USGA executive director Mike Davis spent quite a bit of time Monday praising the work of a\u00a0\u201cone-hit wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t talking about Vanilla Ice or Dexy\u2019s Midnight Runners. Instead, Davis was part of a four-man panel that lauded Henry Fownes, the Pittsburgh native who designed Oakmont Country Club\u2019s golf course.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think to design a golf course this good, he was passionate about the game, found some pasture land on the outskirts of greater Pittsburgh, laid the golf course right on the land,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why you look out there and all these holes just fit the land beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most of the golf-course architects today design dozens of courses, Fownes stopped after Oakmont, still considered one of America\u2019s best courses. The architecture session, open to the media and USGA members, featured Davis, former PGA golfer Brad Faxon, golf-course architect Gil Hanse and Oakmont superintendent John Zimmers, who all heaped praise on the only course iron manufacturer Fownes made.<\/p>\n
Fownes\u2019 vision was a driving force behind the restoration project at Oakmont that saw the removal of 15,000 trees the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the decision really was spurred by the Board of Governors here at Oakmont and the grounds committee to really restore the golf course back to Mr. Fownes\u2019 original design,\u201d Zimmers said. \u201cAnd, of course, there\u2019s other benefits to that as well that come my way agronomically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimmers said the membership\u2019s reaction to the tree removal has been \u201cabsolutely positive,\u201d while noting that the lack of trees allows for a better view of the contours of the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to see that, it\u2019s magnificent,\u201d Zimmers said.<\/p>\n
Even with the removal of the trees, the course at Oakmont remains noted for its difficulty. Before the panel, reigning U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth said hitting par at the course would be a \u201cfantastic score.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanse, who designed the Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympics, said the difficulty was by Fownes\u2019 design.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, the Fownes, Mr. Henry and his son William, were unapologetic in saying they want [the course] to be difficult,\u201d Hanse said. \u201cThis membership has continued that, and, historically, the presentation of the golf course has been that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the course\u2019s biggest challenges is the abundance of bunkers. Davis said that Fownes began with 90 bunkers in 1903, and as he continued to tinker with the course, that number grew to 300 as the Fownes would add bunkers to penalize players who take advantage of the course.<\/p>\n
The total now rests at 210.<\/p>\n
Those bunkers weighed heavily on Spieth, who suggested sand had been added to the bunkers in the six weeks between his first visit to Oakmont and his return Sunday. Then, the sand was more compact, which made it easier to get the ball back on the green. Now, he says there is more sand in the traps, which makes escaping them more difficult.<\/p>\n
Zimmers said he and his staff have\u00a0\u201cloosened\u201d the bunkers, though they have not added any sand. It has been so dry recently that Zimmers and his staff have had to water the bunkers so they settled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think H.C. Fownes is spinning in his grave with the thought of watering bunkers to make them more playable,\u201d Hanse said.<\/p>\n
Dan Sostek: dsostek@post-gazette.com <\/em>and Twitter @dan_sostek.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USGA executive director Mike Davis spent quite a bit of time Monday praising the work of a\u00a0\u201cone-hit wonder.\u201d He wasn\u2019t talking about Vanilla \n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[21],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/06\/20160613smOpen013.jpg?fit=3900%2C2572&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7unGv-2t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}