What do Oakmont’s nine U.S. Open champions have in common?

If there is one thing about the love (and hatred) of golfers (and golf writers), it is cliché. Show driving, push rod dough. Tee high, let it fly. Never rise, never mind. They are usually as useful as 1 iron in a pot bunker.

Then there is the “Horse of the Course”. Conceptually, this makes sense. And, yes, Tigers won eight times in Torrey Pines, Firestone and Bay Hill. But when you are in the Secretariat, every track is for you. Save your stamps, Mark O’Meara: We know you won five championships at Pebble Beach, almost one-third of your 16 Tour titles, including the Masters.

Augusta national, there is a friction. Given its length, it’s a long hitter’s paradise – unless it’s not. Charl Schwartzel? Zach Johnson? Mike Weir? When is the exception to prove the rule that this is not the real rule after all?

This brought us to Oakmont, which is the most visited and perhaps the most feared of all our open venues. It became the longest public host ever when it debuted at 6,929 yards in 1927. The bombers won victory in Oakmont, such as Jack and Ernie, DJ and Angel Cabrera. Unless it’s great Ironman players like OG Tommy Armor, Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller and Larry Nelson.

If we were to cliché, how about “cream rises to the top of Oakmont”? Of course, Sam Parks Jr. Horses usually like their oval shape except for the local lead professional.

This is Oakmont’s U.S. Open champion and how they accomplished it. Like snowflakes, each is unique.

Tommy Armour, 1927

Oakmont cruel? ‘in this way. In the first Open in 1927, there were only two rounds below par, including the second round of armored 71. “Silver Scot” saved the final round of 76 with a great 3-4-4-4-4-3-4-3, and after he had a footsteps with Heckler, his close exchange was in close contact. “I’ve been reading you’re a great Ironman player,” the man said. “Okay, let’s see you play one now.” The ensuing 3-iron to 10-foot game ended that discussion and put the armor into the playoffs with “Lighthorse” Harry Cooper. (There is a reason, Tommy Armour has been around since the 1940s.

Sam Parks Jr., 1935

Home cooking Never hurt. Parks, a local boy on the University of Pittsburgh golf team and a founding member of the University of Pittsburgh, is a pro at the nearby South Hills Country Club, and before he went to work, he played nine holes in Oakmont every day. The preparatory match paid off – only three out of the 72 holes of Devil Green on the court, making him the only golfer to break 300 in the week to be plagued by cruel weather. Although the 1935 U.S. Open proved his only top ten major results, Parks, who later became Oakmont member, did win four times (including the 1940 Pennsylvania Open) and beat his only game in singles against British Open champion Alf Perry in 1935 Ryder Cup.

Ben Hogan, 1953

Hogan, Already a three-time U.S. Open champion, he started a start with a 67 lead in the Championship and he never gave up on the lead – but it was really nervous because Sam Snead put him in a 72nd round of the third round of the 72 season on Saturday morning on 18 August. In the final round of the afternoon that afternoon, Snead kept the counterattack at the turn until Hogan hit the accelerator, putting three birdies in 13th place in the inner nine games, including a monster putt to beat the lucky Snead with six, who will finish second in the national championship four times without winning. Hogan won the Masters in April and won the Op-Oakmont Open Championship a few weeks later (overlapping with PGA that year) to one of the titles.

Jack Nicklaus, 1962

Behold, for the greatest major champion of golf, zero ground is its biggest competition. Nicklaus competed in his sixth U.S. Open at the age of 22, and despite being the first professional player, he finished second in Arnold Palmer’s 1960 victory and second in Game 4 in 1961. Nicklaus is the T5, two behind Palmer, a local son from nearby Latrobe, to start the final round. Nicklaus and Palmer were led after 13, and each missed the birdie opportunity at 18. “The big guys aren’t in the cage right now,” Palmer said. “Everyone is better off proposing.”

Johnny Miller, 1973

Did Miller see the greatest round in major championship history? no. He told his wife Linda that once his last week putt fell off, he was ready to clean up the next event. A Saturday’s 76ers dropped Miller to T13, with six defenders. However, within range, the voice on the player’s head tells him to exaggerate his position. Good advice: 1 to 4 birds. One proved in the 8’s three bogeys to be just a piece of the pieces – Miller had four of the next five holes and then stuffed another way on the 15 to build another birdie and solo. In the closed hole, he hit his 18th green in the statute, took out a 20-foot player for Birdie and signed the first 63 of the Grand Slam.

Larry Nelson, 1983

Nelson, the most unlikely and toughest of the major championships, clamped a pair of PGA Championships together in 1981 and 1987. After serving as an infantryman in Vietnam, he occupied golf balls at the age of 21. In Oakmont, Nelson was late again and played 74-73 with a score of 74-73. Bogey Bogey on Saturday after the third hole, he +7 instead of a man’s radar. And then – bam! – Nelson scored the next 14 holes in Saturday’s seven holes, co-leaders Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson. In the final round, Nelson put a miraculous 62-foot birdie putt on Watson on the 3rd 16 man, who staggered. Nelson’s weekend broke the Open’s final 36-hole scoring record 65-67, which was retained by Gene Sarazen for more than half a century.

Ernie Els, 1994

Big easy In 1994, the third round 66ers brought Els a three-stroke mat, against followers Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts, which made him difficult. But South Africa’s Sunday struggle opened the door. Roberts is the “Moss Boss”, his 18-foot-tall lead with the club, but “I can hardly get the putt back,” he later said, missed. Els needed to win the game in the last game, slaughtering the hole, but a five-foot distance similar to Roberts to create a tee playoff. Among them, the Montgomery double boat 2 and 3 routes were on the 78th; Els created the bogey, triple bogey, but like Roberts, dug 74 times, Els won the second hole of sudden death with two putt titles. ph!

Angel Cabera, 2007

Nicknamed “El Pato” (“Duck”) Cabrera grew up in difficult conditions and was the son of a handyman and a maid who separated and took care of a grandmother at a very young age. By the age of 10, he made money and learned games. All in all, it’s not someone who is stressed by Oakmont’s difficulties, nor is it facing Tiger Woods and local hero Jim Furyk, who was both beaten by a stroke. Cabrera’s final round No. 69 included an impossible birdie 2 in the third eight, with 300 yards. He became the first South American to win the U.S. Open and the only player in the field to play two under par on the Par-70 layout.

Dustin Johnson, 2016

DJ seems to be a sad child in the Grand Slam. He scored three shots in the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open – shooting 82 shots. The 72nd hole shot led the 2010 PGA, thinking he made a bogey, but was fined two points for rooting his club in a bunker. Three feet from the last 12-foot three feet in the 2015 U.S. Open. To make the barbaric Oakmont prove catharsis a year later, the golf god has made enough contributions. Johnson’s final round of the game where he won three points in a third was almost flawless…Aside from the controversial one-rush free throw, he scored on the fifth green, but despite his move on the fifth green at the time. DJ will DJ.