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The site of the course once known as Oakmont East is next door to the U.S. Open site.
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By now, you probably know a lot about Oakmont.
But what can you tell us about Oakmont East?
If you’re like most golf fans, odds you’ve never heard of this lost green patch of history. But facts are facts, and here’s a fun one.
This week’s U.S. Open site used to have a sibling course beside it, an 18-hole neighbor that anyone could play. It’s just a field now, a portion of which stretches to the right of Oakmont’s beastly par-4 3rd hole, where hospitality tents bloom today. Close your eyes, though, and we’ll sketch a picture of the layout that used to be.
Founded as a public course in 1938, it was designed by Oakmont’s then-greenskeeper and golf professional, Emil Loeffler, who, when he wasn’t folding shirts and greeting Oakmont members in the pro shop, worked as a golf-course architect. Over the years, Loeffler amassed some 20 design credits in the Pittsburgh area, including the first nine holes at Latrobe Country Club (the future home course of Arnold Palmer) and a redesign of the back nine of the Pittsburgh Field Club.
In the run-up to the 1962 U.S. Open, Oakmont, needing parking for the championship, purchased the course and operated it for nearly a half-century after that.
Longtime Oakmont members recall it as a beautifully conditioned track, with small, challenging greens that made it a great tune-up for Oakmont’s own club championship. An Oakmont East scorecard from the 1960s lists it as a par 70 (each nine playing to a par 35) that stretched to 5,496 yards.
In the early 2000s, the course was shut down to the public and used only sparingly by Oakmont members and residents of the local senior center.
In the aughts, longtime Oakmont member, Chick Wagner, says he pitched the club on the following plan: He would lease Oakmont East for a dollar and maintain it rustically with the help of grazing animals, in the manner of traditional common grounds course, like Brora, in Scotland. But the club declined, Wagner says.
In the early 2010s, Oakmont East closed altogether.
But memories remain, along with the original clubhouse. For the past two years, Oakmont has used it as a U.S. Open gift shop.
