According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club will not have to wait 13 years to be host for the U.S. Open again.
The United States Golf Association has informed Oakmont officials that it intends to bring the U.S. Open back to the famed course in 2016, just nine years after it was the host for a record eighth time in 2007, the Post-Gazette has learned.
Barring some unforeseen circumstance or last-minute disagreement, the USGA will make the official announcement June 17 in Farmingdale, N.Y., a day before the 109th U.S. Open begins at Bethpage Black.
After it staged the U.S. Open in 1994, Oakmont had to wait 13 years to be awarded another national championship, partly because the USGA did not feel the course had adequate room for pedestrian flow and grandstand areas.
But, after a new pedestrian bridge that spanned the Pennsylvania Turnpike was constructed and nearly 8,000 trees were removed from the property, Oakmont was awarded the U.S. Open in 2007.
Oakmont had petitioned the USGA to host the tournament as early as 2015, but the site that year was awarded to Chambers Bay, a public course that opened two years ago in University Place, Wash., near Tacoma (See “Sudden Impact,” C&RB, November 2008). It will mark the first time the U.S. Open will ever be contested in the Pacific Northwest.
But, according to the Post-Gazette, USGA officials were so thrilled with Oakmont’s showing at the 2007 U.S. Open—Senior Director of Rules and Competition Mike Davis referred to the course as “the gold standard”—they wasted little time making the sure the national championship returned to the club.
Oakmont will also host the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, the first time that tournament will return to the course since 1992.
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