Philip Reiddetails the history of the course and how a clandestine operation by the greenkeeping staff has returned it to its original, linksy design that runs hard and fast 3rd Hole 5th Hole 13th Hole 2nd Hole

Pittsburgh, a place of firsts. It was here the first "Big Mac" was created, that the game of bingo was invented and the first motion picture theatre - the Nickelodeon - was opened. More? It was here the first petrol station was opened, where the Ferris Wheel was invented and the first commercial radio station was launched, broadcasting from a shack atop a building in east Pittsburgh.

Oakmont Country Club, where the US Open returns this week for an eighth time, more often than any other venue in the major's history, was, in a convoluted way, born out of a household accident. It was 1896 and HC Fownes, the son of English immigrants, was at home using a welding torch to mend his bicycle when he noticed dark spots in his vision and sought medical attention. His doctors told him he was suffering from arteriosclerosis and gave him two to three years to live. Fownes was 39.

With supposedly little time left on this earth, Fownes, a successful businessman, decided he wanted to enjoy his last years. He got out of many of his business interests. And even when, two years later, a doctor lifted the death sentence, informing him that he was not suffering from arteriosclerosis but that the spots were in fact macular damage caused by the torch because he hadn't worn a welder's mask, Fownes decided to concentrate on enjoying life rather than returning entirely to business.

He had come to enjoy poker, a good drink, cigars, fast cars . . . and golf.

Although he only took up the game when he was 41, Fownes became an accomplished player and qualified for the US Amateur championship seven times. But he found the clubs in Pittsburgh - the Highland Country Club and Pittsburgh Field Club - not to his tastes. So, he decided to start his own. He gathered up some family and friends, and set about forming a new club with an 18-hole course.

Fownes found some relatively flat farmland on the edge of Oakmont, a town on the northeastern outskirts of Pittsburgh with about 2,000 residents. The group bought the land in April 1903, started construction in September of that year and were playing the course by 1904. So HC Fownes - who designed the course, his one and only design - created Oakmont, a course that has tormented players since.

OAKMONT BEGAN AS a fast running track, reminiscent of the links courses that Fownes had visited in Britain. He commissioned a crew of 150 men and 25 donkeys to clear out the 191 acres. They built a course with narrow fairways, wickedly fast greens and penal bunkers.

Oakmont was lengthened over the years, but except for the eighth green - which had to be moved in the 1940s to make way for the Pennsylvania Turnpike - the layout remains where Fownes put it, first playing host to the US Open in 1927 (won by Tommy Armour), and most recently in 1994, when Ernie Els won a play-off over Loren Roberts and Colin Montgomerie. Sam Parks (1935), Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1962), Johnny Miller (1973) and Larry Nelson (1983) have also won US Opens here.

What has changed since Els's victory is that most of the trees on the land have been felled, restoring the course to Fownes's original design. The restoration was necessary because the post-Fownes era was marked by a nationwide tree-planting barrage, with Oakmont at the fore. In an attempt to "beautify" the course, the club members planted ornamental saplings on virtually every open space on the course.

By 1993, those trees had grown and Oakmont bore little resemblance to its original identity. A dense framework of vegetation choked the holes and the shade prompted soft fairways and greens.

The deforestation programme started in a modest fashion in the months before the 1994 US open when, in the stealth of night, a squadron of greenstaff convened at the course armed with high-beamed floodlights and 20-inch chainsaws. Mark Kuhns, the former course superintendent, led a clandestine removal operation, cutting down trees and carefully discarding evidence of their work (so not to upset club members) by laying topsoil and fresh sods over the leftover hole. They even went so far as to use high-powered vacuums to hide any traces of sawdust or debris.

"We chipped everything, right there," recalled Kuhns. "We ground the stump up, took out the surface roots. We had topsoil and a sodcutter there. We'd fill in with topsoil and tap the sod down. We had two sweepers around so if there was any sawdust left, we'd sweep that up. There were no leaves left, nothing. We had a quality control person there to make sure that every leaf, every ounce of sawdust was gone. We'd go back through with rakes to fluff up the grass, and it was like we weren't even there."

Between 1993 and 1995, Oakmont's moonlight operation thrived under the darkness of secrecy. The members didn't notice - that is, until the self-styled lumberjacks removed a line of pine trees between the 12th and 13th holes. It was then that the tree cutting programme, which had been authorised by ex-golf chairman Mark Studer and his green committee, caused uproar at the club and was brought out into the daylight and gathered momentum that sees only two tall American Elders remaining on the course's interior.

SOME SENIOR MEMBERS signed petitions and wrote letters of protest. Tree preservationists took note of all the remaining trees on the course with panoramic photography. There were threats of lawsuits, alleging that tree removal would jeopardise Oakmont's status as a National Historic Landmark. Members held town hall meetings, and offered up prayers at local churches.

The howls of protest, though, died down.

"Members gradually stopped grumbling and learned to appreciate our original look," remarked Studer.

In all, some 5,000 trees were removed from the course, making it look as it did when Fownes built it more than 100 years ago. Of the clandestine programme, Studer commented: "We simply acted as custodians of our architectural heritage, an agenda our members never would have supported. The issue was never about the virtues or liabilities of the trees. Our motivation was to reclaim Fownes' legacy and protect his vision of the golf course."

The upshot of the deforestation programme is that Oakmont once more plays fast and firm. The wholesale removal of the trees has been heralded by agronomists and architecture purists as a path-breaking example of sound course management, with other courses like Winged Foot following suit (if not in so dramatic a fashion).

The addition of back tees on nine holes - the first, second, fourth, seventh, eighth, 12th, 15th, 16th and 18th - has enabled the par 70 course to play as long as 7,355 yards, up 234 yards on 1994.

On two days, the par five 12th hole will be stretched to 667 yards (making it the longest hole in US Open history). One can only surmise that it is the way Mr HC Fownes would have wanted it.