Greens 1st cut, rolled in 1903 are as challenging as ever

One day in 1903 — after the 24 mules that helped landscape the golf course at Oakmont Country Club had been fed, watered and put away — Henry C. Fownes stood at the back of the No. 2 green and dropped a ball on the grass.

Fownes, who designed the course after making his fortune in iron manufacturing, wanted to see the ball roll.

“If the golf ball ran off the green all the way to the approach,” grounds superintendent John Zimmers said, “he would say that's perfect. If it didn't, he would ask (a worker) to come back to either cut it or roll it again.”

The result: In 1927, Harry Cooper and Tommy Armour tied after the final round of the U.S. Open with a score of 301, the highest winning score of modern times.

How tough was it 24 years after Fownes dropped his golf ball? The great Gene Sarazen shot an 80 the day before and finished the final round only one shot off the lead.

At Oakmont's most recent U.S. Open (2007), winner Angel Cabrera shot 5-over par, one of only six golfers who were better than 10-over for 72 holes.

Zimmers is proud to tell you that not much has changed at Oakmont since Fownes designed the course 113 years ago.

“These are the original greens from 1903,” he said.

The greens are expansive, fast, and flow smoothly over an average area of 8,000 square feet.

“They can handle the speed. There is room to play the shots,” said USGA chief agronomist Darin Bevard, noting greens at classic U.S. Open courses such as Winged Foot, Pebble Beach and Shinnecock are nearly half that size.

The greens are undulating, not flat, Zimmers said. Still, they are not without challenges.

Bevard and Zimmers said No. 1 — perhaps the toughest green on the course because it slopes from front to back — resembles “an upside-down turtle.”

Bevard said the 13th green — at the end of a difficult, 183-yard par-3 — “looks like someone buried an elephant in it.”

The key to maintaining Oakmont's reputation as one of the toughest venues in golf is its membership, Bevard said.

“They have a membership that doesn't mind playing a really hard golf course,” he said. “That's what is expected. That's what they enjoy.”

Zimmers said the care put into the maintenance of the greens intensifies when the U.S. Open comes to Oakmont.

He does employ more groundskeepers, though. Volunteers arrive from all over the world, and their number triples to about 150 from a non-U.S. Open summer. Starting two weeks ago, the grass was cut more often — sometimes three times a day. That's a lot of mowing, but Zimmers and Bevard make no apologies for it.

When asked about cutting the grass on the greens, Zimmers uses this analogy:

“When you get up in the morning, you shave. At 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, you have an important dinner. Why do you shave again? Just so you can feel a little bit better. (The feeling) carries over whether it's your face or the putting greens.”

Meanwhile, weather can dramatically alter months of planning.

“Mother Nature rules the roost,” Bevard said.

On the morning of May 16, Zimmers was at work by his usual start time of 4 a.m., but work was delayed two hours because of frost. Walking on the greens after a frost would crush the grass, he said.

For much of the spring, Bevard has been meeting monthly with Zimmers on site and exchanging frequent text messages. He said problems have been identified and resolved.

Bevard, who has worked for the USGA for nearly two decades, said he doesn't want to be portrayed as an evil scientist trying to make the weekend miserable for the golfers, who begin U.S. Open play Thursday at Oakmont.

“I don't mind if over-par wins,” he said. “Conversely, I don't mind if under-par wins it as long as we have done everything that we can do to set up the test. Some (golfers) get on a roll and they can shoot some low numbers.”

Warns Zimmers: “The question is, can they do it four days in a row?”

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.