Lee Wybranski Paints His Ninth Official U.S. Open Poster for Oakmont’s 9th U.S. Open

Noted artist comes home to Pennsylvania to continue his streak of consecutive national championships

(Flagstaff, Ariz.) – What do Oakmont Country Club and golf artist Lee Wybranski have in common? For both of them, 2016 is coming up nines.

For Oakmont Country Club in western Pennsylvania, the 116th U.S. Open—to be held June 16-19—will be its ninth men’s Open since 1927. For Wybranski—a native of the Philadelphia area who now makes his home in northern Arizona—this year he has painted his ninth consecutive U.S. Open poster, a string that began in 2008 when the championship was held at Torrey Pines.

The poster will be sold in the merchandise tents at Oakmont for $32 unframed, as well as on the websites of the USGA and Wybranski, www.leewybranski.com. It will be available unframed, framed, and autographed.

Wybranski’s work on the new poster began last fall when he spent a couple of days at Oakmont, walking the grounds and talking with the superintendent and others about changes made by the club to bring its famed course back to the vision of its founders, Henry Clay Fownes and his son William, at the beginning of the 20th century.

“The biggest change is that the club has been taking out trees,” Wybranski said. “I was there in 2010 to paint the poster for the U.S. Women’s Open, and by then they’d already removed thousands of trees. But the contrast from then to now is even more stark: It’s really changed!”

In every painting he creates, Wybranski looks for “the most iconic elements, what strikes the deepest nerves.” No one will be surprised that the famous Church Pew bunkers, which sit between the 3rd and 4th holes, are front and center. In the background, but no less emblematic of Oakmont, is its magnificent clubhouse.

“This year I also felt that I had to include the expansiveness of the new look now that the trees are gone. It’s very dramatic, whether you knew the course before or not. Oakmont used to have such an old and penal look. Now, it feels like a course transplanted from Scotland. You can see across the entire landscape. And it really appealed to me because not only was it different, but it allowed me to incorporate both the Church Pews and the clubhouse. Before, we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy that view.”

Wybranski loves to work in elements of real life into his tournament posters. Last year when Chambers Bay hosted the U.S. Open, he honored his life-long love of trains by including one running along Puget Sound. The 2015 PGA Championship poster from Whistling Straits includes one of the resident sheep. And this year?

“I really wanted to get the Pennsylvania Turnpike in there. I’m a Pennsy boy and wanted to tip my cap to that road I drove so often, but I couldn’t work it in. I was able to include one of the bridges that spans the Turnpike, though.” He also managed to include Oakmont’s signature squirrel.

For more information or to order the U.S. Open poster go to www.leewybranski.com or call 928-310-2152.