Oakmont Country Club, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania golf course Oakmont golf course.

The Oakmont Country Club was created by Henry C. Fownes, a Pittsburgh industrialist who set out to build the toughest golf course possible.

Although Oakmont has been made easier, between the wars there were over 350 bunkers, raked with a special furrow rake so that the wayward shot exacted an inevitable penalty. Fownes, so it is said, used to walk round the course noting those shots that were less than perfect and if they did not land in a bunker would order another to be constructed.

The greens were shaved to a height of under an eighth of an inch and were terrifyingly fast. Jimmy Thomson remarked in the 1935 US Open that he had marked his ball with a dime and the dime had slid off the green. As a result, when the US Open was first played at Oakmont the course even defeated the great Bobby Jones, who finished well behind Tommy Armour who won with a total of 301 after a play-off with H. Cooper.

In 1935 the US Open returned to Oakmont and was won by Sam Parks, who broke 300 by one shot. Ben Hogan won there in 1953 with a score of 283, which was equaled by two of the all-time greats, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, in 1962. Nicklaus won the play-off. Johnny Miller won in 1973 when, after rain, he shot a 63 in the final round to come from six behind to win.

Larry Nelson did much the same in 1983 with final rounds of 65 and 67 to beat Tom Watson by one shot. The best-known hazards are the "Church Pews" bunker, with its seven grass ridges lying between the 3rd and 4th fairways, and the "Sahara" bunker, which guards the left side of the 8th green and is 120 yards (110m) long by 30 yards (27m) wide.