A trip inside the U.S. Open merchandise tent in Oakmont

Before Yasuhiro Kano strolled over to the 34,000-square-foot U.S. Open merchandise tent Monday at Oakmont Country Club, he set a budget: $500.

By the time he was done, Kano, 55, of Chicago, had shirts, hats and souvenirs for friends back in Illinois, but he stayed on budget.

“I like golf,” Kano said unapologetically with a chuckle, adding this is the second U.S. Open he has attended.

Operating this small city of commerce is no small feat.

The United States Golf Association’s merchandise team includes 17 people from the organization’s New Jersey headquarters, 23 interns, 250 sales vendors and 1,100 volunteers — and 50 checkout registers.

Interns began setting up the tent five or six weeks ago, said Mary Lopuszynski, who serves as the the USGA’s managing director of merchandise and licensing.

Overall, there are hundreds of thousands of items for sale, from golf towels, hats and shirts to stuffed animals, ball markers and sunglasses.

The tent opened to the public Thursday through Sunday but now is restricted to U.S. Open ticketholders.

“We had a bunch of rain, but we still had a great turnout,” Lopuszynski said.

She said she believes this year was the second-best pre-championship sales in U.S. Open history. That momentum is only going to continue as the week progresses, she said.

‘Night and day’

The merchandise selection has evolved since she started working with the USGA in 1994, Lopuszynski said.

What hasn’t changed is the fascination with hats.

“Everybody loves hats,” Lopuszynski said. “We’ll sell 100,000 hats here this week. That’s probably our No. 1 by quantity.”

While the 1990s and early 2000s saw mostly cotton-based clothing that showed sweat, it’s now trendy — and more comfortable — to don performance fabrics, she said.

“People are dressing differently,” she said. “Before covid, we used to wear different things to work. … You’d have a side of your closet for work and a side of your closet for golf or your casual life, and now they have kind of merged together.”

An inside look at the 34,000 square foot merchandise tent here at the U.S. Open @TribLIVE @usopengolf ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/IsyLe9yGj6

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) June 9, 2025

Elizabeth Rogers, 34, of Moon purchased a hat and a towel Monday.

“They have everything you could possibly think of and then more,” she said. “It is busy, but it’s so spacious that you’re not crowded — and you have room to shop.”

Lopuszynski predicted 500,000 items will be sold this week. In addition to hats, that will include favorites like towels, home items and coffee mugs.

Lopuszynski estimated 120,000 transactions will happen over the course of the tournament.

“It’s on par with last year, but I think it’ll be a little bit ahead of some of the others in the past,” she said. “It’s ahead of what we did here in 2016 and 2007.”

Before the U.S. Open, the merch team does market research to determine what will sell most in the area where the tournament is being held. For Oakmont, that’s black-and-gold merch for Pittsburgh sports fans.

“We also did a cute stuffed squirrel,” Lopuszynski said, referring to the traditional Oakmont logo. “They will be gone. There will not be a stuffed squirrel in this tent on Sunday — we probably should’ve ordered more (than 5,000).”

Lopuszynski said the black-and-gold items, including hats and T-shirts, have been popular. There’s even a U.S. Open-themed Pittsburgh Penguins jersey and black-and-gold-themed golf balls for sale.

Pittsburgh, this one’s for you — we have a Penguins hockey jersey-themed sweatshirt in (you guessed it!) black and gold @TribLIVE @usopengolf pic.twitter.com/fLoORLlA71

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) June 9, 2025

Another Pittsburgh-themed item: black and gold golf balls for $15 @TribLIVE @usopengolf pic.twitter.com/pbKrfQxd4C

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) June 9, 2025

“You guys are a sports town, of course,” she said. “Every time we come back again, for me, it’s felt like it’s even better. (We) couldn’t be happier to be back here in Pittsburgh.”

Another hot item is outerwear, according to Lopuszynski.

“We’re reordering quite a bit from our vendors to try to get more in here,” she said. “It’s been rainy the last month or so, so I think that that’s part of it.”

Lopuszynski said more stock can be delivered overnight or in two days.

“We’re trying to replenish already for what we might need later in the week,” she said. “It’s going to be slim pickings in here on Sunday.”

Hefty prices

Jesse Ayers and Ally Selfridge attended Monday’s practice round. Both 20 years old and from Ligonier, they said the steep merchandise prices were to be expected.

“For like a college kid like me, it’s pretty unaffordable,” Ayers said.

He goes to Westmoreland County Community College and became interested in golf about six years ago.

“You save your money, and I mean, this is the kind of thing that you only really get to do once in your life,” Ayers said. “You gotta make the most of it.”

The least expensive item available was a ball marker for $2. The most expensive item was a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses for $429.

This just in: We have discovered the cheapest item in the U.S. Open merchandise tent.

It’s a ball marker for $2, and they come in different colors. We’re on the hunt for the most expensive item next @TribLIVE @usopengolf pic.twitter.com/XQQM2johkB

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) June 9, 2025

Folks, here it is — the most expensive item available for purchase in the U.S. Open merchandise tent…

A pair of sunglasses for a whopping $429 @TribLIVE @usopengolf pic.twitter.com/RQ1mgaIRNB

— Megan Swift (@mgswift7) June 9, 2025

Ayers encouraged Selfridge, who just graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, to become interested in golf about a year ago.

“It’s nice to see a lot of women’s clothes,” she said. “You don’t really see that a lot in other places.”

Selfridge picked out a navy crew neck sweatshirt, and Ayers selected two hats, a divot tool, a ball marker, a cover for his putter and a luggage tag. He also got matching bucket hats for his family.

The tent’s front doors remained open Monday. But once the championship rounds start beginning Thursday, Lopuszynski said, traffic through the tent will be closely monitored to control the number of shoppers inside at any given time.

Even with 50 checkout counters, lines will get long and backed up, she said.

There’s a smaller satellite merchandise tent — about 5,400 square feet — near the Oakmont Country Club clubhouse. It has the same products but not as much stock.

For anyone who doesn’t have a U.S. Open ticket and missed the presale days last week, some branded products can be purchased on the USGA.com’s Fanatics site.