Oakmont Country Club will host the U.S. Amateur for the sixth time beginning Monday.

The USGA’s national championship was last played at the storied course in 2003 — 84 years after the first amateur was staged there.

Past champions include Nick Flanagan (2003), Steve Melnyk (1969), Willie Turnesa (1938), Bobby Jones (1925) and Davidson Herron (1919).

Here is a year-by-year breakdown of the previous amateurs contested at Oakmont.

1919

Davidson Herron knew Oakmont well, and parlayed his course knowledge into a victory.

His family lived across the street from the club, and the USGA said he used to sell lemonade to the players.

Oakmont had been open for 15 years when it hosted the amateur for the first time.

Playing the amateur the day before he left to attend Princeton, he used to hang around with “Heinie” Fownes, the son of Henry C. Fownes, the founder and course designer of Oakmont. A format change that stuck, went away for a short time, then returned, was used as the USGA adopted a 36-hole stroke-play qualifier that fed into a 32-man match-play bracket. Every match was 36 holes.

Some first-time qualifiers included Francis Ouimet, Harry Vardon and Charles “Chick” Evans.

Bobby Jones also was in the field and reached the 36-hole championship match, where he faced the stocky Herron, a long hitter who worked at a local steel mill.

Jones, who went on to win nine national titles, beat Fownes in the semifinals.

Herron took a 2-up lead over Jones after nine holes, but broke his niblick trying to get out of a bunker on 14 and Jones squared the match.

Herron recovered, moving to 4-up with six holes to play.

1925

Jones made the finals again, only this time he came away victorious, defeating Watts Gunn in the finals.

Gunn, 20, played out of the same club as Jones at East Lake (Ga.). To this day, it remains the only U.S. Amateur that matched club members in the championship.

Watt won 15 straight holes in his opening match and played 50 holes at even par, but Jones was considered the favorite.

The USGA said Jones would sit in the lobby to make sure Watts didn’t sneak out and “enjoy the Pittsburgh night life.”

When he did catch him heading out the door, Jones reportedly said, “Oh, no you don’t. Go get some sleep. I’m going to beat you fair and square,” that according to Jones’ grandson, Bobby IV.

Jones won the 1923 U.S. Open at Inwood (N.Y.) and the ‘24 U.S. Amateur at Merion Cricket Club,

Jones IV said young Bobby Jones told Watts he wasn’t going to give him three shots aside, he was going to “Beat the hell out of you.”

Although Watts had an early lead on the match, Jones, who called his putter “Calamity Jane,” went on to an 8 & 7 win.

He won three more U.S. Amateur titles, in 1927, ‘28 and ‘30.

1938

“Willie the Wedge” claimed victory at Oakmont, splashing out of 13 bunkers over 29 holes in the title match against B. Patrick Abbott.

Lifelong amateur Willie Turnesa did not initially warm up to the sand wedge that Gene Sarazen popularized in the early 1930s, but used the new iron to get around the beachy layout.

Said Turnesa in a USGA recount: “Mr. Fownes always saw to it that no one was going to burn up Oakmont. The greens were so fast. But the greens never bothered me. I thought I could make everything — and I almost did.”

The sand wedge worked that week — it’s on display in the USGA Museum — but so did the putter.

He one-putted eight holes to take a 5-up lead in the morning 18 of the final match, then had seven one-putts in the afternoon on the way to an 8 & 7 victory.

“I don’t know when I ever enjoyed losing a match before, but I enjoyed losing this one,” Abbott said.

1969

Steve Melnyk had knee surgery from a nagging football injury in 1968. He had helped to lead Florida to a NCAA team title that year.

But he did not attempt to qualify for the U.S. Amateur that year. A three-month break from the game, though, sharpened his focus and sent him down the path to multiple victories, including the ‘69 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont.

He won five straight college tournaments in 1969, and also took the Western Amateur.

The U.S. Amateur field included all 20 Walker Cup members and four future stars in Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Andy North and Lanny Wadkins.

“To this day, I’ve never seen greens that fast,” Melnyk said in a USGA recap.

Melnyk shot 2-over-par 286 over 72 holes. From 1965-72 the amateur was stroke play only, with a cut after 36 holes. He had two rounds of 1-under 70.

“Every hole was a battle,” Melnyk said. “There were 18 one-hole battles.”

Melnyk led by eight shots with nine holes to play.

“I shot 2 over and won by five,” he said. “It gives you an idea how hard it was. You could argue that it was too hard for the U.S. Amateur.”

Two years later, Melnyk won The Amateur Championship conducted by The R&A at Carnoustie, defeating Pittsburgh’s Jim Simons in the finals. He went on to a 25-year announcing career with CBS, ESPN, ABC and Golf Channel.

2003

Australian Nick Flanagan became inspired to play golf in 1997 when he saw Tiger Woods win the Masters.

Five years later, he captured the event Woods had won three times (in a row).

Flanagan switched from a conventional putter grip to left-hand-low and, “And then I just couldn’t miss all week,” he told the USGA.

He drained a putt on the final hole of stroke play to get into a playoff for match play. Flanagan pieced together a number of close matches before reaching the final against Oklahoma State freshman Casey Wittenberg.

The pair went to 37 holes before the 31-year-old Flanagan claimed victory to become the first non-American champion since 1971 and the first Australian winner since 1903.

Flanagan, who received a handwritten letter from countryman Greg Norman for support, could have won it on the 35th hole, but missed a 6-foot putt.

He then made a bogey on the 36th and the gum-chomping Wittenberg made par to force extra holes.

Flanagan made par on the first hole to win the Havemeyer Trophy.

“We were both tired from the long week, and he just had a little bit more than me that day,” Wittenberg said.

Flanagan played in the 2004 Masters and U.S. Open, and turned pro shortly thereafter and has spent most of his professional career on the Web.com Tour.

“I just never thought I would be in position to win the U.S. Amateur,” Flanagan said. “Even though I was in the final, I still didn’t feel like I was going to win. But it all worked out in the end.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)