Mark Duncan, Associated Press Tom Watson, 57, will not return to Oakmont Country Club to play in the 107th U.S. Open in June. Click photo for larger image.

Tom Watson had one question when the subject of Oakmont Country Club was broached several weeks ago.

"Did they leave any trees around the clubhouse?" Watson said.

Told that six oaks and sycamores remain in the area behind the 18th green and 10th tee, Watson said, "Good. They need to leave those trees because it got so darn hot there you needed some shade to get some relief."

Through a history of major championships that dates to 1919, no player has generated more heat at Oakmont than Watson. Yet, despite a career that includes nine major championships, Watson never was able to win one of those majors at Oakmont, despite playing well and usually contending to the final hole, even in a sudden-death playoff.

That does not include finishing tied for fifth in the 1969 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont, a tournament that produced one of Watson's fondest memories -- a hole in one at the 233-yard eighth hole in the second round.

"Two hundred-thirty three yards with a 3-iron, I make 1," Watson said. "I was 4 over going into the eighth hole and end up shooting 75. I played well enough to get myself into the Masters."

Make no mistake, Watson's track record at Oakmont rivals any of the players who won major championships there, including Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus. He never has finished worse than sixth in four of his five championship appearances there -- he missed the cut in the 1973 U.S. Open, his second year as a professional -- and never has shot more than 75 in 16 rounds when he has made the cut.

But, unless he receives some type of special exemption from the United States Golf Association, Watson, 57, will not return to Oakmont to play in the 107th U.S. Open in June. He has not played in the U.S. Open since 2003 -- surprisingly, the year he held the first-round lead with a 65 at Olympia Fields -- and has no intention of qualifying.

Like the trees, Watson's presence will be missing at Oakmont.

"I have great memories there," Watson said. "I've always played well at Oakmont, but it's always been a very difficult course for me. One of the reasons I could play well is I hit the ball pretty high. That's one of the necessary things you have to do there. It's not a low-ball striker's course, in my opinion."

Indeed, Watson has been a factor in each of the past three major championships at Oakmont, finishing second in the 1978 PGA and 1983 U.S. Open and sixth in the 1994 U.S. Open, when he shared the first-round lead with Nicklaus and entered the final round just three shots from the lead held by Ernie Els.

But his performances also carried great disappointment, perhaps none more agonizing than in 1978 when he blew a five-shot lead on the final nine holes and lost a sudden-death playoff to John Mahaffey on the second extra hole. It was the closest Watson came to winning a PGA Championship -- the only major title to elude him during his spectacular career.

Only five players in golf history -- Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (12), Walter Hagen (11), Hogan (9) and Gary Player (9) -- have won more major titles than Watson (8).

"I remember having a five-stroke lead going into the back nine and hitting a perfect drive at No. 10 into a divot, and my only thought was, make sure you catch this well and don't leave it short of the green because short of the green is death," Watson said. "I did hit it heavy, put it in the rough and made double bogey, and Mahaffey made it from about 45 feet for birdie. I lost three shots right there. That was the negative."

There was more disappointment in 1983, when Watson came to Oakmont as the defending U.S. Open champion. Tied for the third-round lead with Spain's Seve Ballesteros, Watson blistered the front nine in 5-under 31 on Sunday and was tied for the lead after 13 holes with Larry Nelson when a heavy storm postponed play and forced six players to return Monday morning.

But, when Nelson made an improbable 62-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to start the morning, Watson fell a stroke behind. Nelson gave the shot back when he three-putted the final hole from 50 feet for bogey, only to regain the lead when Watson dumped his approach in the greenside bunker at the short par-4 17th and made bogey.

Needing a birdie at the final hole to tie, Watson hit a drive of nearly 310 yards, only to fly the green with a pitching wedge and have his ball land in some pine straw. Watson was given a free drop and needed to recreate the shot that won him the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach a year earlier -- a chip-in at the 17th green. But he chipped the ball 40 feet past the hole, and Nelson was the winner. It didn't matter that Watson holed the 40-footer for par.

"You got to hit a lot of quality shots at Oakmont," Watson said.

Then, recalling the difficulty of the finishing hole, which has since been stretched to 495 yards, he added, "First of all you hit a downhill tee shot, which is a tough shot to keep in the fairway because the ball is in the air longer, and you have an uphill second shot to a green that has all sorts of contours. To hit the ball anywhere close is a great shot. A good shot and you got a 60-footer with a double-break in it. It's quite a finishing hole."

And Watson has provided a lot of great finishes at Oakmont.