Pittsburgh is a city famous for its grit. The people and their hard-working culture encompass what is colloquially known as the Steel City.
Oakmont Country Club’s golf course — the site of the 2025 U.S. Open — is no different.
Built in 1903 and located just outside the city, in Oakmont, PA, the course is widely regarded as one of — if not the toughest — in all of golf. The design and conditions make it extraordinarily difficult for golfers to play at their best, so much so that of the 1,385 players to compete at Oakmont U.S. Open, only a mere 27 (2%) have finished under par.
So what makes Oakmont so tough?
The course allows for very little margin of error, meaning a player would have to hit every shot almost perfectly to stay afloat throughout the week. Oakmont’s course contains a plethora of bunkers, deep rough and quick greens, all put in place to force players to compete at their absolute best. Not to mention the notorious Pittsburgh weather conditions that can plague the week of the Open, which, in the past, have presented an added challenge.
The roughs and bunkers at Oakmont are punishing, and that is exactly how they were designed. Because the course has no water, Oakmont’s designer, Henry Fownes, wanted the course’s bunkers to exist as a true penalty.
Many of the sand traps are so deep they are practically invisible from the tee and other spots on the course. Bunkers like “Big Mouth,” “Sahara,” and the famous 100-yard “Church Pews” bunker on the third hole make for obstacles unlike any others in the world.
The rough is set to start at five inches deep and grow as the week progresses. In a recent Youtube video by Bryson DeChambaeu titled, “The World’s Hardest Golf Course: Oakmont Country Club,” the defending U.S. Open champion said the course “challenges your sanity.” In a lighter, trendy way, he called one of his rough-lying shots “cooked beyond belief.”
A major part of the difficulty at Oakmont comes from the quick and sloping greens.
“One golfer claimed he marked his ball with a nickel and the nickel slid off the green,” Sports Illustrated’s Curry Kirkpatrick said. The USGA said the greens will run anywhere between 14 feet, 5 inches and 14 feet, 9 inches on a Stimpmeter — a device used to measure the speed of a putting green. This varies far from the usual 11-11.5 feet that the USGA usually sets their U.S. Open courses at. These greens aren’t flat either, and the undulation of the putting surfaces makes the already quick-paced territory even more disagreeable.
Pittsburgh’s harsh weather conditions have made the Open tough in the past. Rain and thunder have halted play and negatively impacted course conditions, making the grass wet and muddy. Balls become susceptible to wind and the players are at the mercy of whatever the Pittsburgh weather decides to bring. For a course like Oakmont, though, which is infamously firm and fast, rain could actually act as a benefit to players, softening up the grass and slowing down the ball. For an event in the summer, humidity isn’t as surprising, and it can act as a major deterrent to one’s ability to shoot at their finest — something to keep an eye on come Thursday.
The forecast for Thursday and Friday looks warm, with 80-degree and partly cloudy temperatures, while Saturday and Sunday see rain with an increase in wind speed.
The challenge of Oakmont Country Club is what makes it one of the best golf courses in the world. Encompassing the gritty spirit of Pittsburgh, the toughness of the world-renowned course is the perfect location for this year’s U.S. Open — sure to provide golfers and spectators alike a show unlike any other.