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These Before-And-After Photos Of The Oakmont U.S. Open In 1994 Versus 2025 Are Wild

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Oakmont Country Club U.S. Open 1994 vs 2025 Before and After tree removal

Getty Image / Gary Newkirk/ALLSPORT/© Bill Streicher-Imagn Images


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Golf course designer Gil Hanse is one of the 5 most famous/revered names in the world of golf course architecture. He is the genius designer behind Ohopee, Apogee, Streamsong Black, Pinehurst (The Cradle), and plenty more along with the man credited for restorations of Oakmont Country Club (2023), Aronimink (2018), Baltusrols Lower and Upper (2020, 2024), and the list goes on and on. What he did before this year’s U.S. Open is nothing short of incredible.

Gil Hanse began restoration work on Oakmont Country Club in March of 2023. The key word here being ‘restoration’ and not ‘renovation’ because the idea was to return Oakmont CC to what the course was like in all its glory when it was built in 1904.

Jamie Kennedy of Golf Digest shared a thread on X showing before-and-after photos from the 1994 and the current 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which has hosted a record-setting 10 U.S. Opens, and the differences are striking. Gil Hanse was able to unlock the panoramic views players would have seen 120+ years ago by removing so many of the trees which sprung up over the past century.

Trees on golf courses is entirely a matter of preference. Speaking at his U.S. Open press conference prior to the event, Collin Morikawa discussed how he loves trees on the course because they act as another penalty. But there’s a minimalist movement in golf that can be seen here. Starting with the 18th tee box:

The 1st hole at Oakmont Country Club is the hardest starting hole in championship golf. The changes seen here up the left and thinning out on the right are drastic:

The 9th hole is another example where thinning out the trees and seemingly shifting the tee box over created a drastically different hole than what was played at the 1994 U.S. Open:

On this one, the 10th fairway, I honestly have trouble even believing it was the same hole. The view has changed so much here over the years:

The same can be said with this view from the fairway on the 1st hole. What this does do the depth perception of golfers compared to 1994 has to be wild:

The 16th tee shot has changed so much from 1994 to now. I honestly prefer the 1994 view to now. This is the first of the views I think looked better in the past:

The 5th and 11th tees in the next two I also think looked better in 1994. Modernization is creeping in on these holes and it’s my belief they just looked better with the trees:

Depending on the course, I’m generally pro-tree removal. Jamie Kennedy’s work here shows that some holes do look much better. And I think the ones that don’t look as good are primarily marred by the hospitality tents. He has more before-and-after photos of the U.S. Open 1994 vs now in that thread so click through to the thread on the tweets above and be sure to throw him a follow for more threads like that in the future.

And to read more about the restoration work Gil Hanse did at Oakmont Country Club you can read this feature on him here from the USGA.

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Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible and a graduate from Florida State University with nearly two decades of expertise in writing about Professional Sports, Fishing, Outdoors, Memes, Bourbon, Offbeat and Weird News, and as a native Floridian he shares his unique perspective on Florida News. You can reach Cass at cass@brobible.com
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