If you ever have the opportunity to play golf at the private Oakmont Country Club on a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania golf vacation, seize it. The site of this week's U.S. Open is considered one of the top-10 best courses in America and it is a veritable living history of golf here. Below are a few fast facts that you might rattle off to impress your host...or your dog if the closest you'll get to the U.S. Open this year is your TV set:
Amateur architect: Oakmont was designed by Henry C. Fownes, a steel magnate, more than 100 years ago. The course was his first and only design and he built it to challenge his own impressive golf skills.
A major force: Oakmont has hosted more major championships than any other golf course in the United States. Along with this, its eighth U.S. Open, it has hosted five U.S. Amateur tournaments, three PGA Championships, and one U.S. Women's Open.
Long and strong: With the lengthening of the eighth hole to 288 yards, it is believed Oakmont will challenge players with the longest par three in U.S. Open history. Tees were also moved back on seven other holes bringing the total yardage to 7,230.
Fast grass: Oakmont is famous for its super slick greens and, in preparation for the tournament, they actually had to be slowed down from the speed at which members play them. (The Stimpmeter, the device used for measuring green speeds, was originally invented to gauge the greens here.) One reason they're so speedy is because the special Poa annua grass used on them (a variety found nowhere else in the world) can survive at extremely low mowing heights.
Pews news: The famous "church pews" bunker on the fourth hole has been expanded specifically for this year's U.S. Open. Two new pews were added. The total number of bunkers is now close to 200.
Tree trouble: After the 1994 U.S. Open, Oakmont was stripped of its estimated 3,500 trees, returning what was a parkland layout to the links-style look that Fownes had originally designed.
And last but not least, the all-important Jack fact: Jack Nicklaus notched his first professional win at Oakmont when he defeated Arnold Palmer in a playoff in the 1962 U.S. Open.
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