https://pinhighpress.com/tags/henry-fownes/ Recent content in Henry Fownes on Pin High Press Hugo en-us Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://pinhighpress.com/posts/oakmont-country-club-course-profile/ Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://pinhighpress.com/posts/oakmont-country-club-course-profile/ <p>There is a sentence the late Doc Giffin, who spent half a century answering Arnold Palmer&rsquo;s mail, used to put to visiting writers when they asked him about Oakmont. He would say that Oakmont was the only major-rota course in America where the members were proud of how few birdies were made on the property. Most clubs that host U.S. Opens have, over the decades, allowed themselves to be softened in the name of being a venue. The bunkers get raked smoother. The greens get a touch slower. The rough gets cut a half-inch shorter. Oakmont has gone the other way. The members, who play the course three hundred and fifty days a year, want it harder than the U.S. Open setup, not easier. They have wanted it that way since 1903.</p>