of victories to choose from. On the bio sheet he filled out for the USGA, under playing record, he lists just three “firsts”: the Western Pennsylvania Amateur in 2019, the WPGA Open in 2020 and the Mountaineer Invitational in 2021.

There are a handful of reasons to root for Goetz this week as he moves on to match play in the USGA’s oldest championship (Mother Nature willing). He lives 40 minutes from Oakmont in Greensburg, Pa., so locals will appreciate the son of the Keystone State representing (expect a flood of folks from Hannastown Golf Club, which had four players qualify for the U.S. Amateur this year, to be onsite and cheering him on). When nightfall interrupted his second round of stroke play on Tuesday, he didn’t hesitate to pull out of Oakmont’s parking lot and pull into a McDonalds a few miles away for a quick dinner. And, most importantly, there is no visible sign of a chip on the either of his shoulders.

But arguably the best reason to root for Goetz was the answer he gave to the question at hand.

“I’d have to say it’s the college one I got this past year,” he explained. “College golf for me has been very, very difficult. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to play at West Virginia. I was not heavily recruited. And I pretty much went from square one there. I had to earn my spot and prove myself. I really wasn’t on a scholarship up until my sophomore and junior year.”

MORE: USGA names Oakmont a U.S. Open anchor site, awards the club seven future USGA championships

Each year you watch a batch of 18-to 22-year-olds playing in the U.S. Amateur, their games crisp and sharp, their swings dialed in, their destinies seemingly already defined. You see Viktor Hovland go from holding up the Havemeyer Trophy at Pebble Beach in 2018 to being a two-time PGA Tour winner 28 months later, or Collin Morikawa winning two major championships two years after turning pro, and it all looks so easy.

But it’s not, not for many in the field at Oakmont. The 312 players competing this week all have supreme talent to qualify for the biggest amateur golf tournament in the world, but they aren’t all world beaters.

“Going from square one, to being left at home [not in WVU’s starting lineup] and really struggling, to being able to get a win in college and helping my team out, it’s kind of like comeback complete in a sense,” Goetz said. “That did a lot for me, for sure.”

Goetz poses with his award for being medalist after 36 holes of stroke play at the 121st U.S. Amateur.

Chris Keane

So now the fun begins. With a newfound confidence, and a medal in hand for shooting an eight-under 132 in stroke-play qualifying—making just one bogey over 36 holes (the par-4 fifth hole at Oakmont when he returned to play on Wednesday morning)—Goetz heads to match play hopefully unaware that no medalist has gone on to win the championship since Ryan Moore did it in 2004.

Living so close to Oakmont has afforded him a handful of rounds on the brutally difficult W.C. Fownes track, enough to gain some local knowledge that could prove handy before the week is done. That and his incoming group of followers can hopefully counteract the negative medalist mojo.

After his interview, Goetz waited to see who his first-round match play opponent would be. But another rain storm delayed the start of the Round of 64 and the 12-for-1 playoff for 64th spot for nearly four hours. Eventually, Sweden's David Nyfjall advanced to match play, and he and Goetz started their match at 7 p.m., grateful to get in at least a few holes. When darkness ended play again, the duo was tied through four holes.

So Goetz waits for Thursday, anxious to see just how long he can make this dream week last. What he’s got going for him is this: Dark skies have followed him before. But he knows the sun can come out again

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John Deere Classic

TPC Deere Run

Silvis, Illinois • USA

Jul 4 - 7, 2024

U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally

U.S. Senior Open

U.S. Amateur

U.S. Senior Women's Open

U.S. SENIOR OPEN

King Richard: Bland Outlasts Fujita in Playoff at Newport C.C.

By David Shefter, USGA

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Richard Bland, 51, became the 12th player to win the U.S. Senior Open in his first start, and the second from England. (UsGA/Jonathan Ernst)

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Thirty-five days ago, Richard Bland had no intention of teeing it up in the 44th U.S. Senior Open Championship at historic Newport Country Club. The 51-year-old Englishman didn’t file an entry, and even after his remarkable debut on the 50-and-older circuit when he claimed the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship on May 26, Bland was unsure about coming to the Ocean State.

A few weeks later, he had a change of heart and it turned out to be a great decision.

Bland, who entered the final round five strokes back of 18-, 36-hole and 54-hole leader Hiroyuki Fujita, had closed the gap to three before weather halted play on Sunday afternoon, early in the final nine. Bland completed his charge on Monday morning, forging a tie with the frontrunner after 72 holes at 13-under 267. Bland’s 4-under-par 66 matched the second-lowest round of the day, while Fujita, who only had two bogeys through 64 holes, struggled after the restart with three bogeys over a four-hole stretch, leading to a 1-over 71.

After the pair matched scores for three playoff holes (two in a two-hole aggregate format and one sudden-death), Bland delivered one of the best bunker shots of his career on the fourth playoff hole as he nearly holed out for a 3, the ball hitting the flagstick and stopping inches away.

When Fujita, 55, of Japan, failed to convert his 20-foot par putt that curled just around the hole, all Bland had to do was tap in for his par to earn a second consecutive senior major title.

“I think this one’s going to take a little while [to sink in],” said Bland, the 12th player to win this championship in his debut and the second from England (Roger Chapman). “Your first two senior tournaments to be majors, and to come out on top … I was just hoping going into the [Senior] PGA that I was good enough to contend. I hadn’t played against these guys. 

“I knew if I played the way I know I can play, it should be good enough to be able to compete. But, yeah, to [stand] here with two majors is … I’m at a loss for words at the moment now.”

Bland joins Arnold Palmer (1980-81) and Alex Cejka (2021) as the only golfers to win in their first two senior major starts. Palmer claimed the Senior PGA Championship in December 1980 and followed up with the 1981 U.S. Senior Open victory in his first year of eligibility. Cejka won the Regions Tradition and Senior PGA Championship.

Fujita was bidding to become the first male golfer from Japan to win a USGA title, but now joins countryman Isao Aoki (2001) as a bridesmaid in the U.S. Senior Open. Aoki was also the 1980 U.S. Open runner-up to Jack Nicklaus. Three Japanese females have claimed titles, including Yuka Saso earlier this year at the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally.

Fujita also is the first player since Jerry Kelly in 2018 to hold the lead after the first three rounds and not hoist the trophy.

“I started the day with a three-shot lead,” said Fujita, who made more bogeys in his final round (4) than he did in the previous three (1). “I didn’t play my best and got into a playoff. Definitely disappointed I didn’t hit the ball as well as I have all week.

“I had a lot of people rooting for me and watching in Japan. I was really hoping to take that trophy home.”

Australian lefty Richard Green also carded a final-round 71 to finish solo third at 10-under 270, one stroke ahead of 2019 champion Steve Stricker, whose 73 was his worst in a U.S. Senior Open round in four starts. The solo fourth finish by the 57-year-old from Madison, Wis., follows the win and back-to-back seconds in 2022 and 2023.

Richard Bland celebrates his U.S. Senior Open playoff win at Newport Country Club on the 18th green with his caddie James Walton. (USGA/Kathryn Riley)

Thongchai Jaidee (67) and Bob Estes (70) shared fifth at 8-under 282, with Vijay Singh (66) solo seventh (273). Ernie Els (65), Stephen Ames (68) and Paul Stankowski (71) rounded out the top 10, sharing eighth at 274.

Because of Sunday’s two-hour fog delay and afternoon storms, the championship required its first regulation Monday finish since 2016 at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. More than a half-inch of rain fell on the property, requiring yeoman’s work by Newport superintendent Chris Coen, his staff of 16 and 20 volunteers to get this classic venue playable for the 8 a.m. EDT restart on Monday.

Bland was on the 11th green when play was halted on Sunday at 3:01 p.m., and playing in the threesome ahead of Fujita, Stricker and Green, recognized quickly on Monday that Fujita was showing his first sign of nerves. He missed only his second fairway of the week on No. 11, leading to just his third bogey. He then lipped out a short par putt on 12 and bogeyed 14. Meanwhile, Bland recovered from a bogey on the 234-yard par-3 13th by making a 15-footer on 14 for birdie and stuffing his approach on 15 to 3 feet to take the outright lead.

But on the challenging 473-yard 18th hole, which played into the wind on Monday morning, Bland found the fairway cross bunker and eventually made a clutch 8-footer for bogey to fall back into a tie at 13 under. Fujita steadied himself with pars on Nos. 15, 16 and 17 and had a 40-footer for birdie on 18 to win that stopped just short of the hole.

That led to the first U.S. Senior Open aggregate playoff since 2014 when Colin Montgomerie edged Gene Sauers by a stroke in what was then a three-hole affair.

Fujita tied Bland on No. 10 with a clutch par putt from 6 feet. Each parred 18 as well, sending the players back to the closing hole. This time, each made bogey – Bland hitting his approach well right of the green and Fujita finding a greenside bunker to the left of the putting surface. But in the second go-around, Bland’s 214-yard approach with a hybrid found the same left-greenside bunker, while Fujita came up short from 259 yards.

Fujita’s pitch stopped 15 feet away, leading to Bland’s shot of the week. The ball took one hop, hit the flagstick and somehow stayed out of the hole.

“It wasn’t that tough of a shot,” said Bland of his third on the fourth playoff hole. “My main aim was just to get it right because he had, what, 20 feet across the slope. He’s got to know that I’m making 4. That was my objective there. If I can get this as close as I possibly can, so it puts the pressure on him that he now knows he's got to hole it.

“An unbelievable [par] putt [by Fujita]. Four feet out, yeah, I’m thinking I’m going back down to the 18th tee again. It couldn't miss. Fortunate enough for me, it stayed on the top side. Yeah, two inches to win at the U.S. [Senior] Open, I can handle those.”

When he converted the tap-in, an emotional Bland raised both fists and enjoyed a congratulatory bear hug with his caddie, James Walton.

Bland has enjoyed quite a renaissance the past three years. A journeyman since turning professional in 1996, Bland waited until his 478th start on the European Tour (now DP World Tour) to collect his maiden victory at the 2022 Betfred British Masters, becoming the oldest first-time champion in circuit history at 48. A year earlier, he shared the 36-hole lead with Russell Henley in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, eventually settling for a share of 50th in his third-ever major-championship start.

Because he joined LIV Golf in 2022, Bland has been ineligible for PGA Tour Champions events. He received a sponsor’s exemption from the PGA of America into last month’s Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Mich., and took full advantage, edging Green by three strokes.

That week, Bland found out that his brother, Heath, had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He had been battling health issues for several years, including recent surgery for bowel cancer.

“We had some good news that it’s not going to be hugely invasive surgery,” said Bland of his brother’s condition. “It’s only going to be keyhole, and it’s going to be only an overnight stay. When he had his surgery three, four months ago for his bowel cancer, he was in hospital for nearly six weeks, and it was a 15-hour operation.

“We’re just praying that hopefully that once this is gone, that’s it for him. You hear the statistics that it’s kind of one in every two people get it, and you always kind of think, you know what, it won’t happen to us. When it does, it’s like a train wreck. It’s an absolute train wreck.”

After brilliant play over the first 3.5 rounds, runner-up Hiroyuki Fujita, 51, of Japan, was frustrated on Monday when the weather-delayed final round resumed. (USGA/Jonathan Ernst)

One thing is for sure, Bland will be at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club for next year’s U.S. Open, a perk for winning the U.S. Senior Open. There won’t be a hesitation once entries open next February. He also can play in the next 10 U.S. Senior Opens.

“I'll be looking at flights to Oakmont for next year,” said Bland, “very, very soon.”

  What the Champion Receives

• A gold medal
• Custody of the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy for one year
• Exemptions into the next 10 U.S. Senior Open Championships
• Exemption into the 125th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club
• First-place check for $800,000
• Name engraved on the 2024 USGA Champions’ plaque that will be displayed in the Hall of Champions at the USGA Museum in Liberty Corner, N.J.

Australian lefty Richard Green now has second- and third-place finishes in consecutive senior majors. His solo third at Newport was his best in a USGA championship.. (USGA/Jonathan Ernst)

• The top 15 scorers and ties earn exemptions into the 2025 U.S. Senior Open Championship at The Broadmoor (East Course) in Colorado Springs, Colo., June 26-29. Among that group was qualifier Cameron Percy , who tied for 14th at 4-under 276. Percy got into the field as an alternate from the Brooklyn Park, Minn., qualifier, where he lost a 2-for-1 playoff to Steve Stricker’s brother-in-law, Mario Tiziani , for the lone spot.
• Led by Ernie Els’ 65, there were 23 sub-par scores recorded in the final round. That matched the Round 4 totals from 1992 (Saucon Valley C.C.) and 2015 (Del Paso C.C.) and is two off the record from 2009 at Crooked Stick Golf Club. The 117 sub-par rounds for the week ranked second all-time behind Inverness Club (128), in 2011. A total of 29 players finished 72 holes under par, seven off the record set in 2011 and ranks fourth all-time.
• Defending champion Bernhard Langer wound up in a tie for 42nd at 2-over 282.
• Rhode Island natives Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley , the 1987 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, finished T-31 and T-42, respectively. Andrade posted even-par 280, two ahead of Quigley.
• Jay Haas , 70, of Greer, S.C., surpassed World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson for the most times completing 72 holes in the U.S. Senior Open with 18. Haas, a member of the 1975 USA Walker Cup Team, has never missed a cut in this championship (18 for 18).
• NBC/Golf Channel on-course reporter Roger Maltbie celebrated his 73rd birthday on Sunday. He also celebrated his 55th birthday at Newport Country Club during the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open.
• Lee Westwood and Thongchai Jaidee each registered eagle 2s on par-4 holes on Sunday. Westwood, who started on No. 10, made his deuce on the 348-yard 12th, while Jaidee posted his 2 on the 321-yard second.
• Three-time Olympian swimmer and Rhode Island native Elizabeth Beisel visited Newport C.C. on Sunday. Beisel will work the upcoming Summer Olympics for NBC as an interviewer for the swimming competition. She took home a silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley in the 2012 London Games and a bronze in the 200-meter backstroke.
• USGA CEO Mike Whan served as a volunteer scorer for the Justin Leonard, Paul Broadhurst and Grant Hutcheon group for the Monday resumption. Due to the unexpected extra day of play, additional volunteers were needed to assist as walking scorers.
• This was the second time a USGA championship at Newport C.C. went to a playoff. World Golf Hall of Famer and four-time USGA champion  Annika Sorenstam defeated Pat Hurst in an 18-hole Monday playoff to claim the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open.
• The four playoff holes was the second-longest since the U.S. Senior Open stopped using an 18-hole playoff. In 2002, Don Pooley needed five holes to defeat Tom Watson. Pooley remains the only qualifier to win this championship.

“It's up there. When everything's on the line, you've always got to think that he's going to hole that putt. Obviously, it does creep into your mind, right, if I get this up-and-down there's a good chance that I'm U.S. [Senior] Open champion. I just wanted to be just fully committed to it. I didn't want to kind of just hit the sort of duff-and-run shot. It was one that I can be aggressive with. I probably knew it was going to spin…It came out perfect.” – Richard Bland on final bunker shot

“I'm a way better golfer than I was back [in 2021], but I think that's the caliber of players that I'm playing against on LIV. To play against Bryson [DeChambeau], who just won the [U.S. Open] at Pinehurst, to play against him, to play against Jon Rahm, Cam Smith, D.J. (Dustin Johnson), Brooks [Koepka], they're the best players in the world. I don't care what the world ranking says. If I'm going to compete with those guys, I have to bring my game. I have to. I can't bring my C game, and it won't stack up against those. It just elevates my game, and I think it's done that unbelievably over the last three years.” -- Bland

“Whenever you get to play a U.S. Open, it was my first ever tournament in America at Bethpage in '09, and I was just blown away by it. We're always kind of like, oh, being from Europe or from the UK, our major is The Open, but I was blown away by the U.S. Open. It's my second tournament to play in apart from an Open. I love the challenge that you guys set. I learned so much over that weekend [at Torrey Pines in 2021]. It didn't go my way, but I'm not the first guy that's had a bad weekend in a U.S. Open; I'm sure I won't be the last. And that's helped put me to where I am today. I'll be looking at flights to Oakmont for next year very, very soon.” -- Bland

“The wind was a little different today. It was the first time I've played Newport with this kind of wind. So I was definitely a little uneasy about that, and you can see the results out there, that some of the shots weren't what I wished they were.” – Hiroyuki Fujita

“Incredible. One of the best courses I ever played. I would love to hopefully have another event here before I retire.” – Bob Estes

“I've been pretty lucky over the years staying pretty healthy and just being able to compete for as long as I have. I still enjoy that part of it, the competition, trying to hit good shots when I need to. I don't do it nearly as often as I would like. But I managed to play well in this tournament each time, and good enough to make the cut and contend a few times early in my 50s. From the first U.S. Junior I played in Spokane, Washington [in 1969] … USGA tournaments have held a special place for me.” – Jay Haas on surpassing Tom Watson for the most times completing 72 holes in the U.S. Senior Open

“Simply amazing. Just everything that I imagined would happen happened. It was just an unbelievable course, setting, Rhode Island, Newport. It just makes me feel very proud to be a Rhode Islander.” – Billy Andrade  

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at [email protected] .

Jun 30, 2024

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