Oakmont CC (private)
Oakmont, PA (just outside Pittsburgh)
Just some great articles on Oakmont that were published prior to the 2007 U.S. Open:
www.golfdigest.com/majors/usopen/index.ssf?/majors/usopen/gw20070608love.html
www.golfdigest.com/majors/usopen/index.ssf?/majors/usopen/gd200706members.html
www.golfdigest.com/photos/photo_gallery/popup_photo_gallery.ssf?/cgi-bin/slide-show.cgi/golf/ad.ssf?index=0&g_id=442
Fat Guy Research: While I haven't played it, I walked it extensively and watched the best golfers in the world manage tournament scores no better than +5 during the 2007 U.S. Open. The membership cut down upwards of 5,000 trees to take it back to the original farmland links design. No less than Phil Mickelson called #1 the toughest opening hole in golf, and the stretch of #7-#10 the toughest stretch of holes in golf. Johnny Miller declared it "the finest golf course in the world." T&L Golf dubbed Oakmont "the pinnacle of the penal design school."
The masochistic members here like to send their guests home shaking in their Foot Joys, so Oakmont's greens stimp around 13 or 14 even when the Open's not in town. Loved the quote from one of the articles above when the pros were bitching about the speed of the greens for the U.S. Open; one member replied, "You should see them for the Member-Guest." My buddy Weasel's uncle is a member, and Weasel (about a 17 handicap) has never come close to breaking 100 in 5 or 6 visits. Tiger's famed quote after his practice rounds for the 2007 U.S. Open: "A 10-handicap couldn't break 100 here," which spawned the U.S. Open Challenge featuring celebs and some lucky Golf Digest reader trying to keep it in double-digits. If you get an invite, by all means, go get tortured.
Named #5 Toughest Course in America, Golf Digest 2007: "No kidding, this is the only place where the USGA asked the club to slow down its greens for a U.S. Open. At the 1935 Open, Gene Sarazen putted off a green into a bunker, prompting Ed Stimpson to invent a tool to measure green speeds, the infamous Stimpmeter. Problem is, no green at Oakmont has enough flat spots to use it. The club used to post estimates of the green speeds each day. They've now stopped that, but the old chalkboard sign still exists, etched with a ghostly image of the number 13. The club hosts its eighth Open in June when the greens and bunkers will inflict much pain. (The "Church Pews" bunker has been deepened, with new back benches added, to catch more sinners.)"
Best Bar Nearby: Oakmont's Grill Room was named to Golf Digest's 2008 50 Best 19th Holes. "Frosted mugs of beer and baskets of popcorn on the patio are "the order of the day"; inside is a genuine Brunswick oakwood bar, rescued from a Pittsburgh landmark called Froggy's when that lounge closed; "try the transfusion" (vodka, grape juice and ginger ale); "too much history to detail -- I could spend all day just looking at the walls."