By David Rogers. PORTLAND, Ore. — A fall with 600 meters to go in Paul Banta Memorial Men’s 5,000 Meters in the Portland Track Festival on June 15 didn’t stop ZAP Endurance’s Eric Van der Els from picking himself up for a strong finish, nonetheless. The High Country-based elite professional distance runner rallied to a No. 7 finish and season best, 13:25.00.

It was a special Father’s Day performance for race winner, Andrew Hunter (Asics), a father of two. Amon Kemboi (Puma Elite Running) and Thomas Ratcliffe (Nike Swoosh TC) overtook Hunter with a little more than a lap to go, with Kemboi surging ahead to open up a significant gap. But Hunter rallied past Ratcliffe, then drew even with Kemboi at the top of the final straightaway. The pair battled side-by-side before Hunter inched ahead in the final 10 meters to take the No. 1 spot in 13:14.95. Kemboi was the runner-up in 13:15.22.

There were 17 elite athletes competing in what race organizers called, “The Hot Window” section of the Men’s 5000 in the massive Portland Track Festival event. ZAP Endurance qualified a second team member in the Hot Window section, but Ryan Ford faded to No. 14 (13:41.72).

Earlier, in the High Performance section of the Men’s 5000, ZAP Endurance team member Dan Schaffer finished No. 4, crossing the line at 13:36.77 in the 43-man field split into two heats.

“Eric ran a fabulous race,” said ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea after the event. “His fall with 600 meters to go was a rough break but he got up and rallied for his second fastest 5,000 meters ever. I have little doubt that he will run 13:10 to 13:15 in Los Angeles later on in July, in the Sunset Tour meet.”

Ford, who is largely transitioning from middle- and long-distance events while in college to a primary focus on the marathon with ZAP Endurance, used the Portland Track Festival to get reacquainted with racing on the track.

“This was Ryan’s first track race since the 2024 Olympic Trials, so I’ll call it a ‘rust buster’ for him,” said Rea. “Less than two months removed from his stellar run in the Boston Marathon, the Portland 5K race serves as a great springboard for the USATF national championships in Eugene (Oregon), in July, where he will compete at the longer, 10,000 meters’ distance.”

Schaffer, like Ford, was an accomplished middle distance athlete in college but eventually aiming to compete in the marathon with ZAP Endurance.

“Dan ran well in this Portland race, but not quite well enough to qualify for the U.S. championships in Eugene,” said Rea. “He’ll have a few road opportunities before the buildup for his marathon debut later this year, in the fall.”

By David Rogers. PEORIA, Ill. — Only one familiar foe separated the High Country-based Amanda Vestri from the top of the awards podium on June 14 in the 2025 Steamboat Classic, run this year as the United States Track & Field Federation’s 4-Mile National Championship.

Oklahoma State alum Taylor Roe, running for Puma Elite Running, crossed the finish line in 19:40, with ZAP Endurance team member Vestri, representing Brooks Running Shoes, just 22 seconds behind in 20:02 and another Puma Elite athlete, Molly Born finishing No. 3 in 20:11.

Both Roe and Vestri are only a week removed from leaderboard finishes in the Mastercard New York Mini 10K on the streets of midtown Manhattan and Central Park. Roe finished that race as the No. 3 runner and Vestri at No. 6 out of almost 10,000 women competing.

For Vestri, the Steamboat Classic and USATF 4-Mile National Championship performance was just another step in her progression to national prominence in distance running, aiming to be a top marathoner.

Vestri ran the first mile in a commendable 5 minutes, 16 seconds (5:16), then picked up the pace for the second (5:00) and third (5:01) miles before blistering the fourth mile in 4:47.

“Amanda ran an amazing Steamboat race,” said Pete Rea, her Blowing Rock-based, ZAP Endurance head coach. “Bit by bit, she has made herself a force on the U.S. distance running circuit. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for her at the USATF Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., in July and August, where she will double at the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters distances.”

By David Rogers. PLUM, Pa. — I once played the Red Tail golf course near Mountain City, Tenn., when it was still an 18-hole course with much of it through mountainous woods. That front nine up and down the mountains and through the trees made it one of the most scenic and enjoyable, if very challenging, courses anyone could play.

There was one hole where the cup seemed to be on top of a church steeple. The surrounding slopes were fierce. I chipped on from just off the green and my ball landed very softly, less than six inches from the hole.

But my adventure was just beginning. The ball didn’t stop, but kept rolling and rolling and rolling down the back slope, off the green and some 40 feet into the woods onto what I recall was bed of leaves and pine straw. My attempts to get back up and onto the green — and into the hole — were similarly futile. I finally gave up in frustration, “giving” myself a 10 on the par-4.

If only I could…

Memories of my Red Tail experience came flooding back while reading about the 2025 U.S. Open to be played this weekend by the world’s best golfers at Oakmont Country Club, on the northeastern outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pa. The course has played host to the U.S. Open more than any other golf course. This weekend will be the tenth time for what many in the golf community describe as one of the most difficult golf courses, anywhere.

It is challenging, in part, because of the extremely fast, undulating greens, often with steep slopes. Then there are the narrow fairways – and the deep rough should your ball not fly true. Not just the deep rough, but strategically placed bunkers and ditches punish golfers for errant shots, too. On holes No. 3 and No. 4, a defining feature of the Oakmont experience is the “Church Pews” bunker between the two fairways. As sand traps go, the Church Pew is quite large, nearly two-thirds of an acre, with a series of 13 grassy ridges across the expanse of white sand, according to Golfweek magazine’s account.

Oakmont also enjoyed its share of controversy over the years, most notably because some 10,000 trees were removed between 2000 and 2016.

Without knowing the course’s origins and history, those with an ecological bent might be aghast at removing so many trees. The course was established 122 years ago, in 1903, designed by Henry Fownes on old, open farmland (hardly a tree to be found).

According to the U.S. Golf Association website’s description of Oakmont, Fownes intended for his course to be “links-style,” such as we see in Scotland and England. They are open courses, almost devoid of trees. Open farmland with little in the way of water hazards was a good starting point for a links-style course in 1903.

“An open course does not mean it is an easy course,” said Blowing Rock-based golf course architect Ron Cutlip in a conversation with High Country Sports.

Nor was it Fownes’ intention for Oakmont to be easy. He was quoted as once saying, “A shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.”

In fact, reports the USGA, Fownes had more than 330 bunkers populating the near-treeless Oakmont course at one point. Today, it has “only” 175. Without question, Oakmont is a course aiming to identify a world champion golfer.

For an ecologically sensitive American society, though, the relative absence of trees on the open links layout was problematic. So was noise from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which divided the course almost evenly, seven holes on one side and 11 holes on the other. And when a young Johnny Miller blistered the course by shooting a 63 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 1973, any movement toward planting more trees gained traction. Trees are “pretty.” Trees create a sound buffer for the noise coming from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Trees can make the course even more difficult — at least that was the thinking at the time.

In 1953, sportswriter and golf critic Herbert Warren Wind of The New Yorker magazine opined that Oakmont was, “… an ugly brute of a course.” According to the USGA, that description prompted the club’s post-Fownes hierarchy to start planting more trees. In Oakmont’s published history, after Wind’s critique it was decided to “beautify” the course with some 5,000 trees, planted up and down the fairways and behind the greens. With even more trees added over the years that followed, the course was no longer the original links-style course, but evolving to what is more commonly known as an American-style “parkland” course.

Unintended Consequences

But by the late 1990s, those now mature trees were overgrown, including some tree roots’ intrusion into the fairways as well as overhanging canopies that didn’t allow fairway grass to get sufficient sunlight, leaving fairways bare in places.

So, beginning near the turn of the 21^st century, the Oakmont hierarchy started removing trees. By 2016, between 10,000 to 15,000 trees were removed, according to USGA reports.

In a preview of the 2025 U.S. Open found on YouTube, longtime Oakmont golf professional Bob Ford recalled that the first 1,000 trees were removed in the dead of night, before 4:30 a.m., with even the sawdust removed by morning. Apparently, the club hierarchy knew that removing the trees would create a bit of backlash among some country club members, but they wanted to get the process started toward returning the course to its original, links-style design, which is where it is today.

“Trees can be an important feature of a golf course design,” Cutlip explained, “but they have to be introduced correctly. You can’t plant them willy-nilly just to beautify a course, which is apparently what happened at Oakmont.

“On its own, a golf course design can be made easy or extremely difficult, with or without trees,” said Cutlip. “And the challenges of the original links-style design in 1903 really underline that thought. With its steep, undulating greens, penal bunkers and ditches, narrow fairways and deep rough, Oakmont was a links-style course to challenge the very best even before they planted the trees.”

As a golf course architect who likes to work with a property’s history, as well as its natural contours, Cutlip applauds Oakmont’s restoring the course to its original design.

“Just like every parkland style course can’t be easily or effectively transformed into an open links-style course, you can’t really convert a links-style course into a parkland course without changing the very nature and personality of the golfing platform,” said Cutlip.

Let the fun begin

Local knowledge of a course offers any player a leg up on the competition at just about every golf course, but that will be especially true in the 2025 U.S. Open.

“With Oakmont’s many quirks, I suggest that by Sunday the real heroes may be the caddies of the guys at the top of the leaderboard. And that might even be one of Oakmont’s own caddies carrying the bag for one or more of the pros,” said Cutlip. “The greens are likely to be cut to something like 3/32 of an inch. On a relatively dry day, they will be fast and unforgiving. The caddie can tell the player how much to slow down his putts and where to put his approach shots from different parts of the fairway, even how much backspin to put on the ball. For a well-placed approach shot, you want the ball to stop when it hits the ground. You don’t want it to keep rolling on those greens because they just might roll the golfer out of contention.”

Just like my soft chip shot at Red Tail, the ball could keep rolling and rolling and rolling. If there is a silver lining, at least on an Oakmont course with the trees removed the ball is less likely to stop in the woods.

By David Rogers. NEW YORK, N.Y. (remote) — High Country-based professional athlete Amanda Vestri was at the front for most of the 2025 Mastercard New York Mini 10k on June 7, leading 9,962 women and girls in winding through the ups and downs of Midtown Manhattan and Central Park. It was Kenya’s Helen Obiri and Weini Kelati, though, who surged ahead in the final two miles to capture the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, just five seconds separating the two. Obiri broke the tape in 30:44, with Kelati close behind in 30:49.

Vestri fought hard to stay in contention, but faded to No. 6, only 36 seconds behind Obiri in 31:20. A member of Blowing Rock’s ZAP Endurance elite running team, Vestri was the second American to cross the finish line, just 21 seconds behind Taylor Roe, the former Oklahoma State University track and cross country star now hailing from Raleigh, N.C.

Vestri was the top American finisher in 2024, No. 4 overall (31:17).

“Amanda ran an exceptional race, banging heads with some of the best women on the pro circuit,” said ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea. “This performance sets her up well for next weekend’s U.S. 4-Mile Championship, on June 14 in Peoria, Illinois.”

Roe was making her Mastercard Mini debut after recently breaking the women-only 10-mile world road race record in 49:53, in Washington, D.C. on April 6. Her 30:58 in the Mastercard Mini is a new personal best at the 10K road distance.

The High Country was well represented in this race around Central Park and beyond. Another ZAP Endurance team member, Tristin (Van Ord) Colley, finished at No. 25 (33:34), her first race since the iconic Boston Marathon on April 21, where she finished No. 19 among the 12,210 women competing over the 26.2 miles of Beantown streets.

“Tristin had a good, solid run for her first race coming off the Boston Marathon in April. The summer is looking good for her on the U.S. road racing scene.”

The Mastercard New York Mini 10K is the world’s original, women-only race to feature Olympians and World Championship medalists. The race was first organized in 1972, by the New York Road Runners, as a way to promote women’s distance running, generally. The race’s inaugural sponsor was Johnson Wax, promoting a women’s shaving gel called, “Crazylegs.” Only 78 runners competed in the first race, but in the last 50 years it has grown to be both an elite running event as well as a “fun run” for many female athletes.

The 1972 first race was won by Jacqueline Dixon of the U.S., in 37:17. The course record is 30:12, set in 2023 by Senbere Teferi of Ethiopia.

The course of the road race begins near 61st Street on Central Park West and heads north, entering Central Park at West 90th Street. The route loops in a clockwise direction, turning southwards at Harlem Meer around the 3-mile (5-kilometre) mark. It continues south past the Central Park Reservoir and the Guggenheim Museum. Runners continue southwards until they come towards the park’s limits near Wollman Rink at which point it heads to the west and turns north to the finishing point near the Tavern on the Green and Sheep Meadow.

Of the almost 10,000 runners, 7,169 of them were from one of the five New York boroughs, with 2,804 coming from outside of NYC.

• Manhattan: 3,892
• The Bronx: 312
• Brooklyn: 1,605
• Queens: 1,240
• Staten Island: 120

The youngest finisher was 3-yearold Oliver Marks, in 57:57. The oldest was Ulrike Klopfer, in 1:55:06, according to the New York Road Runners.