In its rich 104-year history, Oakmont Country Club has had only four of its own players -- professional or amateur -- compete in a U.S. Open on their home course.

The most notable was head professional Lew Worsham, who won the 1947 U.S. Open at St. Louis Country Club but missed the 36-hole cut when the national championship was played at Oakmont in 1953.

The most recent was Bob Friend, son of the former Pirates pitcher, who was a member of the PGA Tour when he missed the cut during the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

Friend and head professional Bob Ford, who played in the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont, will attempt to qualify for the 107th U.S. Open, which will be staged June 11-17 at Oakmont. As the host pro, Ford is exempt from local qualifying and only has to make it through a 36-hole sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, to play in the Open on the course where he has been head pro since 1979.

But another former Oakmont employee is hoping to make it back to the course where he worked for three summers and lived on the third floor of the clubhouse, his tiny room looking out to the 18th green.

"Best summers of my life, I can tell you that," said Steve Wheatcroft, now a member of the PGA Tour.

Wheatcroft, 29, is hoping to spend a portion of this summer back at Oakmont, where he worked from 2000 to 2002 during summer breaks from college.

But instead of working on the driving range, he hopes to be one of the players using it. Instead of being a caddie, he hopes to be on the other side of the bag. Instead of helping out around the clubhouse, he hopes to be one of the players who gets to walk through it.

Wheatcroft did all that and more -- whatever needed to be done -- when he worked at Oakmont. He worked there, ate there and stayed there, living on the top floor of the clubhouse, in one of the 14 rooms used for golf employees and assistant professionals.

"It was unbelievable," said Wheatcroft, a native of Washington, Pa. "You're living in one of the greatest places in the world, and it was a ton of fun."

It was also beneficial. Wheatcroft took advantage of his situation to play Oakmont four or five times a week, as many holes as he could before dark after his shift was over. He usually played with his friend, Tyler Duke, who also worked and lived at the club.

"We'd do it seven days a week if we could," Wheatcroft said. "We'd get nine or 18 holes in at Oakmont -- can't get any better than that."

Well, it could.

Wheatcroft, in his rookie season on the PGA Tour, is hoping to play Oakmont when it matters most, this time in the Open championship.

He wants to practice on the range where he once stacked balls. He wants to walk down the fairways where he used to walk through long shadows. And he wants to putt on the 18th green, before a packed grandstand, just underneath the third-story clubhouse window from which he peered every morning.

If so, he would join Worsham, Ford, Friend and amateur Frank Souchak (1953) as the only Oakmont players to play in a U.S. Open at Oakmont, according to club historian John Fitzgerald.

But, before he does, before he can realize a dream, he must advance through a sectional qualifier. And that might not be any easier than his first season on tour.

"It's been a hard year," Wheatcroft said. "I got off to a tough start."

After earning full-exempt status at qualifying school, Wheatcroft has struggled in seven starts on the PGA Tour, making just two cuts and winning $20,585. What's more, he hasn't played since the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico in late February because of the number of limited-field events.

Worse, because of his poor start, Wheatcroft has been reshuffled lower on the pecking order for tour-school and Nationwide Tour players eligible to compete, dropping from 13th to 42nd in that category.

He will reappear tomorrow, in the Shell Houston Open, but Wheatcroft will have to play better to work his way into more events.

"I've been on the shelf for four weeks," Wheatcroft said.

"I tried to get into the Honda Classic and [the PODS Championship in] Tampa Bay after Mexico, but they did the reshuffle and I got reshuffled way back because I played so poorly. It's no one's fault but my own.

"It's been really, really frustrating. Even if I haven't been hitting the ball well, usually my putter bailed me out. But I didn't three-putt all week in Phoenix and then I three-putted seven times in two days at the Nissan Open. It's been one thing after another."

Wheatcroft was referring to the FBR Open in Phoenix, one of only two cuts he has made this season. He won $12,780 for finishing 62nd there, his largest check of the season.

"It's hard to get reshuffled up when you're not playing," Wheatcroft said.

Getting back to Oakmont would help ease some of the hurt.