Pittsburgh Golf Course Ranked Among World's Top 10

OAKMONT, PA - The results are in, and there is a reason for local duffers to be proud. Golf Magazine has released it's biennial ranking of the top 100 courses in the world, and the Oakmont Country Club is ranked eighth.

"No course plays so much viciously harder than it looks than Oakmont," Golf noted in its ranking. "No trees, no water, few forced carries and huge greens normally add up to a sea of red numbers for the game's best, but not here. For a course famed for its difficulty, what gets lost in the shuffle is the brilliance of its short par 4s."

Few venues in the world of golf have the championship tradition of Oakmont. Introduced in 1903 by designer Henry Fownes, Oakmont Country Club has hosted more major championships than
any other course in the U.S., including eight United States Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships, and two U.S. Women’s Open.

Oakmont remains perhaps the most difficult course in North America, with 210 deep bunkers (personified by the Church Pews), hard and slick greens that slope away from the player, and tight fairways requiring the utmost precision. Oakmont was the site of “the greatest round of the
20th century”: Johnny Miller’s final round 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open.

Golf's ranking of the world's top courses:

1. Pine Valley, Pine Valley NJ

2. Cypress Point, Pebble Beach, CA

3. St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland

4. Shinnock Hills, Southampton, NY

5. National Golf Links of America, Southampton, NY

6. Royal County Down, Newcastle, Northern Ireland

7. Royal Melbourne West, Melbourne, Australia

8. Oakmont

9. Augusta National, Augusta, GA

10. Royal Dornach, Dornach, Scotland.