Oakmont Country Club

Located just outside Pittsburgh, the private Oakmont Golf Club is home to a championship golf course that ranks with the world's best. Here you will find one of the United States' most admired and most feared inland links layouts.

Played across open undulating links-style terrain, the two nine-hole loops contain an outstanding array of excellently crafted and challenging holes. Distinguishing Oakmont from some of the other notoriously challenging courses around the world, this revered layout remains one of most aesthetically pleasing and natural of courses. The design places very limited reliance on water hazards, out of bounds or artificially contrived features.

Oakmont's reputation as the toughest course on the U.S. Open championship roster is well deserved. The world famous "Church Pews" bunker, which threatens at both the 3rd and 4th holes, is a standard bearer for 210 deep grass-fronted bunkers that continually threaten your tee and approach shots. The hard slick greens slope away from the player, while testingly tight fairways require precision driving from the square-cut tee-boxes.

Pick of the holes: Although every hole at Oakmont can become indelibly etched in your memory (and perhaps penally so on your scorecard), the par-4 3rd and par-5 4th are epitomised by Oakmont's infamous "Church Pews" bunker. This most famous and much copied sand hazard will claim any drives hit left, on either hole. Whether you get a sandy or grassy lie in the Church Pews is very much in the lap of the gods. "Safe" shots hit to the right of the fairway can all too easily stray into equally penal bunkering that lie opposite the Pews.

Limited access: this private course is generally playable only by members and their invited guests.