The top people on the grounds crew stayed in RVs on the Oakmont property, beginning eight days before the start of the Open until it was over. The sleeping facilities did not get much use. "The Sunday before the tournament until the Sunday it concluded," Cushman said, "I probably got about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of sleep a night. That entire stretch, we were just running on adrenaline. "That whole week was a blur." -
- feine levels stayed at where they needed to be." He'd get to bed between midnight and 1:00 a.m., then start the process all over again after a brief nap. Obviously, a good night's sleep wasn't happening. You think he'd be eager to watch the fruits of his labor on the massive and pris- tine 155-acre Oakmont, but he had other priorities.
"I watched a little bit of it," Cushman said.
"But every chance I had, I was just trying to catch up on sleep."
"I wanted a job that was going to kind of kick my butt and set me straight," Cushman said with a laugh. "Because I really didn't know what to do with my life, at the time. where holes are created in the turf to relieve soil compaction, im- prove drainage, and allow air and nutrients to reach the grass roots, promoting healthier turf), and those are longer days and a tougher straight days trying to get as much done as we could. "I had these old, cheap boots that aren't really meant to be doing what we were doing, and I had blisters go- ing halfway up my leg. But once I got done with my internship, I realized that Oakmont is something special, and I wanted to be a part of it. It forces you to grow and develop in your own way ... it's helped me become the person I am today."
Oakmont had a course restoration in 2023
- ing several fairways, and redoing every bun- - bers at Oakmont. That was the initial salvo in the lead-up to the U.S. Open.
"These past 2 1/2 years, we put in a lot of
There's a banner hanging from the ceiling of the Oakmont equip- ment shed that shows the course's No. 2 motto. You know you're good if you have more than one motto.
"It says: ‘The Standard is the Standard,’ and that's a standard of excel- lence," Cushman said. "We strive to put that out there every single day. "With the standards we keep for ourselves, we don't get many 40- hour weeks. They're usually 70-80 hour weeks."
Cushman grew up in Bridgeton, just outside of St Louis, but he spent a lot of time at Incline Village near Foristell. Incline Village is a subdivision that was in its infancy and allowed its few residents to have plenty of room to roam. kid," Cushman said. "I love the outdoors, I love being outside. That's where it started. Then growing up and playing a good bit of golf with my parents, it kind of blossomed into a love for the game." Coeur, but he wanted to see a top-end golf course. Well, he got it.
State Tech. 42 /// September 2025 There was a rain delay that lasted 90 minutes halfway through
with a cup sucker in hand. A what? "It's exactly like it sounds," he said. "When the cup on the green
and then go spit it out somewhere else. When we found out they were going to resume play in about 30 or 40 minutes, I started walking up the fairway to the 18th green. There are grandstands thousands of people.
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