An aerial history of Oakmont Country Club (1940-2009)

[Ryan Farrow]

I posted these one Twitter over the last few days, thought I would share them with you guys for discussion.

[James Brown]

What an amazing post!

[Jaeger Kovich]

Awesome!

[Tommy Williamsen]

Awesome post. It is astonishing how little the bunkering has changed.

[MCirba]

Terrific stuff Ryan.  Thanks for posting.

[Brian Bowman]

With all the talk leading up to the U.S. open this week focusing on the trees, it is really fantastic to see the changes over the years of every hole showing the progression.  Thank you

[Brad Treadwell]

Awesome Ryan, thanks! 

[Mark Bourgeois]

Wow, Ryan, this is great! Great example of the "small multiples" principle of graphical presentation by Ed Tufte.

[Andrew Buck]

As someone who's never been there, it appears the drive from the back tee box on 4 needs to carry about 295 to reach the 5th fairway, which appears to open up to the 4th green from aerials. 

Is there some feature that makes this option completely silly (beyond the need to carry the ball 300 yards)?

[JLahrman]

I didn't realize they had increased the size of the church pews, just the difference between 2000 and 2009 is striking.

[Ryan Farrow]

Here is the Back 9:

[Ryan Farrow]

[Ryan Farrow]

[Jaeger Kovich]

Thank you! Amazing stuff!

[Michael Whitaker]

It seems between '56 and '67 a LOT of bunkers were added... and, few of those have been removed.

Between 2000 and 2009 a good many large bunkers were "broken up" into smaller pieces and the church pews were expanded by as much as 50%.

The biggest changes seem to have occurred since 2000 and those changes don't look much like the original course, do they?

[BCrosby]

Between 2000 and 2009 a good many large bunkers were "broken up" into smaller pieces and the church pews were expanded by as much as 50%.

The biggest changes seem to have occurred since 2000 and those changes don't look much like the original course, do they?

Take the once large bunker to the left of the 18th green. Post 2000 it became four small bunkers. Why the change?

Bob 

[Sven Nilsen]

Too bad we don't have aerials for the 1903 to 1940 time period.  Would love to see how the course evolved over its early years.

[Mark Bourgeois]

My understanding from the Golf Couree Histories western PA guy is they're planning to put out a 1938 tomorrow. It's from Penn Pilot and available online.

[BCrosby]

The Oakmont club historians say that there are no maps/routings of the original 1903 course. Bunkers were added over time, but the details of that are not clear. Few records were kept. The club's early history is pretty murky.

Looking forward to seeing the '38 aerial[size=78%].[/size]


Bob   

[Tom_Doak]

Take the once large bunker to the left of the 18th green. Post 2000 it became four small bunkers. Why the change?

My guess would be to make the recovery shots harder, and/or maybe to minimize washouts by breaking it up.  It's not just that bunker.  There are several others which have gotten the same treatment -- right of 2 fairway, left of 4 green, left of 17 fairway, etc.

[Ryan Farrow]

Take the once large bunker to the left of the 18th green. Post 2000 it became four small bunkers. Why the change?

My guess would be to make the recovery shots harder, and/or maybe to minimize washouts by breaking it up.  It's not just that bunker.  There are several others which have gotten the same treatment -- right of 2 fairway, left of 4 green, left of 17 fairway, etc.

Can't speak for the change, but early on the course had smaller bunkers in clusters. Perhaps that was a bunker configuration before 1919? I can tell you that in 1919 the bunker on the right side of 2 was a collection of 4 smaller bunkers, and in 1940 it was one large bunker, then changed again into smaller bunkers. I was told that every bunker at Oakmont has existed before, but I cannot guarantee the accuracy of that claim.






Here is an image of what 18 looked like in 1919.









And if you really want to dig deep, here is an aerial of 1919:









The 1938 is almost exactly the same as the 1940. No need to get all worked up about that one.

[Mark Bourgeois]

That is great stuff Ryan - that endless row of bunkers! 

Here we go, aerials 1938 v 2015, 1993 v 2015, and 1938 v 1967:

www.golfcoursehistories.com/OM.html

[Mark Bourgeois]

I'm sure this has been posted somewhere but here is a stick routing from 1905 located in the Oakmont Carnegie Library (the Oakmont Centennial Book Collection) and hosted online by the University of Pittsburgh library here: https://tinyurl.com/hx6pwf4

This hand-drawn map shows the original design of the Oakmont Country Club golf course.  Henry C. Fownes, a steel manufacturer in Pittsburgh, designed the golf course personally and supervised its construction, despite his own lack of experience in this arena.  Amazingly, the golf course's current layout differs very little from the original created by Fownes.  The main differences result from the changes in yardage, necessary to compensate for the improvements in golfing equipment.  Most of the golf course's land is actually located in Plum Borough.  The Oakmont Country Club has hosted a large number of golf championships: seven U.S. Opens, five U.S. amateurs, three PGA championships, and one U.S. Woman's Open.  Oakmont Country Club's golf course was where Johnny Miller achieved a final round score of 63 in the 1973 U.S. Open, which has been called "the greatest round of the 20th century."    Fownes got together with friends and family to organize the Oakmont Country Club. In 1903, the Lee heirs sold 180 acres of the White Oak Levels to the Oakmont Land Company.  That land, along with another ten acres, ultimately became the Oakmont Country Club.  The Country Club is located on Hulton Road.  Originally from the Oakmont Centennial Book Collection.

[Paul Jones]

I do not like how most of the holes on the front nine have fairway bunkers across from each other.