Courtesy of USGA
At the end of an incredible — at incredibly soggy — week in Pennsylvania, the USGA presented Oakmont Country Club grounds superintendent Michael McCormick, CGCS, with the E.J. Marshall Platter at the conclusion of the 2025 U.S. Open Championship.
McCormick, a 12-year GCSAA member, has spent a decade working at Oakmont. In preparation for the U.S. Open, the Oakmont grounds team worked alongside USGA senior director of championship agronomy Darin Bevard to get the storied 7,372-yard, par-70 layout ready for its record 10th U.S. Open.
Established in 2022, the E.J. Marshall Platter honors quality in golf course management, recognizing superintendents who demonstrate their expertise and maintain a seamless relationship with the USGA in preparing a course for a national championship. The distinction also extends a salute to the entire maintenance team — staff and volunteers — for their essential work.
“There are a lot of curveballs that come along at a U.S. Open, including this year when the Pittsburgh area saw one of its rainiest springs ever, but Mike and his team have managed to handle everything with a great attitude,” Bevard said. “As soon as we arrived on-site to begin preparations for the 2025 championship, we knew that Oakmont would be more than ready to test the greatest golfers in the world.”
A Sudbury, Massachusetts, native, McCormick oversaw a 2023 renovation of Oakmont, which included more than 24,000 square feet of green expansions, 330,000 square feet of bunker renovations and two acres of fairway expansion. His regular maintenance team of more than 30 team members welcomed another 190 on-site volunteers during U.S. Open week.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, McCormick got his start in golf course maintenance as an intern at Oakmont for the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open and worked the 2016 U.S. Open as an assistant. McCormick then left to become superintendent at The Apawamis Club in Rye, New York, before returning to Oakmont in 2022 to take on his current role.
Designed by Henry Fownes in 1903, Oakmont features perennial Poa annua greens and collars. The approaches, tees and fairways are a mix of Poa and bentgrass, and the rough is an amalgamation of Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass and Poa.
E.J. Marshall was the chair of the green committee at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in 1920. He went to the USGA and the Department of Agriculture for assistance at Inverness while preparing its course for the U.S. Open. As a result, the USGA formed the Green Section to conduct agronomic research and offer golf course maintenance expertise to facilities.