The project will be funded through insurance proceeds, member assessment and member dues.
Nearly two years after a devastating fire that caused $80 million in damage to the clubhouse and surroundings at one of North America’s cathedrals of golf, the smiles were wide on Wednesday when members from Oakland Hills Country Club put shovels in the ground to start a construction project that will bring new life to the facility.
The club in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills is home to two highly-rated golf courses. The South Course, designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, ties for No. 22 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The club’s North Course had previously been on the list, but slipped out in 2023.
The club has hosted 14 golf majors or USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Amateur, two U.S. Men’s Amateurs and three PGA Championships — including the 90th PGA Championship in 2008. The club has also hosted the 1922 Western Open, the 1964 Carling World Open, and the 35th Ryder Cup, in 2004.
The original clubhouse was designed by C. Howard Crane and opened in 1922. It had undergone several renovations and housed irreplaceable golf tournament memorabilia and art going back a century.
The Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on fire on Thursday, February 17, 2022. (Photo: Eric Seals-USA TODAY NETWORK)
That backstory led the smiling faces on Wednesday as the club broke ground on a new project entitled the “Next 100 Project,” which will include a replica clubhouse, a new greens and grounds complex, changes to the practice range and updated parking. The $96.5 million project was approved by the club’s membership this month and will be funded through insurance proceeds, member assessment and member dues.
The project is expected to be completed in 2026.
“Today is a momentous day for Oakland Hills members and staff who stand together, much like we did nearly two years ago watching flames rise from our clubhouse, but with a renewed excitement for the future,” Oakland Hills President K. Dino Kostopoulos said. “The ‘Next 100 Project’ is the result of significant planning by the entire Oakland Hills family that will define the Championship golf experience for generations to come at our Club and beyond.”
Here’s a look at some renderings of the updated facilities as well as pictures from Wednesday’s groundbreaking.
Golfweek’s raters have ranked the top 200 courses built in the United States before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more
Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses before 1960 in the United States.
Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Classic Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Modern Courses, the Best Courses You Can Play State by State and Best Private Courses State by State.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list also notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2021. Also included with many courses are links to recent stories about that layout.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
• p: private
• d: daily fee
• r: resort course
• t: tour course
• u: university
• m: municipal
• re: real estate
• c: casino
* Indicates new to or returning to this list.
Editor’s note:The 2022 Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for the top 200 layouts built after 1960 in the U.S. was published Monday, May 23. The Best Courses You Can Play lists and the Best Private Courses lists will follow over the next two weeks.
“It was one of, if not, the greatest shots of my career,” Player said.
Of the 281 shots that Gary Player took on his way to victory at the 1972 PGA Championship, one stands out among the rest.
Fifty years have passed since Player claimed his sixth of nine majors at Oakland Hills Golf Club, but one singular shot remains as vivid to Player as the day he struck it.
“It was one of, if not, the greatest shots of my career,” Player said.
The south course at Oakland Hills was termed “a monster” in 1951 by Ben Hogan, a two-time PGA Championship winner, when he won the U.S. Open there. It was a fitting and fame-producing description. Officials at many other courses tried to adopt the term, touting their layouts as “monsters.” But Oakland Hills, in a suburb north of Detroit, was the original.
Having already won the PGA Championship in 1962, Player was an authority of sorts on what qualified as a monster and pegged Oakland Hills’ south course “the toughest in America.”
Player’s ‘moment of truth’
In the final round of the 54th PGA, 10 golfers were within two strokes of the lead playing the final nine holes. The moment of truth for Player happened at the 408-yard dogleg right par 4 16th, where a pond guards the green set close enough to it that any approach has to cross it. In those days, a majestic Weeping Willow stood inside the elbow. Strategically, it eliminated the shortcut to the green for those who drove the ball into the rough.
That’s, of course, where the hero of our story found himself. Having already bogeyed the 14th and 15th holes, Player shared the lead with Jim Jamieson, who had won the Western Open just a month earlier in what would prove to be his lone PGA Tour win. As Jamieson was up ahead playing the 18th hole, Player pushed his tee shot to the right directly behind the willow tree. Phil Rodgers, who was playing alongside the diminutive South African in the final group, told British golf writer Ben Wright that Player was so discouraged over his drive that he was talking as if he had already blown the tournament.
“I had worked incredibly hard for this major, and now I felt it was slipping away from me,” Player said.
But part of what made Player great was that he trained for every possible circumstance. He had a reputation for creating what he called tactical laboratory situations. For instance, he would set up an obstacle of a tree branch and try to punch the ball beneath it 10 straight times. If he hit the limb, the exercise would start all over.
“Player is gifted, of course, but I hardly think he is overburdened with natural ability,” wrote Leonard Crawley in the London Daily Telegraph. “His immense success comes from hard work, and a capacity to concentrate on the job in hand given to few.”
South Africa’s Gary Player throws his head in the air after putting on the eighteenth hole, where he won the PGA Championship, at Oakland Hill, in Birmingham, Mich., Aug. 6, 1972.
Player takes a peek
What Player did next on a rainy, cool, gray day at Oakland Hills’s 16th personified his grit and determination. Player examined his lie in the soggy rough with great concern. Blind to the flagstick and the water hazard threatening ahead, Player had to stand up on a gallery member’s chair just to get a glimpse of the green.
Fortunately, his lie was a good one on long grass flattened down by the gallery. As he walked to a marker on the fairway to check his yardage, he noticed his divot from the other day.
In his book, “Don’t Choke,” Player recounted how an 8-iron he hit during a practice round played a pivotal role in winning his sixth major. After he struck the shot from right off the fairway on the 16th hole, Player took special notice of the divot.
“Although I was in a similar position, the grass was wet now, and I knew I would get a bit of flyer coming out of the rough,” Player said in explaining his choice of the 9-iron rather than an 8.
Player also deemed he needed the extra loft to clear the trees. A seat stick left on the ground under the trees served as his line. It was an all-or-nothing gamble: the slightest mishit, or if the 9-iron proved to be not enough club to carry the pond to a pin cut very near the hazard on the right side of the green, and he’d be staring a bogey at minimum and possibly a big number in the face.
“That was just not enough club, but Player simply added ‘heart,’ ” wrote golf writer David Mackintosh.
Despite the water ahead and the tree in front of him, he hoisted a 9-iron that soared over the trees, across the water and onto the green, nestling 3 feet from the hole.
Just as Player holed his birdie putt, Jamieson had missed a short par effort of his own on the last green and Player had an insurance stroke in his back pocket. But he wouldn’t need it for Player had already delivered a telling stroke at the most critical moment.
“I’ve hit some incredible shots in my career, and people often thought I was just lucky. But great shots, much like great championship victories, are often the result of careful planning and something that gives you that courage and conviction deep inside to know you can pull it off,” Player explained. “Great shots don’t simply appear out of nowhere during a crucial stage of a major. They are shots that have been grooved on the practice range for hours. What makes them special is the player’s ability to execute the shot under pressure.”
A pair of closing pars later and Player had matched par on the last nine to shoot 2‐over‐par 72 for a 72-hole total of 1-over 281, two strokes ahead of co-runners-up Tommy Aaron and Jamieson, who made headlines that week for using a $17 department store putter. Jamieson fizzled down the stretch, making bogeys on each of the last three holes, signing for an even-par 70, while Aaron had a 71. It secured Player’s first major in over four years, and earned him a check totaling $45,000.
Player trailed Buddy Allin and Stan Thirsk by three strokes after the first round and Jerry Heard by the same margin at the midway point of the championship. In all, 77 golfers survived the cut. Player surged into the lead with a nifty 3-under 67 in the third round, which lifted him a stroke ahead of Billy Casper.
Casper, Snead also near
The outlook for Player to win his first major in four years didn’t appear promising when he opened with bogeys on three of his first four holes in the final round. But Player did sink a 25-foot birdie putt at the second and settled into a streak of six pars in a row beginning at the fifth. Casper and Player were even after nine holes and it was anyone’s trophy to grab hold of until Player converted two birdies on the last nine, a 5‐footer going in at the 11th, and, of course, the one he considered most important at the 16th hole. “I think that one won the tournament for me,” he said later.
Ageless wonder Sam Snead, 60, fired a final-round 69, to tie the low round of the day at the course where he finished second in the 1937 U.S. Open. Snead, who last won the PGA in 1951, tied for fourth with Casper and Ray Floyd.
“If I could have been a couple more under par coming in,” Snead told The New York Times, “I would have thrown a scare into the fellows.”
Jack Nicklaus, the defender and pre‐tourney favorite as current Masters and U.S. Open champion, took three putts at the first green for a bogey in the final round and never gained any momentum after that. Nicklaus tied for 13th place at 287.
There’s one more footnote to the story of Player’s memorable shot at 16. Just as a divot from his practice round had weighed into his decision of what club to hit, his 9-iron divot would become a trophy of sorts for one spectator. A man in the gallery waited for Player to head to the 16th green after his remarkable shot and retrieved Player’s divot. He tucked it away, took it home and planted it in his lawn where it flourished.
“He sent me a message a few years later saying he had a Gary Player lawn,” Player recalled. “and I should come and see it whenever I come back to Detroit.”
The USGA will host eight events at Oakland Hills over the next 29 years.
A month after a devastating fire burned down the famed clubhouse at Oakland Hills Country Club, the United States Golf Association had some good news about a long-term strategic partnership with the club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
The USGA announced on Tuesday that Oakland Hills would host eight of its championships over the next 29 years, including four major championships announced in January: the U.S. Women’s Open in 2031 and 2042 and the U.S. Open in 2034 and 2051. The additional events: 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur, 2029 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 2038 U.S. Girls Junior Amateur and the 2047: U.S. Amateur.
“This is a significant and meaningful day for all of us at Oakland Hills,” said Rick Palmer, club president. “The commitment of two U.S. Opens as well as four top amateur championships is a testament to the fabulous work of everyone at Oakland Hills. With a total of eight USGA championships coming to our club starting in 2024, we can’t wait to add to our storied history. We look forward to continuing our championship golf tradition at Oakland Hills and our long-standing relationship with the USGA.”
Oakland Hills has hosted 11 USGA championships in its history, including six U.S. Opens. The event’s return in 2034 will celebrate the club’s 110-year history with the USGA. Oakland Hills will become the fifth club to have hosted a U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, while Pebble Beach will do the same in 2023.
“We could not be happier to bring six additional championships to such an iconic venue as Oakland Hills,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer. “Since its first U.S. Open in 1924, Oakland Hills has provided a supreme test for the game’s very best, and it will continue to do so for professionals and amateurs alike in the coming years.”
In September of 2020 the USGA named Pinehurst as an anchor site for future championships, and did the same at last summer’s U.S. Amateur when it announced Oakmont as a second anchor site and unveiled a stout lineup of future championships across Pennsylvania. The 2034 U.S. Open was originally announced to be held at Oakmont, but will now be held at Oakland Hills.
Surveillance footage was recovered from a hard drive submerged in water during the fire.
A month after the devastating fire that burned down the Oakland Hills Country Club, new evidence shows the fire appears to have started from construction workers using a propane torch against a wall.
The construction workers were on the east side of the building trying to rebuild a patio, said Bloomfield Township Fire Chief John LeRoy in a news conference this week.
They were using the torch to install rubberized flashing, and the heat from the flame helps dry it in the cold weather, he said.
After using the torch, the workers appeared to see smoke coming out of the wall and used a hose. Then, the video cuts to flames bursting out of the wall after firefighters axed it. He said the fire was able to live and spread between the walls.
“It looks to me that they were like, ‘Uh oh, we got a problem here,’ and were trying to figure out what to do, that’s where the hose comes in,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
As of now, Bouchard said it appears there was no intent to start the fire. But the footage is incomplete, and officials are continuing the investigation. Bouchard said it could take a full year to finish it.
“Some things look conclusive, but may not be,” he said.
It is unclear how long the fire went before someone called 911, LeRoy said, and the 911 call came from the pastry kitchen in the basement.
The surveillance footage was recovered from a hard drive submerged in water during the fire, and investigators are working to figure out the timestamps to “piece it all together,” LeRoy said.
The historic country club burned to the ground on Feb. 17, taking with it a century of golf history and mementos that can never be replaced. It took firefighters all day to battle the blaze.
Firefighters battle a fire at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on Thursday, February 17, 2022. (Photo: Eric Seals-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Bouchard said the fire caused an $80 million loss to the country club.
Officials continued to sort through the embers of the devastating Bloomfield Township fire for the past month, using evidence from the scene and different witness statements.
Statements obtained by the Free Press recall a smell of smoke and the blinking strobe lights of the fire alarm, followed by a hurried evacuation and the growth of flames. However, two employees also mentioned a failing heat pump in their statements to law enforcement.
In their statements, employees say the structure was undergoing repairs in parts of the building and because of that, it had contractors on-site the day of the fire. Responding firefighters dragged away propane tanks, a heater and a torch from the building, which were confiscated for evidence, according to police reports also obtained by the Free Press.
The Oakland Hills Country Club board voted to build a replica of the 99-year-old iconic building that was decimated by the fire and predicted it would take a few seasons to complete.
Staff writer Miriam Marini contributed to this report.
Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.
NAPLES, Fla. — Bernhard Langer was the European Ryder Cup captain when the Euros routed the U.S., 18 ½-9 ½, at Oakland Hills in Michigan. Padraig Harrington played on that team, and later won the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills in 2008.
So Thursday’s news of the fire that destroyed the iconic clubhouse, and some of the memorabilia inside it, hit hard.
“The main thing. … nobody was hurt,” Harrington said. “Clearly, they can rebuild the clubhouse.”
“It was sad to see,” Langer said Friday. “I mean, it’s always sad to see when something burns down because it just seems such a waste and a disaster and so tragic. At least they didn’t lose any lives, but I believe a lot of memorabilia in the clubhouse. I know they had some of my stuff and you can’t replace some of that.
Eventually, the roof collapsed, and one fire official called it “almost a total loss” several hours after the blaze began.
Oakland Hills Country Club was founded in 1916 by Joseph Mack and Norval Hawkins, two Ford executives, at a meeting of 47 friends and associates at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Oakland Hills has hosted six U.S. Opens. Only two other courses have hosted more. It was recently was awarded the U.S. Women’s Open in 2031 and 2042.
Firefighters apparently were able to save some of the memorabilia after being directed where it was by club officials.
“And even if it’s memorabilia, it can be replaced — it can’t be, but it can be — but the only thing that matters is that nobody was hurt,” Harrington said. “It’s shocking and it’s terrible, but it’s not tragic. At the end of the day, tragic is somebody lost their life, so we can move on.
“They’ll rebuild bigger and better.”
And Harrington is happy to give more to the club when that happens.
“I’m sure there’s many people like myself who have great memories there who would be delighted to donate stuff again,” Harrington said.
It’s a touchy dance that Oakland Hills and hopeful venues do with the USGA.
If you’re a golf fan and fancy the idea of whacking a little dimpled ball and chasing it for hours, Thursday was a sad day.
But if you’re a golf fan in Michigan, then Thursday was a devastating day because one of the pillars of the state’s extensive golfing community was brought to its knees.
Many watched in horror as live and recorded video and photos streamed across websites and social media while a massive fire tore through the iconic clubhouse at Oakland Hills Country Club, which stands as the shining jewel of championship golf in the Wolverine State.
Anyone who has attended a major at the famous South Course or has wrangled an invitation for a round of golf or a meal at the clubhouse understands what Oakland Hills and its stately and massive clubhouse means. It means nothing less than golf itself.
The most important factor by far is that no injuries were reported. Because that would have turned a day of devastating sadness into a day of unfathomable tragedy.
If you’ve never been to Oakland Hills or think this amounts to just a bunch of privileged rich people losing their fancy dining room, I can assure you it’s a lot more than that. It’s a place where families have gathered, where people have worked and where golf’s history has been written.
Club president Rick Palmer sounded tired while speaking on the phone late Thursday afternoon. He got a call from general manager Christine Pooler at 9:30 a.m. when the fire alarm was pulled and by 6 p.m. he was still assessing the damage and speaking with reporters. There was concern in his voice for the club’s roughly 750 total members who were suddenly displaced from their sanctuary.
“Oakland Hills to our membership is a family, it’s a second family,” he said. “It’s a very proud membership and that translates into our staff and into our leadership team. So the outpouring of devastation is certainly there, but the resolve of us getting through this and coming back better than ever is also there.”
That resolve started with the fire crews who wouldn’t let anyone into the building to try to rescue the club’s extensive collection of golf memorabilia and artifacts. The fire crews asked where some of the memorabilia was located, then passed it out to club employees lined up to take each item.
“It’s a devastating, iconic loss,” Palmer said. “The clubhouse had so much memorabilia and so much history in terms of not only local but national golf events. So to that end, it’s a devastating day.
“But to the credit of our members and our resolve and our team we’re more committed than ever that this won’t affect any of that. Buildings, clubhouses will get rebuilt. But the memorabilia is something that’s the biggest concern. We have recovered some, but we don’t have any idea yet on percentages of what was recovered and what wasn’t.”
Palmer wasn’t sure about the extent of damage to the clubhouse, though it was clearly significant. The Free Press reported that the fire started in the attic and collapsed the roof, with one fire official calling it “almost a total loss.”
If it is a total loss, or even if most of the clubhouse has to be rebuilt, the big question will be what replaces it? An exact replica? A more modern look?
“We will get to that,” Palmer said. “There’s no question we’re going to rebuild bigger and better than ever.
“But in terms of timing and the architecture and what type, all that’s out in front of us. It really has to be what will we do for members temporarily for this coming golf season and undoubtedly next golf season. That’ll be the more immediate plan.”
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The immediate future and how it affects members is the club’s more pressing concern. Palmer said the fire didn’t touch the South Course. The members’ summer golf season won’t be affected.
But there’s also another future, not so far in the distance, that concerns every golf fan in Michigan: The U.S. Open and its next two available dates in 2028 and ’29. After that, the next available date is 2031.
Last summer, the South Course reopened after a 21-month, $12-million restoration that changed the course from its traditional parkland look to an almost links-style venue that would facilitate gallery traffic and showcase a camera-ready course for a major.
It’s a touchy dance that Oakland Hills and hopeful venues do with the U.S. Golf Association when it comes to hosting its marquee event. Neither side openly advertises its explicit interest, but it’s clear Oakland Hills has done everything to land its seventh U.S. Open and its first since 1996.
“I can tell you that we’ve been in contact with the USGA today,” Palmer said. “They have expressed their overwhelming support of Oakland Hills. It certainly does not impact any of the two major announcements that have already come out in terms of the Women’s (Open in 2031 and 2042).
“And as far as the other things that you’re asking about, I really can’t comment other than to say I don’t think this is going to have an impact on those ongoing discussions, but that’s as far as I can go with that.”
For that small ray of hope, at least, we can be thankful on an otherwise dark day.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Firefighters are battling the blaze at the historic golf club, home to numerous major championships.
The clubhouse at Oakland Hill Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, a suburb of Detroit — and site of numerous major championships — caught fire Thursday morning.
At about 10 a.m., flames licked the clubhouse roof as black smoke billowed.
Several departments responded after the fire broke out in the clubhouse attic. The clubhouse, which was completed in 1922, was adorned with irreplaceable golf tournament memorabilia and art going back a century.
Much of it likely will be lost in the fire or badly damaged. Early reports indicate the fire will destroy the central part of the building.
Oakland Hills Country Club was founded in 1916 by Joseph Mack and Norval Hawkins, two Ford executives, at a meeting of 47 friends and associates at the Detroit Athletic Club.
They decided there would be 140 charter memberships at a cost of $250 apiece.
Walter Hagen, an 11-time major winner, was the club’s first head professional.
Sometime between late October, 1916 and late January, 1917 Donald Ross first visits the Oakland Hills property. He tells Joe Mack, “The Lord intended this for a golf course.” In his commentaries on golf architecture, Golf Has Never Failed Me, Ross comments: “I rarely find a piece of property so well-suited for a golf course.” He designs the South Course around the 10th and 11th holes – holes he will later call the finest consecutive par 4s he has ever designed.
Since then, the club has hosted to 14 golf majors or USGA championships, including six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Senior Opens, a U.S. Women’s Amateur, two U.S. Men’s Amateurs and three PGA Championships — including the 90th PGA Championship in 2008. The club has also hosted the 1922 Western Open, the 1964 Carling World Open, and the 35th Ryder Cup, in 2004.
Oakland Hills is home to two highly rated golf courses. The South Course, designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1918, ties for No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The club’s North Course ties for No. 196 on that list.
The clubhouse was designed by C. Howard Crane and opened in 1922. It has undergone several renovations.
A South Course renovation stiffened the test for the better player while making the track at Oakland Hills more fun for the average golfer.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – When golf course architect Gil Hanse has time to play golf these days, he abides by his three-strike rule.
“If it’s cold, windy and rainy I’m out,” he said. “If it’s two of the three, I’m OK.”
On a warm July summer day near Detroit, Hanse managed to squeeze in nine holes at famed Oakland Hills Country Club, fresh off a $12 million restoration he led with design partner Jim Wagner and onsite coordinator Kye Goalby, son of Masters champion Bob Goalby. With its testing doglegs, sea of sand and some of the trickiest undulating greens, Ben Hogan nicknamed it “the monster.”
Hanse chuckled when asked to reveal his score. He noted that whenever he and Wagner turn up to play one of their courses, the superintendent always picks the hardest flags on the course. Nevertheless, Hanse was pleased with making five bogeys and four pars before Mother Nature intervened. And yet that nine-hole score perfectly illustrates how Hanse has stiffened the test for the better player while making Oakland Hills more playable and therefore more fun for the average golfer.
Players on the practice green during the first round of stroke play of the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills with the iconic clubhouse in the background (Tracy Wilcox/Golfweek).
“That’s the magic sauce,” Hanse said. “That’s what all of us architects are trying to do. The level of precision required to play the golf course is fairly low. There are wide openings to the greens where you can run the ball where you couldn’t before but we made the fairways narrower where Tour players hit it, or where there are bunkers.”
Oakland Hills, which was founded in 1916 and counts Walter Hagen as the club’s first professional, always has been considered one of golf’s great cathedrals. Even before the restoration, the South ranked as No. 2 in Michigan on Golfweek’s Best Private Courses list. It also is tied for No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for all layouts opened before 1960 in the United States. This is land that original designer Donald Ross once proclaimed, “The Lord intended it to be a golf course.”
It gained a reputation as one of the toughest tests of golf after Robert Trent Jones Sr., sharpened its teeth ahead of the 1951 U.S. Open. In the first round, Hogan bogeyed five of the first nine holes and shot an opening 4-over 76 to dig himself a hole but rallied with a final-round 67, at the time the competitive course record, and famously said, “I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”
That was the first of six U.S. Opens the club hosted, but none since 1996. Oakland Hills was the site of the 2004 Ryder Cup and Padraig Harrington’s victory at the 2008 PGA Championship, but it is one of the worst-kept secrets in golf that this latest renovation was green-lit with the objective of being awarded a seventh U.S. Open and with ambitions of becoming the USGA’s Midwest rota choice for years to come.
When Oakland Hills hosted the 2002 U.S. Amateur – won by Ricky Barnes in a flowery Hawaiian-print shirt that hangs in the clubhouse – technology advances to the driver and golf ball had given players the upper hand. Bill Haas shot a 29 in match play and members were none too happy to read headlines in the local papers proclaiming, “The Monster has lost it teeth.”
Rees Jones, son of RTJ Sr., had inherited his father’s moniker as the Open Doctor, and was called in to bring The Monster back to life. He narrowed fairways and added steeper bunkers, but in doing so made the course a test where an aerial approach of long, high and straight was required. Steve Brady, director of golf at Oakland Hills for 24 years, said that the course was still a bucket-list item for architecture buffs, but golfers crossed it off and didn’t want to come back. It was too hard and, dare one say, boring. When members asked Brady if he’d like to play with them, he’d check which course they were playing – Oakland Hills’s sister course is the North Course, a Donald Ross dating to 1924 – and if they said the South he’d answer, “I’ve got a thing.”
Hanse and his team returned The South to Ross’s original intent, a course that both asks and allows the golfer to consider myriad options to get at a flag. With the exception of the short par-3 13th, every hole provides some front-door entry for a running shot. The course is far more interesting and, by design, more fun for the membership.
“The best architecture doesn’t dictate to the player how they are going to play the golf course,” Hanse said. “When it becomes singular and one dimensional, it’s not great architecture.”
Later, during the same conversation Hanse added: “This game is supposed to be fun, right? We learned a valuable lesson from Mark Parsinen when we did Castle Stuart. He said, ‘Keep the average golfer hopeful and engaged.’ ”
This latest restoration began in the fall of 2019, a 21-month project, to unlock the original design features laid out by Ross. Archived aerial photos and original plans, along with a program from the 1929 U.S. Women’s Amateur, allowed them to get the details right and lent scale and perspective.
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“It became our bible,” Hanse said of the tournament program. “Kye Goalby probably knows by memory every word of that 1929 program. I think he put it under his head when he went to bed.”
All 18 greens were restored to their original size and shape while constructing them to USGA specifications. Precision Air sub-surface units were installed to control moisture and temperature. Bunkers also were restored with new drainage, fairways were restored to their original widths, new irrigation was installed and a significant number of trees were cleared to improve playing conditions and reopen the vistas. Could these measures be the difference maker in scoring Oakland Hill’s next major? Hanse argues in the affirmative.
“I don’t think the litmus test for the USGA or PGA is going to be can it still challenge the best players in the world? If you get the greens firm and rolling and the rough growing, you can host any championship out here. The thing that will be the most interest to them will be the infrastructure changes and the ability to host a championship with a more predictable outcome with relation to conditions,” Hanse mused. “They want to be able to understand how much control do they have over the setup? The infrastructure, the precision air system, the drainage, the bunker liner system, all the things we’ve done will yield a much more predictable outcome if we have a bad weather week.”
To that point, Hanse said that every green has at least three restored hole locations bringing the severely undulating green complexes front and center as the primary challenge again. Short or long shots now experience the classic Ross table-top runoffs. This will give championship setup committees the options it prefers.
“Can they dictate the way the golf course is presented to the players?” Hanse said. “If there’s only three hole locations, they’re stuck. If more, they can ratchet it up if playing too easy or back off if too hard.”
The creek at the seventh hole was restored to the design settings of Donald Ross (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
One of the most notable enhancements is the return of the seventh hole’s putting green to its original location, along with the original size of the creek, which bisects the par 4. It looks like it’s been there all along, and has been widely praised by the membership as the course’s most popular new-old feature.
Some of the improvements are more subtle. Landing areas were made larger – Hanse removed 10 bunkers on the second hole and 15 trees at the eighth and another 23 at the 11th – most notably at the par-4 16th, which was widened by 30 yards. En route to winning the 1972 PGA Championship, Player pushed his drive into the right rough about 150 yards from the lakeside green. He had a stand of willow trees in his way, but he gambled and hoisted a 9-iron to 4 feet. The signature shot of the championship earned a plaque at the spot of the shot. The willows, planted in the 1950s to create The Monster, are no more and today Player’s drive would have rested 10 yards into the fairway.
The plaque for Gary Player’s iconic 9-iron from the rough at the 1972 PGA Championship can now be replicated from the fairway (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
“That avenue of play was taken away unless you were Player. We felt like stripping away the evolution was another way of letting golfers decide the club. Longer shot, less water, but now the golfer has the freedom (to choose their angle of attack),” Hanse said.
The removal of superfluous trees – crimson, silver and Norway maples, Siberian Elms, Ohio Buckeyes, Honey Locusts, ash, birch, pines, spruces and sycamores – opened up site lines and allowed the club’s iconic neo-colonial white clubhouse that stands on the crest of a hill to be viewed from the most distant spots.
Asked to highlight one of his own touches he left on the famed layout, Hanse didn’t hesitate. “Hopefully nothing,” he said.
He delivered on his promise to make Oakland Hills stand out enough that it should deserve strong consideration to be awarded its seventh U.S. Open while making the course more playable for the members. The USGA’s Jeff Hall, Jason Gore, John Bodenheimer and Mark Hill, the key decision makers in evaluating future sites, all have visited to see the changes. What they found was a kinder, friendlier, more strategic course, but still every bit a monster. And one that is all dressed up and ready for its next major.
