Oakland Hills Country Club

Donald Ross designed the original Oakland Hills South Course in 1918 on a piece of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan suburban land north of Detroit. Robert Trent Jones Sr. redesigned the routing in 1951 for the U.S. Open — adding bunkers, lengthening holes, and producing what Ben Hogan famously called "the monster" after winning the championship at three over par. The combination of Ross's original architectural framework and Jones's championship-grade modifications gave Oakland Hills South a tournament-defining personality that remained constant through six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships, the 1981 U.S. Senior Open, the 1991 U.S. Senior Open, the 2002 U.S. Amateur, and the 2004 Ryder Cup.

The South Course plays around 7,400 yards par 70 from the championship markers, with bent fairways and a slope in the upper 140s. Hogan's 1951 victory over the Jones-modified routing remains the defining moment in the club's history; Gary Player won the 1972 U.S. Open at age thirty-six; Andy North won in 1985; Steve Jones won in 1996. Phil Mickelson won the 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills. The eighteenth hole — a 498-yard par-4 with a green set on a natural rise above the clubhouse — has been the deciding hole in multiple major-championship editions. Gil Hanse restored the South Course in 2019-2021, bringing the bunkers and green complexes back closer to Ross's original lines while preserving the Jones-era championship vocabulary.

Oakland Hills is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The club operates two courses, the South and the North, with South as the championship venue. The 2024 U.S. Women's Amateur was the most recent major event hosted. The 2034 U.S. Open is scheduled for the South Course following the Hanse restoration.

Michigan southeastern climate gives Oakland Hills a playing season of April through October. The course closes through Michigan winter and reopens when the soil thaws. The mature tree canopy on the South Course keeps the routing cooler in mid-summer than the surrounding suburban courses by a measurable margin.