Oakmont Country Club is hosting its record-setting 10th U.S. Open this week, and in one of the previous nine U.S. Opens at Oakmont, a University of Pittsburgh graduate won the Tournament — Sam Parks Jr.
Parks won the 1935 U.S. Open — the second Open hosted by Oakmont — with a total of 299 strokes throughout the four rounds, good for 11 over par. Parks was the first player to break 300 over four rounds at Oakmont. The previous US Open winner at Oakmont, Tommy Armour, shot a 301 over his four rounds.
Parks’ victory at Oakmont in 1935 was extremely unexpected, and is known as a “Cinderella Story” in Oakmont’s History Hall. Parks wasn’t a traveling golfer on the PGA Tour, like the majority of Major Championship winners — he was just the head pro at South Hills Country Club, which is a 20-mile drive from Oakmont.
The Pitt graduate, who also founded Pitt’s golf team while he was a student, used his closeness to the Oakmont Country Club to his advantage, as he would constantly practice at the nearby golf course in preparation for the Major Championship.
Parks’ knowledge of the course is why he beat the likes of Walter Hagan, an 11-time major championship winner, and Gene Sarazen, a seven-time major championship winner. Sarazen was also a major contributor to why Parks won. According to Oakmont’s History Hall, Parks got his first golf lesson from Sarazen while Sarazen was the pro at Highland Country Club, which was formerly located in a suburb north of Pittsburgh.
Parks’ Open win at Oakmont was the only Major Championship of his career, and he is the only person to win at Oakmont and not go on to win another Major Championship. He would win four other smaller, localized championships later in his golfing career, and he played a part in the U.S. team’s win over Great Britain in the 1935 Ryder Cup.
In the 1935 Ryder Cup, he was the first reigning U.S. Open Champion to face off against the reigning Open Championship winner in Ryder Cup history.
Parks is the only graduate from the University of Pittsburgh to win a Major Championship, and despite creating a varsity golfing team for Pitt, it never really stuck. The best year for the program was in 1958, when the team made its first and only NCAA Championship appearance.
Now, golf at Pitt is just a club sport, despite the city having the famous Oakmont Country Club just a 25-minute drive away.
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