84 Lumber enjoys Somma's exclusivity at U.S. Open

Joe Hardy's company, 84 Lumber, has a prime spot for the U.S. Open -- Somma Pizza on Coxcomb Hill -- but he won't be among the spectators this weekend.

According to company spokesman Jeff Nobers, Hardy, the founder, is on vacation, apparently somewhere else.

"This is an 84 Lumber marketing initiative," Nobers said. "It's portrayed as though he (Hardy) is renting this as a hospitality venue, and he's not even there."

Hardy's company sponsored the 84 Lumber Classic at his Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County for several years. The company folded the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) event after this past year.

84 Lumber rented Somma Pizza for a week to entertain roughly 100 corporate clients per day, Nobers said.

Breakfast, lunch and a light dinner are served to clients who are golf fans. They're taken to the restaurant on charter buses from hotels in Pittsburgh. Local clients use the restaurant's parking lot, which has about 90 spaces.

Nobers said most of the clients come to Somma's to take a break from the large crowds at Oakmont County Club down the hill a half-mile from the course. He said the main reason 84 Lumber chose the site was its "sports bar look and feel."

"It has an entertainment theme, and it appeals to us," Nobers said. "We can do things here that we wouldn't be able to do in a hospitality tent on the course. It fits much better with what we wanted to do and who we wanted to entertain."

Those perks include catering from Atria's Restaurant, which has locations in O'Hara, PNC Park, Mt. Lebanon and Wexford. The menu includes an omelette bar for breakfast and sandwiches, burgers and ribs for lunch.

"It's after-round heavy snacks," Nobers said. "When we get the (clients) back into Pittsburgh, there is a dinner for them there."

ESPN Radio D.J.'s Mike and Mike broadcast their morning show live from the bar area inside the restaurant.

"It (the radio show) was carried on 425 radio stations nationwide as well as on ESPN television," Nobers said.

Nobers wouldn't say how much it cost to rent out a large restaurant for a week that close to the Oakmont Country Club.

"That's between us and Mark Somma," he said.