Oakland Hills Country Club ready for US Junior Amateur in July
The monster is ready to return to its championship past.
Oakland Hills Country Club is in tournament shape as it prepares to host the U.S. Junior Amateur golf tournament July 22-27. It will be the first USGA tournament at the course since the 108-year-old Bloomfield Township course was renovated in 2021 by architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner.
The US Junior Am is the first of eight USGA national tournaments to be played at Oakland Hills through 2051, including four US Opens (two for men in 2034 and 2051 and two for women in 2031 and 2042), and the first since the 2016 US Amateur.
“These championships are an integral part of our identity and over the past few years we have worked specifically with the USGA to strengthen our partnership and bring these coveted events back to Oakland Hills,” said Matt Dossey, General Manager of Oakland Hills.
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Next month, 264 of the world’s best golfers under the age of 19 will attempt to master the Donald Ross-designed course, which has undergone a facelift that has seen hundreds of trees removed from the South Course and other changes made. The tournament will be played throughout the week and includes two rounds of stroke play on the North and Couth Courses.
“There will be non-stop action on both courses from sunrise to sunset on these days,” said Jeff Judge, chairman of the Junior Amateurs and former president of Oakland Hills.
The field will then be reduced to the best 64, who will then compete for the championship in a match play on the South Course.
The champion, who receives an exemption to compete in next year’s U.S. Open, will be crowned on the 18th green beneath the historic clubhouse, which is currently being renovated after it burned down in 2022.
“The steel work is almost complete and the frame will create the silhouette of the new clubhouse for everyone to see when they are here in July,” Judge said.
The field includes 78 players who have received exemptions through the World Amateur Golf Rankings – including Miles Russell (who is also competing in the Rocket Mortgage Classic), Chris Kim, Rayan Ahmed, Blades Brown, Joshua Bai and others – as well as nearly 200 players who have qualified or will qualify in tournaments taking place across the country in May and June.
Admission to the tournament is free, there are no tickets, and a shuttle to the course will be provided by Bloomfield Hills High School. The tournament will be largely open to the public, allowing fans to walk the course with the players and experience the renovations for themselves.
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“We invite anyone who wants to play or watch golf to come next month, be part of this historic championship and see the restored South Course up close,” Judge said.
The championship rounds are played on the more than 6,500-meter-long par-70 South Course. The well-maintained fairway ensures tight lies and is lined with roughs in which a club can get caught and twisted. And that’s not even mentioning the cave-like bunkers on almost every hole.
“We’ve restored the size of the property,” Cuffare said. “You’re looking at over 200,000 square feet of bunkers. When you think about it, that’s a sea of sand and you’re trying to manipulate corridors. And with the tree removal, we have 5-10 mph winds, which isn’t great, but can really affect the golf ball.”
The most important measure in the course renovation was the removal of trees, which is described as a natural evolution of the site and in keeping with Ross’ original design. The aim was to create better sight lines throughout the course and between holes, encourage more strategy in the execution of each shot and leave the greens in the sun.
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“It was an opportunity to open everything up and see a beautiful property rather than a collection of individual holes,” said Oakland Hills golf pro Steve Brady. “That was the plan and that was the original design.”
Another benefit of the change, Brady said, is the tournament atmosphere, because participants can watch others play different holes from a tee box, such as the 12th tee box, which overlooks holes 8, 11 and 16. Each green is visible from the tee box and vice versa, so players can follow what others are doing around them.
“This is the result,” Cuffare said of the renovation, highlighting Ross’ original work. “It’s a cathedral of championship golf.”
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