The SOCIETY Newsletter #72

History of Oakmont

The Haskell Ball and the Birth of Modern Golf in America: The Founding of Oakmont Country Club

In the history of American golf, few moments are as transformative and few golf courses as foundational as the emergence of the Haskell Ball and the subsequent creation of Oakmont Country Club. The two are forever intertwined. The Haskell Ball, with its revolutionary rubber-wound core, didn’t just change how golf was played, it changed where it was played. And Oakmont, in many ways, became the first great American course built around this game-changing technology.

The Ball That Changed It All

Before the turn of the 20th century, golf in the United States was still in its adolescence, played primarily on rudimentary layouts with the gutta-percha ball. That changed when Coburn Haskell introduced his new ball in 1899, which dramatically increased distance and made the game more explosive. One of the men most impressed and inspired by this innovation was Henry Clay Fownes, a steel magnate and passionate golfer from Pittsburgh.

Fownes, a founding member of Highland Country Club and a close friend of Colburn Haskell, saw in the Haskell Ball not just a new piece of equipment, but a new era for the game. Western Pennsylvania, with its growing appetite for golf, needed a championship course worthy of the modern game. Oakmont was the answer.

A Championship Vision Takes Root

By 1903, the Pittsburgh golf scene was burgeoning, but its courses lacked the scale, vision, and permanence Fownes envisioned. He rallied a group of like-minded men, many of them from three prominent nine-hole clubs: Edgewood, Westmoreland, and Highland and set out to build a course that could one day host the nation’s most prestigious championships.

Ultimately, George S. Macrum, a resident of the Oakmont village identified the right piece of land. Macrum showed Fownes a 221-acre swath of farmland along the Pennsylvania Railroad. The land, untouched by plows or seed, was ideal—rugged, rolling, and ready. The Oakmont Land Company acquired 232 acres in total from the Lee and Marshall farms, including an 11 acre parcel where a barn—built during the Civil War by Union soldiers as a gesture of gratitude to the farmer who let them stay on the property stood as a relic of American history.

The price, $105,000 for the land, plus another $50,000 in planned improvements. Capital was raised quickly: $75,000 through the Oakmont Land Company and a $35,000 bond. Membership for the new club was capped at 300, with initiation set at $100 and annual dues at $50.

From Shovels to Fairways in Six Weeks

On September 15, 1903, Fownes arrived at the site with an army of workers, pickaxes, shovels, and 25 teams of horses. They worked relentlessly from 7:00 a.m. until sundown each day. The design was driven by strategy, difficulty, and minimalism—at least in theory. In fact, the only hole originally conceived with a bunker was the second.

But the land had its own ideas. Fownes soon embraced the rugged contours of the terrain, adding hazards and punishing features with military precision. By October 27—just six weeks after breaking ground—Fownes proudly told friends that the course was finished. Fairways had been cut, tees and greens shaped, and the seed laid down. The grass simply needed to grow.

The first nine holes opened in 1904, followed by the second nine in 1905. Measuring 6,406 yards, Oakmont was long by early 20th-century standards and deliberately designed to test the best players of the era. From the outset, Oakmont was not just a golf course—it was a national championship venue in waiting.

The Legacy Begins

More than a century later, Oakmont remains one of the most formidable and respected courses in the world. But it all began with a ball and one family’s vision. Fownes saw the future of golf and built a course to meet it. With the help of Western Pennsylvania’s golf community, a perfect piece of land, and the spirit of innovation, Oakmont became the cradle of modern American championship golf.

It wasn’t just a golf course—it was a statement. One that still echoes across the hills of Pennsylvania every time the U.S. Open returns to Oakmont.

In Their Words:

"This course is going to embarrass a lot of players this week, it really is. It's a very user unfriendly golf course. Most of the greens just reject the ball off the greens. The greens are too fast for the contours they have. I'd say about 95 percent of the field probably doesn't have a chance."

Tom Watson, 1994 US Open at Oakmont

"Oakmont is the worst course that the Open has ever been held on. The bunkers are unfair.”

Gary Player, 1973 US Open at Oakmont

"There are times you feel if there's a hole next to the bunker and if you could crawl in it, it would be great.”

Lee Jansen

"The Open either makes you do one of two things, either you've always dreamed of winning an Open and you try harder than ever, or you do like a lot of guys who don't even show up. They say it's too hard. Or that the course is too tricked up. They cop out."

Johnny Miller on the U.S. Open at Oakmont

"A difficult golf course eliminates a lot of players. The US Open flag eliminates a lot of players. Some players just weren't meant to win the US Open. Quite often, a lot of them know it.”

Bobby Jones on the U.S. Open

"It's the most exacting test of golf and yet the ugliest golf course in America. In 1927 Bobby Jones squawked because Oakmont was unfair due to it’s tremendous length. Of course, what Bobby said was not printed.”

Perry Maxwell, Golf Course Architect

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. We are working to formalize the Society of Golf Historians in 2025. The Society will include different membership levels and we are working on building a separate company that will acquire, restore and reopen Golden Age Golf Designs.

Until next time…

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T.