As tournament nears, USGA says U.S. Open construction 'progressing positively'

With about a month left until the world’s top golfers hit the greens for the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, USGA officials said construction work across the club’s grounds is right on track.

On-site work for the four-day tournament began in February. Despite a “difficult spring” filled with turbulent weather and some recent severe storms, Tim Lloyd, senior director of the U.S. Open, said the setup work has been “progressing positively.”

Unlike some other major golf events, the U.S. Open takes place at a different course each year, generally rotating back to Oakmont in about nine- to 10-year cycles. The most recent tournament at the club took place in 2016.

The tournament nine years ago provided a basic roadmap for this year’s preparations, but the infrastructure for each tournament varies.

“Even though there’s some similarities between 2016 and 2025, there’s still a significant amount that’s new,” he said. “And, so, that’s kind of the fun part of the job we do, but can also be a challenging part.”

After a February with daily temperatures averaging below freezing, workers were faced with severe storms April 29 that left more than a half-million customers without power and large-scale damage throughout the region.

Oakmont Country Club fared better than many nearby locations, with no injuries to construction crew members and substantial damage to only one of the tournament’s temporary structures, according to Jimmy Parks, president of Arena Americas, the event’s construction company.

That damage was to a 28,000- square-foot Trophy Room structure that Parks said was rebuilt within a week of the storm.

“We are extremely proud of our team on site for their quick actions,” Parks said. “They were able to clear the site, and they did an amazing job securing the structures.”

Arena Americas, a large-scale events company based in Wisconsin, has been one of USGA’s main contractors for the U.S. Open, constructing every iteration of the event since 2015.

Compared to 2016’s tournament, Parks said his crews are building with bigger crowds in mind.

That means workers are busy constructing 247 larger tents and several double-decker stands, Parks said, for the expected tens of thousands of fans that will walk the course each day.

Planning for the tournament begins about two years before its start date, Parks said. In that time, the company is mapping out logistics, performing site visits and dropping off gear for later use.

A normal day of construction sees about 75 workers preparing the course’s infrastructure, though Parks said that number can reach up to 100 in busier times.

To date, Parks said, Arena has delivered 220 semi-truck loads to Oakmont, yielding about 700,000 square feet of structures and flooring at the site.

That’s around the same size as Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena.

Parks said crews already have constructed almost all of the large structures and are currently working on erecting “ancillary structures,” such as tents. Most work will be complete about a week before the tournament, he said, leaving a few days to iron out the details.

Once each structure is up, it is the job of Dennis Beaubien and his Los Angeles-based interior design firm Production Elements, Inc. to design and decorate the spaces.

Though it is Beaubien’s seventh U.S. Open, this year is his first time at Oakmont. In his design choices, Beaubien said, he incorporated elements that honor the local culture, such as images of Pittsburgh sports icons as well as black-and-gold motifs in some spaces.

“It’s very exciting to be here,” Beaubien said. “Obviously, we have a good idea of the place that Oakmont takes in the world of golf. It’s a very iconic and special place.”

Like Parks, Beaubien said design work for the 2025 open began years ago, but workers only began to set up on-site last month. In total, he expects 18 semi-trucks of materials to be dropped of at the course.

He has about 50 people working at Oakmont, though that number is likely to rise to about 80 in the coming weeks. Some of those setting up interiors are local people, Beaubien said.

In the homestretch, Lloyd said, he is hoping for some “warm weather and sunshine” after a rainy spring.

The 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont saw heavy rainfall that caused delays in the contest.

“We’re always hoping for dry conditions,” Lloyd said. “We’re crossing our fingers that that’s maybe in the cards for us as we get closer to the event.”