Rare Changing of the Guard at Oakmont, as U.S. Open Returns

New York Times

3 days ago

Devin Gee is ready for this U.S. Open.
His mentor and former boss, Bob Ford, will be standing on the first tee at Oakmont Country Club as he has for the last five U.S. Opens at the club near Pittsburgh. But he will be there in a new role as the starter, reading the names of the players. It will be the first time in over four decades that Ford has not been the head pro at the club for the Open.
That role is now held by Gee, who is at Oakmont only because a friend convinced him to take a summer internship in 2006.
'I was supposed to go to Medinah that year,' Gee said of the golf club near Chicago. 'But some circumstances took me here.'
And now he is set to be the face of Oakmont as it hosts a record 10th U.S. Open. 'It's a dream job,' he said. 'It's a prominent place. As you can imagine, anyone going into a job like this, you wonder, am I ready for it?'
As at many U.S. Open venues, the head pro job at Oakmont comes open infrequently and is coveted when it does. Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, another anchor site for the United States Golf Association, is only on its seventh head pro in 102 years. The longest tenure went to Claude Harmon, the Masters champion who was there for 31 years.
Brendan Walsh is set to become the pro emeritus at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., after 27 years. His predecessor, Don Callahan, was in that role from 1967 to 1999, with the last several years as pro emeritus.
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