Oakmont: An interview with Gil Hanse

Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is hosting its tenth US Open on 12-15 June 2025.

Gil Hanse completed a project on the course in 2022-2023, initially focused on updating infrastructure but ultimately leading to the renovation of features throughout the course. He was supported by design partner Kevin Murphy, Kye Goalby, Matt Smallwood, Oakmont’s Mike McCormick and his maintenance staff, Total Turf Golf Services, Toro and Better Billy Bunker.

Can you tell us about the scope of your work in 2022/23 and requirements for the US Open that may have influenced your design decisions?

The work started as the club faced the realisation that they needed to rebuild the infrastructure of the course (irrigation, drainage and bunkers) because all of them had reached a reasonable end of lifecycle. As a result, they prudently decided to also ask questions about the architecture, reasoning that these changes and upgrades should go hand in hand in planning, as well as implementation.

We were retained to prepare a masterplan, and we did so with an eye on restoring key aspects of the course that had evolved over time away from the design decisions of either HC or William Fownes. What we found was that during their tenure at the club (one or both of them was involved in course decisions from 1903 to 1947), change was constant. Unlike other restorations where the period of change by the original architect was brief, or no change at all, we had to decipher 44 years of alterations.

We concluded that we would do our best to figure out what iteration of each hole was the most compelling and would offer the most interest and challenge to the members as well as for championship play. What evolved is an eclectic 18 holes, where the only constant is the involvement of the Fownes family.

After selecting the versions of the holes, we completed the plan and received approval from the membership to create the course that you will see for the US Open. This plan involved rebuilding every bunker, expanding every green, adding tees for length as well as some forward tees, and expanding and contracting fairways.

The primary changes for the US Open were based on creating new hole locations through the expansion of the greens, adding several hundred yards to the course, altering fairway lines and shifting fairway bunkers into the landing areas for modern driving distances.

What are the most significant changes and how will they impact the playing experience during the tournament?

The most noticeable changes were executed on the seventh, where we restored the hole to its very strategic roots. In the modern championship era, the hole played as a straight on par four – our work included the restoration of a cross bunker to the left side of the hole (around 290 to 310 yards uphill), requiring a forced carry to gain the advantages of the left side of the hole (clear vision and great angle). We also restored significant amounts of fairway to the right of this new bunker complex, allowing for no forced carry, however, the result of the easier tee shot is a blind second shot from a poor angle.

The most significant green change happened on the par -three thirteenth with its intricate shape and new hole locations. Other holes with noticeably restored features are the second (new angles off the tee, expanded green), third (new fairway bunker pattern, additional ‘pews’, expanded green and the removal of chipping area to rear of green) and the eleventh (new back tee and expanded fairway).

What historic materials were available and what areas of the course have seen most restoration?

As you can imagine, once we decided to create an eclectic 18 holes it was critical to have as much information as possible to compile the ‘best’ version of each hole. We are the beneficiaries of a robust archive of images, both aerial and on course shots, as well as numerous plans and drawings of the course over the years. We were able to cross reference these documents to check on the authenticity of the plans and to compile a history of the alterations that the Fownes family had made to the course.

Having on-course photographs from the various championships that the club hosted in its early years was very helpful in establishing a stylistic approach to how the features should look and sit on the ground.

The green expansions were the most significant, from a restoration standpoint, as they had shrunk over the years and their margins had curled up due to the accumulation of bunker sand and topdressing on the edges. While their expansion, to restore the ‘tabletop’ nature of their original design and restore some lost edge hole locations, was significant, they were the least positionally altered of all the features. The only two greens to be moved at Oakmont were the eighth (for turnpike creation) and the sixteenth (when the current tee angle was created).

How have you balanced rebuilding course features to a style close to what HC Fownes intended, while also improving member playability and maximising challenge for championship golf?

We focused on the areas where the members hit the ball off the tee in comparison to where the tour players will hit it for the US Open. We removed some of the bunkers that would be in play only for the members, we also widened fairways in those areas. Combining these changes with adding some new forward tees has made the course much more enjoyable for the average player, and we believe that these changes will have minimal impact on how the course is played during the US Open.

As for the features, the main alteration that falls into this category relates to the construction of the bunkers. In the original design the bunkers were not as deep as they had become during the last two decades. However, Fownes used furrowed rakes to make these shallower bunkers more challenging to play from. Since we knew we would not be going back to the furrowed bunkers, we decided to still shallow them up to make them more consistent with the Fownes’ bunkers.

To restore some of the challenge to the sand hazards, we created a very steep, vertical face to the edge of the bunkers. If your ball rolls up against the face, it becomes very difficult to hit a full shot out. If your ball settles in the middle, the opportunity to hit a full shot has been returned to the course… very much in the more unpredictable nature of the furrowed bunkers, where it was likely you would struggle to hit a full shot out of the rake marks, but it was not a certainty.

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