The U.S. Open’s rich history at Oakmont – Part 1
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • April 16, 2025
Oakmont Country Club holds a U.S. Open history unlike any other.
This June, one of the world’s most challenging courses — situated right in the heart of Western Pennsylvania — will once again welcome the world as it hosts its record tenth U.S. Open.
As the WPGA celebrates this momentous occasion, we will do so by reliving the illustrious history of the competition while also documenting the 125th U.S. Open this June.
We begin our look at the history of U.S. Opens played at Oakmont Country Club in a three-part series that chronicles the nine major national championships played in our own backyard.
Today, we look at the first three U.S. Open Championships to be contested in Oakmont, including a win by a Western Pennsylvania native and three tournaments that featured some of the all-time greats in the game of golf.
1927: Armour takes playoff with highest score ever at Oakmont
Just three weeks after Charles Lindbergh transversed the Atlantic Ocean, a loaded field of legends took to the grounds of Oakmont for its first U.S. Open, the 31st edition of the National Championship.
The likes of Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones competed during the week. But, while those three greats all finished in the top 11, none pulled off the win.
Instead, Tommy Armour of Scotland knocked in a dramatic birdie putt on the 18th hole of the final round, sending the U.S. Open into a playoff.
Armour defeated American Harry Cooper in the following day’s 18-hole playoff, taking the first of his three major title victories.
He won the competition with a 13-over score of 301. No winner of any U.S. Open has scored that high since, a testament to the challenge presented to the field by Oakmont Country Club that year.
Armour took home $500 of the $2000 purse. Adjusted for inflation, the haul would be around a mere $9000 today.
The Scot was presented the U.S. Open trophy by USGA President W.C. Fownes, the son of Oakmont Country Club founder Henry Fownes and the namesake of the WPGA Amateur Championship trophy.
Armour joked after the round that he had been formulating a congratulatory speech to give to Cooper during the last few holes of the final round, only to have to change it to a victory speech the following day.
In a true moment of golf’s ability to quickly humble you, Armour posted the highest score on a single hole in PGA Tour history a week later, shooting a 23 on a Par 5 at the Shawnee Open. The mark still stands to this day.
Nearly a century later, the legend of Armour — who died in 1968 at age 71 — lives on. DSG/Golf Galaxy named their brand of golf clubs in honor of the 25-time PGA Tour winner, who went on to instruct women’s golf legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias, among others.
Oakmont Country Club has never seen scores as high since, but the foundation was laid for it to continue to be one of the ultimate tests for the game’s best golfers in the 100 years that followed.
1935: Western PA’s own takes the title
Eight years after hosting its first U.S. Open, Western Pennsylvania welcomed the game’s top players back to Oakmont Country Club.
Bobby Jones had retired from golf five years earlier, but Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen both returned, each looking for their third U.S. Open title.
But their plans were once again thwarted, this time by a Western Pennsylvania native.
Sam Parks Jr. of Bellvue, Pennsylvania won the U.S. Open while serving as the club pro at South Hills Country Club.
Parks Jr. — a University of Pittsburgh alumnus who helped start the school’s golf program and who was instructed for a year by Sarazen at Pittsburgh’s Highland Country Club — won the U.S. Open by two strokes over American Jimmy Thomson, shooting an 11-over score of 299 to once again display the power of Oakmont over its challengers.
"I played all the golf I had in me,” Parks Jr. said afterwards. “I was scared to death down the stretch, but I tried to hang in with all I had."
He was well-trained for the victory, playing practice rounds at Oakmont Country Club every day before for a month before heading to work. He ended up with just two three-putts in the championship, displaying the knowledge of the demanding greens he had acquired in the month prior.
The victory was Parks Jr.’s only win as a member of the PGA Tour, but his impact on Western Pennsylvania and American golf was significant.
He played for the U.S. Ryder Cup team that same year and matched up against reigning British Open champion Alf Perry, marking the first time that the reigning U.S. Open and British Open winners met in a match in the Ryder Cup. The opponents halved their match, with the United States winning the Ryder Cup.
Parks Jr. also played in numerous Masters Tournaments and several PGA Championships. In total, he played in 34 major championships, making the cut in 22 of them and finishing top ten twice.
Locally, Parks Jr. won the 1926 WPGA Junior Championship and the 1940 WPGA Open. He also claimed three Tri-State PGA Championships and the 1940 Pennsylvania Open Championships.
Parks Jr. netted $1000 for the win at Oakmont — not a figure to dismiss as the nation sat right in the middle of the Great Depression.
The championship was the final major that the legendary Walter Hagen ever played.
Parks Jr., who was the son of former WPGA Director Sam Parks, went on to work for U.S. Steel and eventually retired to Clearwater, Florida. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 87.
Parks Jr. was posthumously inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame in 2015.
1953: Hogan conquers Oakmont as part of historic season
Western Pennsylvania had to wait nearly two decades before its next U.S. Open, but the wait was well worth it given the talent at the top of the leaderboard.
Only one player finished the competition under par, as Ben Hogan secured his record-tying fourth U.S. Open victory.
Bolstered by an opening round score of 67, the American shot 5-under for the competition to win by six strokes over another legend, Sam Snead.
Hogan essentially led wire-to-wire, but Snead’s second-round score of 69 did ultimately add some drama to the final round, as Hogan’s lead was reduced to one stroke entering the final day. Snead, however, shot a 76 on Sunday, as most of the field floundered under the week’s toughest conditions.
But Hogan, despite being a three-time champion prior, only participated in the event because of his work in a mid-week, 36-hole qualifying competition at the Pittsburgh Field Club.
At that time, only one player received exemption into the U.S. Open — the defending champion — meaning that Hogan had to work his way into the field despite his prolific status at the time.
Hogan’s fourth title matched Scotland’s Willie Anderson and Bobby Jones. Jack Nicklaus won his fourth U.S. Open in 1980.
At that point in the season, Hogan was already a major champion, having claimed the Masters two months prior. He went on to win The Open Championship at Scotland’s Carnoustie Golf Links weeks later, becoming the first player to win three major tournaments in the same season. A lengthy 47 years later, that feat was matched by Tiger Woods.
To this day, Hogan is the only player to win the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship in a calendar year — and he did it in dominant fashion, winning each event by at least four strokes.
Hogan’s win, however, almost never happened. Four years earlier, he and his wife were hit by a Greyhound bus while driving their car in Texas. Hogan dove across the front seat to protect his wife from the impact. Had he not, he would surely have died, as the steering column was driven through the driver’s side of the seat of their Cadillac.
Hogan escaped with numerous severe injuries and faced a blot clot issue that nearly killed him, as well. But, after two months in the hospital, he regained his ability to walk, and then play golf again.
Hogan, a captain in the U.S. Army who served in World War II, won 64 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including nine majors. He died in Fort Worth, Texas in 1997 at the age of 84, and with one of the greatest legacies in the history of sport.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, featuring U.S. Opens contested in 1962, 1973 and 1983.
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.