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Gil Hanse reflects on Oakmont U.S. Open and admits it wasn't a relaxing watch

Scott Halleran
Gil Hanse is, quite literally, everywhere. Last week, he stopped at Oakmont Country Club, which he and his team restored in 2023, to take in a few days at the U.S. Open. Then, Seminole Golf Club, where Hanse is working on another restoration project, came calling, filling up what he thought might be a free weekend. From there he went straight to New Jersey for a media day at Baltusrol Golf Club's Upper Course, which Hanse and his team restored to its original A.W. Tillinghast design and re-opened for play six weeks ago.
Being everywhere makes you an incredibly busy man and a hot commodity, making him a hard guy to crack down. Fortunately, we were able to catch up with him for a few minutes in Springfield, N.J. on Tuesday, and naturally a large portion of our conversation revolved around how Oakmont tested the world's best for last week's 125th U.S. Open.
While Hanse has no input in how the USGA sets up the golf course for U.S. Open week, he was still thrilled with how it played as he watched from afar.
"Mike McCormick [Oakmont superintendent] and his team presented it beautifully," Hanse said. "Oakmont was Oakmont, which is, you know, one of the things I love about what Jim [Wagner, Hanse's design partner] and I do with this, and our team, is that it played very differently than Los Angeles Country Club. And it played very differently than The Country Club [at Brookline]. So it's the setup that the USGA does, and I think they did a great job, it mimics the golf course, and Oakmont is uniquely difficult."
Of course, there were still a number of challenges the USGA faced last week. Namely, weather, the one thing you cannot control when it comes to golf course setup.
"You're obviously wanting to see if the golf course is responding in the way you hoped it wouldm" Hanse said. "That's obviously very weather dependent. I think the thing we've learned is once we're finished, our hands are off the wheel. It's Mother Nature, it's agronomy, and it's the USGA setup that if we've done our job, we've given them everything they need to set up a great championship.
"I'd be lying if I said I'm relaxed when I'm watching it, because you're definitely thinking about your client, you're thinking about the superintendent. You're thinking about all the things you want to go right, and sometimes they don't, or sometimes they're different. And sometimes, I surprise myself with the reactions when things happen."
We also asked Hanse about the rough length and how it affected the championship, and if he's able to ever pat himself on the back for the generational architecture run he's been on. Plus, he gives us a preview of some new projects he's working on and tells us about the work to Baltusrol Golf Club's Upper Course, which is recognized as equally good, if not better, than the historic Lower Course. Please, have a listen to our full chat, and like and subscribe to The Loop wherever you get your podcasts.