US Open 2007 - Truth in Advertising

Allow me a minor diversion from Syracuse basketball.

Tiger, Phil, Vijay and others prepare to tee off this weekend for the 107th US Open on one of the country's toughest golf courses in Oakmont, PA according to the official US Open site. However, that statement isn't quite true.

The US Open is being played at the Oakmont Country Club, a record 8th time for a site to host the open. The Oakmont Country Club, however, is not located in the beautiful village of Oakmont. Only a maintenance shed on a corner of the property is located in Oakmont.

The club is instead located in Plum Borough, PA. Plum is the second largest borough (in terms of land space) in the state of Pennsylvania with 28.6 square miles, and a population of 27,940 (2000 US Census). It's best described as a rural suburb, on the outskirts of the Pittsburgh suburban area. It is also the home of the OrangeHoops blog, and thus the compulsion by me to set the facts straight.

Now to be fair, the area of Plum where the Oakmont Country Club is located is mostly small housing and open fields. The business section of Plum, what little there is, is miles away from the club location. Whereas the village of Oakmont is literally right next store, and the large beautiful homes of Oakmont decorate both sides of Hulton Road as you go down into the village. In fact, residents of Plum who live in that area, refer to themselves as living in "East Oakmont", though they are indeed Plum residents.

So Plum won't get the notoriety this week (except in this blog). But the residence, such as myself, can take some solace in having a nice bump in the tax revenue for the borough over the next week.

Good luck to all the players in this week's tournament. And as history shows, it will definitely be a tough battle.