Oakmont residents turn front lawns into parking lots

Residents near the front entrance of exclusive Oakmont Country Club live in some of the area’s most valuable homes, with some properties topping $1 million.

And throughout the U.S. Open, many have turned their front lawns into parking lots to generate a little cash.

Some who live near the course are charging as much as $120 to park on their property. Somma Pizza, near Spectator Square, is charging $200. Plum and Oakmont regulations prohibit lawn parking, but that hasn’t stopped residents from cashing in on the opportunity.

Ben Coulter, 29, doesn’t live on Hulton Road but has been running the parking operation for his cousin, who lives directly across from the main entrance. They charged $50 Monday and Tuesday, $70 Wednesday and Thursday and $100 for Friday and Saturday. As of Saturday morning, he had not yet decided how much to charge drivers Sunday — he wanted to wait to see what demand was like.

But people are willing to pay. Coulter said the house was full by 10 a.m. Friday. The residents of a house on the 1000 block of Hulton Road, who didn’t want to be named because of the parking ordinance, said their $100 parking rate might seem high, but it is worth the price.

“The parking that [USGA officials] provide is, well, it’s really inconvenient for these people,” a male resident said. “They gotta park remote. They gotta wait for a shuttle, load up in a bus, come here, wait in a big queue. These people want to come here, they want to go straight in. We’re half a block away.”

With the rates they were charging, they would make upwards of $23,000 if they filled up every day.

Mark Anthony, 32, lives on 13th Street right off Hulton Road. He charges $60 for cars to be blocked in and $100 to be able to get out.

“It’s a bunch of Anglo-Saxon, white Protestant men,” Anthony said. “They have more money than common sense. They’ll pay anything.”

A taste of Pittsburgh

Nestled inside Spectator Square, the marketplace area of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, sits a Western Pennsylvania mainstay.

It isn’t a PNC Bank. It isn’t a Heinz Ketchup bottle. It isn’t Sidney Crosby — well, at least not on Saturday.

Instead, it’s a pop-up version of Primanti Bros., a famed Pittsburgh sandwich shop that packs more in a sandwich than some PGA golfers packed in their suitcases for Oakmont.

“It’s been busy,” said Zach Vescio, a cashier working the stand who also works at the Primanti’s inside PNC Park.

The stand only offers two of Primanti’s extensive arsenals of sandwiches, the Pitts-burger and the pastrami with cheese. Still, it has been a welcome sight for both new and old patrons alike.

Zack Hood, a veteran of the meat, coleslaw and tomato sandwiches, said that he had heard from his friend, who was up at Oakmont earlier in the week, that the popular establishment was present.

“I was a little surprised,” Hood said. “But it’s a Pittsburgh staple.”

Bob Riser, 54, from Southern Maryland, entered through the Spectator Square gate having heard of the eatery.

“I wanted to try it for the first time and see what it tasted like,” Riser said. “I had heard a lot about it and wanted to find out what it was all about.”

For veterans such as Vescio and fellow PNC Primanti Bros. cashier Marshall Volosh, both 20 from Ambridge, it’s easy to spot many of the out-of-town first-timers such as Riser.

“They come up and are like, ‘Is this the place where I get the burger with all the stuff on it?’,” Volosh said.

After they explain what exactly comes on the sandwich, Vescio has noticed a frequent misunderstanding.

Vescio said that some customers had trouble grasping that the fries and coleslaw actually come on the sandwich.

“They think it comes on the side,” Vescio said.

Fair-weather fans? Na

What started as something of a joke for two friends has turned them into big fans of golfer Kevin Na.

Two years ago, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Country Club in Orlando, Fla., Na was being aggressively heckled by fans for his notoriously slow pace of play. So Derrick Davidson of Orlando and some of his buddies went home, designed some shirts and had them shipped overnight.

The next day, as Na made his way down the 13th hole, he spotted the guys rocking shirts reading, “Kevin Na, Worth the Wait!” He walked over and hugged them, as he needed the support.

“He’s a grinder,” Davidson said. “He’s getting heckled out there. It’s hard enough being on the Tour. You don’t need that stuff, too.”

Davidson and his friend, Marc Desgroseilliers of Toronto, got together this weekend to support Na at the U.S. Open. Davidson was wearing the “Worth the Wait!” shirt. Desgroseilliers’ shirt read, “Miss the cut? Naaa.”

Davidson said Na, who was 3-over par through two rounds, keeps in touch with them on Facebook. He was able to see them Saturday.

“We’re going to take a photo op later,” Na said.

Beating the heat 

On a bright day in the high 80s, Dr. Rich Kaplan, an Allegheny Health Network chairman overseeing two of Oakmont’s first aid stations, tried to prevent onlookers from having any sort of heat-induced episode.

Kaplan’s tents were at the ready to combat dehydration and heat stroke, stocked with fluids, IVs and teams of nurses and emergency medicine doctors.

“We have everything you need here,” Kaplan, 58, said.

The doctor emphasized that hydration is key, but said there’s not one solid number for how much water someone should drink to avoid heat stroke. He encouraged bringing water bottles and taking advantage of hydration stations for avoiding any health emergencies.

“I’d rather people be drinking more of it now than when they feel like they’re about to pass out,” he said.

Another service of the first aid tent is to help combat another warm-weather health concern — sunburn. The tents had supplies of sunscreen but ran out because of overwhelming demand. Bottles were still available for purchase elsewhere.

“Honestly, in retrospect we could have used more,” Kaplan said.

Brody Miller: bmiller@post-gazette.com; Dan Sostek: dsostek@post-gazette.com.