A famous-again country club and an up-and-coming resort put the irons back into the Iron City.

The best golf opportunity of the summer? Pittsburgh, naturally. With the U.S. Open returning to Oakmont, the ’Burgh enables you to live out all your Tin Cup fantasies. The course closes to non-qualifiers for two weeks around the June 11–17 event, but before and after, with the proper connections, you’ll have the chance to measure your game against one of golf’s true monsters at the height of its fearsomeness. Putting at Oakmont is like putting in your bathtub and trying to get the ball to stop before the drain. The place was created a century ago by industrialist Henry Fownes (who passed on the golf bug with his steel mill to the original takeover artist, Andrew Carnegie). And to give you a sense of the kind of job he did, the greens have never needed to be redone.

But Fownes isn’t the only Pittsburgh industrialist with a knack for spawning great golf venues. In more recent years, 84 Lumber CEO Joseph A. Hardy III has built the Nemacolin Woodlands resort into an excellent public-access choice for a quick round between meetings, and an interesting alternative to the Greenbrier for a kid-friendly getaway. One of its two 18’s, the Pete Dye– designed Mystic Rock, has played host to the PGA’s 84 Lumber Classic; its luxury accommodations, meanwhile — spa, fly fishing, shooting and equestrian centers — are all top-drawer. (It even has a Hummer-stocked off-road driving center.)

(Continue reading this story on Dealmaker)

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