With 15,000 Fewer Trees, Oakmont Is Now Ready for Another U.S. Open

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A former club president, known as Old Chainsaw, started the process in 1994 under cover of darkness. It transformed play.

Bunkers known as the Church Pews between the third and fourth holes at Oakmont Country Club, near Pittsburgh. The course once had hundreds of bunkers — and thousands more trees.June 11, 2025, 12:19 p.m. ET

Standing on the back porch at Oakmont Country Club, site of the U.S. Open, which begins on Thursday, you can see 16 of the 18 greens. This is something that was not possible and was downright undesirable when the club hosted the…