Ahead of 2025 U.S. Open, Oakmont Country Club remains 'a cathedral of the game'

Birds in the trees surrounding the No. 1 tee box at Oakmont Country Club on Friday were singing their usual morning melody. Carts were headed in several directions. Golfers teed up opening drives. Noisily, groundskeepers kept busy.

Oakmont head professional Devin Gee watches over much of that activity every day, but he recalls a moment when the atmosphere at Oakmont was distinctly different — and for good reason.

Tiger Woods was teeing off at the outset of the 2007 U.S. Open.

“It was like the loudest silence you ever heard in your entire life,” said Gee, a 21-year-old Oakmont summer intern at the time. “That’s the only way I can describe it because he had such a presence. I’ll just never forget the energy when Tiger Woods stepped onto that first tee on Thursday.”

Similar drama may unfold next year June 12-15 when the U.S. Open returns to Oakmont for a record 10th time and for the first time since Dustin Johnson won a rain-ravaged event with a 4-under-par 276 in 2016.

Considered by the United States Golf Association as one of “the cathedrals of the game,” Oakmont has been host to the U.S. Open once in each of past seven decades, with four more scheduled in 2025, 2033, 2042 and 2049.

The USGA considers Oakmont one of three anchor sites for the Open, along with Pinehurst and Pebble Beach.

“The DNA of this club was built to host major championships, even from Day 1,” said Gee, who is in his eighth season as head pro.

When Oakmont founder Henry C. Fownes, who was introduced to the game of golf by Andrew Carnegie, opened the course in 1904, he intended for it to host national championships, Gee said.

“It’s really built into the fabric of the club. It’s an important element of the club’s culture to host major championships. It’s certainly important to maintain that tradition.”

Gee acknowledges but welcomes the long work days involved in preparing for and helping to run an Open.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “Watching Pinehurst (site of the 2024 U.S. Open) last week, it starts to come back to you what that week is going to be like. It’s exciting to have the best players in the world here. It’s an honor to have the golf spotlight on the region for an entire week.”

Logistical preparations for the 2025 Open began in 2022, said U.S. Open senior director Timothy Lloyd. “Which is pretty normal,” he said.

Lloyd’s four-person, full-time staff arrived on the Oakmont grounds last fall, and two more joined it in April.

“Now that we’ve hit this time, late June, we’re a year out, we’re going to start diving into a little bit harder on some of our procurement and labor and other needs. To this point, it’s been moreso contractual,” he said.

Among the areas where Lloyd’s team will turn its focus are parking, modifications of roadways and access points, general facility operation and construction of bleachers, hospitality and media tents and broadcast infrastructure.

“Take a golf course and turn it into a full-on spectator venue,” he said.

Lloyd said most of the structures are temporary.

“In Pittsburgh, you can go down to PNC Park or Acrisure (Stadium), you got all the parking, security, concessions, restrooms, admission processes, seating, video board, digital, all those components are there permanently. We need to create those.”

Gee said the community and club membership play a large part in staging an U.S. Open. There is a waiting list for volunteers, and thousands are needed.

“What has allowed us to host championship after championship is just the enthusiasm we see from the community. People in the area are proud to host the U.S. Open,” Gee said.

Then, of course, there is the actual golf.

Lloyd said U.S. Open venues are not designed to be difficult for the world’s best players, but the USGA is not averse to creating a fair challenge.

“The cream rises to the top,” he said. “When it’s harder, I think you get the deserving champion. Oakmont, itself, 365 days a year, is always a challenging golf course, not just for the pros. That’s how it’s been for 100-plus years that it existed.

“Fair, but tough, is certainly a criteria. You generally see firm and fast are two words thrown around a lot. I don’t think that there’s necessarily something that’s done with an intention to trick it up by any means or to do anything outside of … what Oakmont has provided on a daily basis.

“I think you want to put it in a tough but fair condition, to make it as challenging as is needed to be the right quality for an U.S. Open venue.”

He said USGA officials would be surprised to see anyone break Johnny Miller’s record score of 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open in Oakmont. But weather is always a factor, Lloyd said.

“We saw a couple low scores last year in Los Angeles that weren’t expected (when Wyndham Clark won with a 10-under 270),” he said. “We got rain in Los Angeles, which you don’t see very often. When things are fast and firm, it makes it more difficult, and if weather comes in like it did in 2016, it softens the golf course and it tends to lead to lower scores.”

Lloyd said ideal weather conditions for the Open would be “dry and windy.”

“Oakmont is windy on a daily basis,” he said. “There are not a lot of trees out there. It’s really open. You’ll find anybody to say that when the wind is up, it makes Oakmont more challenging and requires more strategy.”

Oakmont seeks to provide the same experience for pros as it does for its members and guests. “Minus the rough,” Gee said.

“We maintain our rough for general play at 2 1/4-2 1/2 inches,” he said. “For the U.S. Open, it’s obviously going to be much longer than that. Fairway widths are the same.

“We’re trying to achieve green speeds that are very similar to the U.S. Open. We love to say at times they’re slower for the U.S. Open, which is true. There are certain points in the year that the greens roll at a speed that you wouldn’t play in any type of stroke-play format, they’re so fast.”

Gee said there are four elements of change that will be noticeable by anyone who played the course in 2016.

• All of the bunkers were redone. Gee said they were 18 years old. “It was time to redo them in general. That means new drainage, new sand, new construction around them.”

• The course was lengthened, most notably at Nos. 3, 5, 11 and 14. Some forward tees were maintained for the membership.

• The 25-year-old irrigation system was redone.

• Greens were expanded “to what they would have been in the early 1900s,” Gee said.