Feb 24, 2019 By Mike Dudurich for The 4 min read

Turns out golf fans in the region won’t have to wait until 2025 to see major championship golf in person.

The USGA’s announcement late this week that the U.S. Amateur would return to Oakmont Country Club in 2021 makes that a certainty.

The field of 312 of the best amateurs in the world will qualify for 64 spots in the match play portion of the championship at Oakmont and Longue Vue Country Club before the final 64 will battle at Oakmont.

This will be the sixth time the Am has been held at Oakmont and the 17th time a USGA major will be held there.

“We’re thrilled, it’s Number 6 for us,” said Oakmont’s head professional Devin Gee. “It’s pretty exciting.”

The last time the amateurs played at OCC was 2003 when an unheralded Australian, Nick Flanagan, outlasted Casey Wittenberg in 36 holes to win the title.

“Whenever I’m asked where I won the U.S. Amateur and I say Oakmont, the usual reaction is wide eyes followed by ‘wow, what a place to win,'” said Flanagan.

In addition to remembering what a great young man Flanagan was, the other thing I’ll always remember about 2003 was being out on the course with then Oakmont golf professional Bob Ford when we stopped to watch some of the action on the third hole.

That’s the one that features the church pews on the left side of the fairway. As we watched a few groups hit their tee shots on the uphill par-4, we noticed the longer hitters taking their shots up the right side, flying the last bunker on the edge of the fairway and finishing just short of the green.

Ford shook his head several times, looked at me and said, “That’s not going to happen next time.”

And sure enough, when the U.S. Open was held there in 2007 a new big ol’ bunker was in place at the top of the hill.

Who knows, by 2021 the amateurs may fly that one, too.

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Another week, another rules controversy or two in professional golf.

Ho-hum.

At the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, Rickie Fowler shanked a ball out of bounds and before it had stopped rattling around in the trees, he had called for another ball from his caddie. As the caddie was putting the box which held the ball back into Fowler’s golf bag, the player quickly took a drop and reloaded.

Unfortunately, he dropped his ball from shoulder height instead of knee height as is now required by the new rules of golf. Had Fowler’s caddie noticed what his player was doing, he could have called him on it before he hit and re-dropped the ball correctly.

Because he didn’t see it, Fowler was hit with a one-stroke penalty.

Then, on the LPGA Tour, Amy Olson and Ariya Jutanugarn created a furor with a decision they made as they approached the 18th green in the Honda Thailand tournament Friday.

With pace of play dragging (shocking, I know) and partner Michelle Wie waiting for a ruling, Olson and Jutanugarn opted to play out. The latter chipped to within a foot of the hole and, instead of having her mark her ball, Olson played up, later saying her partner’s ball wasn’t in her line and was not a factor in her shot.

Turns out it was and her ball hit Jutanugarn, creating a “backstopping” situation in which a player has an opponent leave their ball on the green as a backstop just in case. That practice has long ago been legislated out of the game.

Both players were interviewed by LPGA officials afterward and the ruling was made that no rule had been broken. The players said they weren’t aware of the rule but such a thing was not in their minds.

Of course, the incident triggered howls of cheating from some and passionate defenses of the two girls from others.

I don’t know, I can’t wait for spring because I’m pretty sure my knee-height drop needs some work.

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Do you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual who has done something special? Let me know. Send your story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com.