Why players almost boycott the U.S. Open in Oakmont

At next week’s U.S. Open you’ll see the bunker at Oakmont Country Club carefully trimmed, grated perfectly and glittering with gorgeous white sand on it.

But that’s not always the case.

In fact, the infamous championship courses were even more crazy decades ago, and the reason why bunkers, especially players, were almost boycotting the U.S. Open.

Golf recently visited Oakmont’s historic clubhouse with Oakmont’s collection curator David Moore, who took us behind the scenes to the locker room, barbecue room, special police room, library, etc., while also explaining the importance of dozens of historic items on display or on walls. (You can watch the full video tour here.)

One of the exhibits is on the stairs near the living room, which is dedicated to the original bunker in Oakmont.

Oakmont’s “Wrinkle” bunker

“One of the things that Oakmont lost in history is the history of frowning bunkers,” Moore said. “When the course first came into being, the sandpit wasn’t the prototype golf sand you’re already accustomed to today. The original bunker here is full of river sand from the nearby Allegheny River. It’s rough, it’s rough, it’s huge, it’s full of pebbles, and they really cause real punishment because it can cause real punishment for bunkers.”

According to Moore, the club used heavy steel rakes (about 50 pounds), used four-inch tines to rake the bunker perpendicular to the hole, and create deep grooves. The ball will settle on those ridges, and the sand mounds in front and behind the ball are the only way to get clean contact by protruding from the side.

That’s how Oakmont designer Henry Fownes and his son William Fownes hope to be punished. The golf course has no water, so the bunker needs to be a real fine.

“The wrong shot is inevitably lost,” Moore said. “So if you find the bunker, all they want you to do is break.”

Although if you don’t know about today’s professional golfers, you know they don’t like to be humiliated. The same can be said by the past.

“[The bunkers] It became so controversial that in 1953, players actually threatened to boycott the U.S. Open until a deal was reached, Moore said that around the bunker in Greens County, the furrow would be taken out of the fairway.

Geoff Shackelford’s Quadrilateral Communications has also recently resurfaced as Oakmont’s frown bunker and even found old newspaper clippings.

1934 U.S. Open champion Olin Dutra told the Associated Press before the 53 Open.