7 Facts Facts for Oakmont only members tend to know

Mention Oakmont Country Club, and some spring images reliably in mind. Pew Church bunkers. Approximate knee -deep. Highway speeds, such as curves that shorten the course. For a private club, the property has a very public profile. Hosting 10 US Opens will do this in one place. For many fans, place simply smelt Known you probably feel that way about it too.

But how well known are you, really, with Oakmont? As a barometer, here are seven entertainment facts that only Oakmont members tend to know.

Ben Hogan exploded a trail here

In the US Open of 1953, Ben Hogan It was Hogan-Esque, routinely dividing the alleys and finding greens along the way to a six-stroke victory. When he finished playing every day, though, despite spending most of his time in the short grass, he was upset to point out that his pants were almost kneeling. Feeling Hogan’s dissatisfaction, the Oakmont supervisor tried to calm man by mowing trails across the high drugs from the rights on the right roads. The trails became popular as “Hogan Walks”, and they are still part of the presentation of the course today.

Used to be another course next door

Oakmont had a neighbor, a public appearance, Oakmont East, who went to the right of the 3rd hole. After being used for parking at the US previous opening, it was closed for good in 2011 and its bases now serve as a hospitality on stage for this week’s big event.

Founder is the required shadow founder

Oakmont was conceived as “an interior connection”. But while club founder Henry C. Fowns designed the course, he had the forecast to imagine what it would be like to play such a layout in the rapid summer heat. Tip: It would be hot. With this in mind, the fownes planted trees from the thesis areas so that players could take over. Most of those trees have disappeared, removed as part of the restoration work that began in the 1990s and continued for years. But a small part remains, standing up such as such as 1, 2, 3 and 10.

Is officially ‘historic‘

On June 30, 1987, Oakmont because the first golf property in the US that will be defined as a national historical landmark, an honor to the government that recognizes countries with “extraordinary historical significance”. While other golf clubs have since been added to the register – Merion, Baltol and Wingspan It comes to my mind – Oakmont will always be og.

Helped in the inspiration of stimulation

In the US Open of 1935 in Oakmont, Gene Sarazen placed a green in a bunker. A lonely moment for squire. But Edward Stimpson felt his pain. An achieved amateur who played in Harvard, Stimpson, was a spectator of Sarazen’s misfortune, which he saw as a symptom of a greater issue: the risk of greens so fast, they verified him unfair. Later hours, Stimpson came up with an invention of barebonne – a wooden trail, set at an angle and suitable for a golf ball, with a level that provided a steady release point. A simple effective tool for measuring green speed. Like Hans Geiger with his counter and Robert Bunsen with his burning, Stimpson had dreamed of a device that gave birth to his name, and was not called the Edward-O meter.

Train engines are used for new air

At the birth of Oakmont, the curve that now passes through it was a railway, with trains whose engines puffy black smoke, as they tried beyond the property. Club founder Henry C. Fowns – the same man who liked his shaded tees – was not loved for that soft air. And so, the story goes, he made a deal with the train escorts calling on them to create speed as they approached the Oakmont so that they could kill the engines and slip through the club. In return, the fowns would slide money on the side.

Its channels made double task

Like church bunkers of churches, channels are an Oakmont signature feature, risks that bring out an injured world. The one that goes between the 9th and 10th holes, permeates the 10th path and flows near the 11th Tee can be particularly problematic. But when the course opened for the first time, its purpose was not just to promote fine. It was also where the sewage line ran from the club.