PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — Golf fans coming here next week to watch the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club may want to play a little golf themselves. Pittsburgh has plenty of unique options.
Here are my four top choices — in no particular order — for memorable public golf.
GRAND VIEW GOLF CLUB
The name says it all. This 1997 vintage course is 25 minutes south of Oakmont in Braddock and has breathtaking views of the sprawling Monongahela River Valley, the city skyline and Kennywood Park, which is just across the river and one of only two amusement parks designated as a National Historic Landmark.
This hilltop 18-hole track, nicknamed The Monster on the Mon, was shoe-horned onto a mere 88 acres. Grand View is not a monster for its length. It is only 6,090 yards, par 70, but carries a 130 slope rating because of an assortment of sharp doglegs, blind landing areas and intimidating elevation changes. You have to see the 14th, a 150-yard par 3 with a 160-foot drop to a green that can only partially be seen from the tee. The ninth and 18th holes are serious uphill par-5 holes. Grand View is better the second time around once you know where to lay up on the doglegs.
Related: Monster on the Mon
Come for the views, but also stay for the food at Asti’s Italian Steakhouse, an outstanding restaurant in the clubhouse. The 14-ounce ribeye or Nonna’s lasagna? Hint: Both answers are correct.
Online: PittsburghGolf.com
Fees: $37 daily; $47 weekend.
BOB O’CONNER GOLF COURSE
Few cities have urban golf but this track is located just east of downtown in beautiful Schenley Park, adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh campus and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
Pittsburgh golf was born here in 1897 as a nine-hole layout that later expanded to 18 holes and became one of America’s earliest municipal courses, a track so popular that it recorded 50,000 rounds a year in the 1920s.
Due to modern distance gains, the course, now affectionately known as The Bob, got a much-needed renovation in 2021. The layout was reduced from 18 to nine holes so it now crosses the park road only once instead of seven times. The Arnold Palmer Learning Center for First Tee was added along with a popular three-hole short course, the Palmer Loop. The Bob is executive-course length at 2,400 yards with a par of 34. Its tee shot at the third hole aims a player directly at the university’s 535-foot Cathedral of Learning, the world’s second-tallest education building. The sixth green offers a wonderful view of the city.
Enjoy the serenity, the scenery and — maybe, just maybe — shoot your low round of the year.
Online: TheBobgc.com
Fees: $16, $6 for Palmer Loop
OLDE STONEWALL GOLF CLUB
This is Wow Factor squared, which is why Golf Digest ranked it Pennsylvania’s No. 1 public course. It is 45 minutes northwest of downtown Pittsburgh, but well worth the detour. The original owner spent $11.5 million (or more) hauling in 100,000 tons of gray rock from a nearby quarry just to decorate the course. The clubhouse resembles a medieval fortress with two 11-foot, 800-pound entrance doors and a restaurant called Shakespeare’s. The gray stone maintenance building has battlements and turrets.
The course has spectacular views, rolling terrain, big, undulating greens and is a beast from the tips at 7,103 yards. The 13th, a shortish par 4, features 13 “lucky” bunkers. The par-4 16th may be the most memorable hole due to its 80-foot drop from the tee, not to mention the dicey cart ride up a winding path to reach that tee box.
You also won’t soon forget the 14th and 15th holes — man-eating back-to-back par 3’s at 202 and 241 yards from the tips, respectively, which is reason enough to play the white tees. At Olde Stonewall, follow Shakespeare’s advice from Richard III: “Put in their hands the bruising irons of wrath.” Golf translation: Play hard.
Online: OldeStonewall.com
Fees: $175
THE MADISON CLUB
This course, opened in 1997, is 40 minutes south of Oakmont via the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which famously runs through Oakmont.
The Madison Club has a stellar group of par 3’s. Golfers Lifestyle named its 17th hole as the best No. 17 on any area public course. It is a pretty hole, 150 yards over a lake to a two-tiered green sloped front-to-back. The eighth is also a beauty queen, 180 yards down a steep hill (or 210 yards if you dare try the tips) with a stone wall left and a lake behind the green that catches unsuspecting golfers who don’t realize the elevation change makes the hole play two clubs shorter.
The front nine is fairly wide open, but the back nine’s tree lines will get your attention. The fairways are so well-maintained that head professional Bill Sarsfield holed a 68-yard putt down the 13th hole’s sloping fairway for an eagle 2 in 2018. “My playing partner is upset to this day that I raised my putter when the ball was eight feet from the cup,” Sarsfield says. “I knew it was going in.”
Online: TheMadisonClub.com
Fees: $52, daily; $69, weekend