'It better not be easier when you're done': 5 things I learned from Gil Hanse on Oakmont

USA Today

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'It better not be easier when you're done': 5 things I learned from Gil Hanse on Oakmont
OAKMONT, Pa. – It's not every major championship where you get invited to have breakfast with the man most responsible for the renovation of Oakmont. But thanks to the good people at Rolex, I sat next to this era's unofficial 'Open Doctor' Gil Hanse, while enjoying an omelet. Hanse's handiwork is on Open venues past and present, such as Winged Foot and Merion (also, The Olympic Club, which has a PGA and Ryder Cup and U.S. Amateur on the books) and he prepped Oakmont for the 125th U.S. Open in 2023. I listened to him hold court to a dozen or so members of the media and here are five things I learned from Hanse on Oakmont that you'll want to know either to enhance your experience as a viewer or spectator this week.
This is the overriding philosophy that guided the changes to Oakmont
GIL HANSE: You had a very interesting setup where you had a family, a father and a son [Henry and W.C. Fownes] who were here for 44 years, from 1903 to 1947, that continually tinkered with the golf course. We focused on 44 years and a family that was insistent on making sure the difficulty increased, never decreased; you had a lot of homework to do. So we decided that we couldn't focus on a point in time for Oakmont, but we could focus on, in our opinion, what we thought the best version of each whole was. What you're seeing now is basically an eclectic or greatest hits 18 holes presented by the Fownes.
We worked with the membership to try to figure out what would provide the best test for the greatest golfers in the game, but also an adequate test for this membership, and I'm hopeful we hit on every hole out there. One of the things that has been consistent with Oakmont from day one, when Henry Fownes founded it, and one of the things that was very clear in the messaging from the membership, is they liked this place tough. They wanted it to play hard. It's the only time I've ever come out of a meeting with the members where we presented the master plan, and it was very, very clear to me that the message was it better not be easier when you're done. Usually, members are like, 'Please make it more playable, a little bit easier,' but here, no ... I've used the phrase unapologetically difficult. That's what [the field is] getting this week.
... By the way, I don't think it's urban myth, but there is a swimming pool underneath those tents, and the reason he left the club was because they put in a swimming pool. He said this is a golf club and the board still voted to put that in, and he said, 'I'm out.' That tells you their mentality when it comes to [the setup of the course].
Choices entice players to make decisions
GH: At No. 2 and 14, we've opened up landing areas, trying to entice them to take a longer club and hit it a little bit further, which might be counterintuitive. Some people might think you want to just squeeze it off and make them hit longer irons in, but we'd rather them make that decision, that was part and parcel with the design there.
This is why Hanse added another pew — a 13th — to the famed Church Pews bunker
GH: Because of the distance where (players) hit it. We added 40 yards to the back of three, so it's now 340 to carry the Church Pews. And then same on 4, going back the other way, we needed to add length to it. We thought if we expanded the footprint of the bunker and left the same number of pews in there, the spacing and the scale would have been out of kilter. They added pews before in '07, so it's not like we did something that's never been done before. And then we also looked at the configuration of the pews, and there's a great photo of William Fownes standing on the pews, and the caption underneath is 'The Snake Mounds at Oakmont.' They weren't even called the Church Pews early on, and they were much more irregular and mounded, and they twisted, and I think that's part of the snake thing. They had become very regularized over a long period of time. So if you look at them now, they've got more humps and bumps, and they're twisted and turn a little bit to be a little bit more accurate. And so that was nerve-wracking, to be honest. Whenever you tear apart something that is so iconic, it's – we had Kye Goalby and Matt Smallwood, were our two shapers who did phenomenal work and they are super talented – they were frozen for a little while. Taking that first bite, it was hard to get them to do it.
Hanse's involvement in the course set-up decisions this week will be minimal
GH: Those of you may remember, I had a very brief television career with Fox when they had the U.S. Open, and I made it part of my research – because we weren't involved in any of the golf courses at that time – to walk the set up in the morning just to learn and listen. I was respectful and thoughtful and just basically listened, didn't interject, and I still don't interject a lot because those guys are great at what they do. I see how much energy and effort they put into it. If they ask me a question, I'll answer it, but I'm not out there pointing and waving, but yes, they've invited me to be part of an early morning, 5:30 a.m. walk around, and then every day there's a set up meeting at 2:30 p.m., and I sit quietly and if they ask me a question, I'm happy to answer it ... but my hands are off the wheel this week.
This is where Hanse would camp out and watch the entire field play through
GH: I love the short four, so I think I'd probably watch them play No. 2, and I love what we did to 13 green. I think the restoration to 13 green is going to be fascinating to watch those guys putt into different hole locations. You also can see 12, which always provides a lot of interest. So yeah, I would say probably 13 and 2.