In advance of the U.S. Open, spectators dreaded the drive to Oakmont Country Club in the manner that golfers dreaded the course's most menacing holes. But yesterday, the estimated 20,000 fans who turned up for the practice rounds found the course gate entirely -- and surprisingly -- reachable.

With most fans channeled through two satellite parking lots -- northwest of the course at Hartwood Acres and northeast of the course at Pittsburgh Mills mall -- traffic moved with ease, something that those hopping off buses and arriving at the entrance said they never expected.

"We thought it would be horrendous," said Heather Ahlborn, who drove up at 6:30 a.m. from Brownsville. "But it wasn't."

"And they had cops everywhere," her husband, Jeff Ahlborn, said. "At every intersection, there was a cop."

Two years of planning explained the efficiency. Some 80 police officers were stationed at intersections. Temporary ordinances prevented parking along borough streets and roads within a two- to three-mile radius of the club. Cars in violation received fines of $100 to $300, Oakmont Police Chief David DiSanti said.

Oakmont Country Club has just 200 parking spaces, so even club members parked 1 1/2 miles away, in an industrial parking lot. Many volunteers and course marshals parked their cars at a mosque four miles away.

Only the players and a handful of staff members -- "those arriving before 5 a.m.," said Peter Bevacqua, the USGA's managing director of U.S. Open championships -- parked at the club itself.

The Pittsburgh Mills lot holds some 4,000 cars, and nearly reached capacity yesterday; Hartwood can accommodate twice as many cars, and officials recommend that fans use that lot for the upcoming days, "because we will literally have crowds twice as large as what we saw today," Mr. Bevacqua said. Parking at all lots is free.

A team of bus drivers, like Georgette Batemon, spent their days circling between drop-off and pickup points. For 12 hours, Ms. Batemon traveled from Dick's Sporting Goods at Pittsburgh Mills to the spectator gate at Oakmont -- a 20-minute trip.

She began at 6 a.m., fearing "wicked" traffic.

But she moved without problem, and heard no complaints.

The often-cumbersome Route 28 flowed in both directions. From the mall, Ms. Batemon swung three quick right turns, passed into Springdale Township, turned down a residential street, passed a graveyard, merged onto the turnpike -- heading toward Harrisburg -- and, less than a mile later, exited at the newly completed Oakmont rest stop. From there, she entered a buses-only path that deposited passengers at the front of the country club.

By the time she'd completed the route six times, she'd already downed five cups of coffee.

"I thought it would be hard," said Ms. Batemon. "But it's really just one big circle."

By the afternoon, some at Oakmont joked that the day's greatest congestion formed not on the roads, but around Tiger Woods, who began his practice round at 7 a.m. A person who departed Downtown yesterday at 8:30 a.m. and stopped at the mall arrived at Oakmont by 9:45. A person leaving Wexford at 9:10, stopping at Hartwood Acres, completed the trip in 45 minutes. A Tiger fan leaving Valencia at 6 a.m. made it to the course before 7.

"I was expecting Route 28 to be real bad," said Steve Byrne, from Mt. Lebanon. "But that was a breeze."

The previous days had primed Pittsburghers to expect the worst. The weekend Parkway East closings, coupled with the crush of a Saturday night country music concert at Heinz Field, caused unavoidable backups.

Ron and Rita Violett, golf fans heading on Sunday to Pittsburgh from their home in Hot Springs Village, Ark., finished the 1,000-mile trip by sitting for more than 90 minutes in parkway-created gridlock.

"Just ridiculous," Mr. Violett said. "But [yesterday], it wasn't bad."