A REMARKABLE career in golf course design which has had a significant impact throughout Europe, including Ireland, effectively had its beginnings at Oakland Hills in 1950. That was when an ambitious but little known architect, Robert Trent Jones, was called in to course in preparation for the US Open the following year.
The venture was so successful that it was considered necessary to make only minor changes to the course since then, though modern golfing equipment has made it less fearsome. Its status on the US Golf Association's rota of courses can be gauged from the fact that on Thursday it will play host to the blue riband of the American game for a sixth time.
Given that the original layout of two loops was designed by the celebrated Scot, Donald Ross, in 1917, it was decidedly courageous, if not bordering on impudent, for Jones to alter every single hole. "The Lord intended (this land) for a golf links, proclaimed Ross, before setting about the design of a 36 hole complex.
Oakland Hills is, in fact, steeped in golfing lore, in so far as its first professional was the great Walter Hagen, who opened his shop in an old chicken coop. His tenure there was rather brief - he was replaced a year later by Mike Brady, whom he had beaten in a play off for the 1919 US Open.
Alter the success of the 1951 championship, captured by Ben Hogan, Jones used his involvement as a springboard to a career of designing hundreds of courses all over the world. He was responsible for Valderrama, venue for next year's Ryder Cup, and he also designed the second 18 at Ballybunnion and, more recently, the spectacular layout at Adare Manor.
Described by Gene Sarazen as "a masterpiece," the strength of the Oakland Hills course lies in its finishing holes from the par four, 471 yard 14th. The 400 yard 15th is followed by the 403 yard 16th where the approach shot is threatened by water on the right and up to the green. Then comes the 200 yard 17th and the formidable 465 yard 18th.
The US Open has had its milestones, and among these, 1951 at Oakland Hills was very special. Commenting on Jones's remodelling, the correspondent of the New York World Telegram dubbed it "The Monster". The fairways were narrower, the rough punishing, and there were in excess of 100 bunkers. The Jones strategy was to force players to locate clearly defined but well defended landing areas from the tee.
Any loose approach shot was met with severe punishment in the form of deep, greenside bunkers with overhanging faces. Small wonder that nobody broke 70 in the first round, nor in the second or third. In fact it was only on the final afternoon that the championship produced two rounds in the 60s - and one of them came from the winner. By that stage, Jones's words had adopted a prophetic ring: "The player with the best shots, swing and nerve control has the best chance to triumph."
Entering the final round, Hogan, the defending champion, played in the fifth last two ball, two strokes behind the leader, Bobby Locke, who was in the penultimate pairing with Cary Middlecoff. At the 459 yard 18th (as it was then), Hogan hit a particularly long drive and needed only a six iron second shot to leave the ball 20 feet from the pin.
Locke was getting ready to tee off the 10th at the time. When informed of the situation he predicted: "He'll make it." Hogan duly sank the putt for a closing birdie for a round of 67 and an aggregate of 287 - seven over par. It was sufficient to give him victory by two strokes from Clayton Haefner in second place. Locke was third, a stroke further back.
Immediately afterwards, Hogan was moved to remark: "Under the circumstances, it was the greatest round I have played. I didn't think I could do it. My friends said last night that I might win with a pair of 69s. It seemed too much on this course. It is the hardest course I have ever played." Then, at the presentation ceremony, Hogan uttered the immortal line: "I'm glad I brought this course - this monster - to its knees."
After that, the US Open returned to Oakland Hills in 1961, when Gene Littler was victorious, and in 1985 when, most improbably, Andy North captured the title for a second time. The aggregate record of 272, however, was set by David Graham and Ben Crenshaw, not in the US Open but when they tied for the 1979 USPGA Championship which the Australian captured after a play off.
The European challengers for this year's US Open are: Darren Clarke, Paul Eales, Nick Faldo, Anders Forsbrand, David Gilford, Mark James, Barry Lane, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Costantino Rocca, Mark Roe, Sam Torrance, Philip Walton and Ian Woosnam. The last time that Ireland had two representatives in the event was in 1992 at Pebble Beach where Ronan Rafferty and David Feherty both missed the cut.
Meanwhile, the most notable European absentee this year is Seve Ballesteros, who failed to receive a special exemption from the US Golf Association. It means an end to a sequence of 18 US Opens, dating back to his debut in 1978, when be shot rounds of 75, 69, 71, 77 for an aggregate of 292 and a share of 16th place behind North at Cherry Hills.
In last year's championship at Shinnecock Hills, Ballesteros shot rounds of 74 and 73 to miss the cut by one stroke. Commenting on this unwanted milestone in his career, Ballesteros said: "I have a nice chair at home and I'm going to criticise all the bogeys they will be making and I'll say why don't you make birdies; why don't you hit it on the fairway?"
Sadly, his compatriot, Jose Maria Olazabal, who was tied 28th behind Corey Pavin 12 months ago, will also be missing, because of illness.
