Why Oakmont keeps cigarette butts in display case

Two of these things are not like the others.

Inside History Hall, an aptly named room on the ground floor of the clubhouse at Oakmont Country Club, the walls are lined with glass display cases that brim with championship lore. Each is devoted to the 10 U.S. Opens the club has staged, including the tournament coming up this week.

Every photograph and artifact on exhibit comes with a story, from the grainy image of a steely-eyed Ben Hogan, who blitzed the field in 1953 while notching a record-tying fourth U.S. Open win to the actual Bulls Eye putter that Johnny Miller wielded in 1963 en route to a final-round 63 to the pair of cigarette butts that . . .

Wait. Cigarette butts?

Yep.

Long before Charley Hull went viral for puffing on a cig at the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, a nicotine addict named Angel Cabrera put on a scorching performance at Oakmont while burning through a motherlode of Marlboro’s. Over four rounds at the 2007 U.S. Open, Cabrera followed a reliable pattern, inhaling on a cigarette before every shot: smoke one, then smoke one. That was his routine.

The surgeon general might not recommend this. But a swing guru could not have complained. Cabrera was rock-solid, shooting a one-under 69 on Sunday to hold off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by a shot.

As for the ashy residue from Cabrera’s habit, much of it wound up in his caddie’s bib. When that bib was handed over to the club as an historical keepsake, a bunch of cigarette butts were in the front pocket. Two intact examples have been on showcase in History Hall ever since.

“It’s such a silly but important part of that story,” says David Moore, Oakmont’s curator of collections.

For a more comprehensive history of Oakmont’s clubhouse, see the video below. The cigarette butts have a cameo at the 24:36 mark, but the entire video is worth a watch.