Oakmont: Is this brutal US Open course the world's hardest?

Times

a day ago

The esteemed American golf writer, Herbert Warren Wind, is best known for coining the term 'Amen Corner' for Augusta National's midriff, but the scribe who admitted to needing 1,000 words to clear his throat also came up with a pithy phrase for Oakmont. 'An ugly old brute,' he wrote more than 70 years ago. It is a line that has stood the test of time. This US Open will not be pretty.
The best players in the world are about to be humbled by a course that is breathtaking only in its difficulty. Indeed, Jeff Hall, part of the USGA's set-up team, said: 'The members seem to love going 15 rounds with Mike Tyson every day.'
It may even be the toughest course in the world. 'A shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost,' was founder Henry C Fownes's statement of intent. Last Monday Rory McIlroy finished his scouting mission with two birdies for a round of 81. 'I didn't feel I played that badly,' he shrugged. Xander Schauffele, much fancied here for his psyche as well as his game, relishes that challenge and said: 'Maybe I'm just sick. I don't think people turn on the TV to watch guys hit a 200-yard shot on the green. I think they turn on the US Open to see a guy suffer and shoot eight over.'
Oakmont is made for suffering. It is a brutish amalgam of five-inch rough, narrow fairways, troublesome bunkers and viciously sloping, slick greens. In 2007 Angel Cabrera won at five over par, and Jon Rahm predicted that nobody will be under par if the weather holds. 'A lot of unfortunate things are going to happen,' said the 2021 winner, who returned to major contention at last month's US PGA Championship.
Throw in a number of blind tee shots and there is no doubt that some players will be approaching this week with trepidation. 'The person with the most patience and best attitude is going to win,' said McIlroy, adding that the punishment is penal if you miss the fairways and sometimes if you don't.
Down by the 9th tee, a member looked up the vertiginous fairway with relish. 'Whoever wins is going to have to be accurate off the tee,' he said. A quick glance at the PGA Tour stats shows England's Aaron Rai topping that category with the likes of Collin Morikawa and Sepp Straka also among the leaders.
McIlroy is way below the tour average in 173rd place, and his struggles with his driver in his past two outings do not bode well. Asked about his demise after having to replace a non-conforming driver at the US PGA, he said: 'It wasn't a problem for Scottie [Scheffler] so it shouldn't have been a big deal for me.'
This year's Oakmont has undergone what architect Gil Hanse is calling a restoration, which includes making bunkers more suitable for modern distances, adding 150 yards to the 2016 version and, more significantly, enlarging greens. That may seem a kindness to the players, but it actually provides the capacity for more perilous pin positions. Spending an hour by the 1st green on Tuesday, I witnessed a procession of confused faces as players watched putts from the middle of the fairway drift off the green, and uncontrolled pitches from the rough skew across the surface. 'The most front-to-back green I've ever played,' said Michael Kim. 'The ball just keeps rolling and rolling.'
This was only Tuesday, with the course having absorbed lots of rain, so if it dries out then the greens could scramble any head. There will also be the oddity of seeing players take out the driver for a par-three, the 8th hole measuring 289 yards. Whatever you think of that — and in the past the hole has measured longer than the average drive on tour — this promises to be an almighty grind.
It has ever been thus. In 1927 the leading score was 13 over par, followed by a four-over play-off, which should provide perspective for the coming chuntering. In 1935, a cash-strapped amateur, Edward Stimpson, heard about the great Gene Sarazen putting his ball off a green into a bunker.
He felt that was unfair and duly invented the Stimpmeter, which is a simple device to measure the speed of greens. In a nutshell, a ball is released on to a now aluminium track at a known angle and the distance it rolls is measured in feet. Oakmont tops the major rankings with readings of 15. Stimpson refused to patent his invention because he felt it was for the good of golf.
'Every time I two-putted at Oakmont, I was passing somebody on the leaderboard,' Lee Trevino half-joked. Sam Snead, the seven-times major winner, felt that he had cracked the code by 1953 when he was runner-up to Ben Hogan.
'You gotta sneak up on these holes. Iffen you clamber and clack up on 'em, they're liable to turn around and bite you.'
After Wind's 'brute' barb, the thin-skinned of Oakmont tried to beautify the place and trees were planted.
That changed the appearance and the influence of the wind, but since 2000 more than 10,000 trees have been felled in what might be called a brutification. Jack Nicklaus is one of those unimpressed by this, saying the Oakmont name derives from oaks on a mount. Scheffler, too, has bemoaned the removal of a natural obstacle to the big hitters.
Oakmont, though, has enough to remain a true test. That member down by the 9th suggested that Bryson DeChambeau would be unable to 'bomb and gouge' his way around this course as he did at Winged Foot in 2020. As for Johnson, never one to overthink golf, he explained how he won in the damp of 2016. 'I drove it really straight and I hit a lot of fairways.' What was the hardest course he had played? 'Probably this one.'
It was made harder for him in 2016 by being told on the 12th tee that he might be given a post-round penalty over a moving ball on the 5th. Luckily, for the USGA, he won by three strokes, rendering the belated penalty irrelevant, but Tiger Woods dubbed it 'a farce', Jordan Spieth 'a joke', and there were even rumours of a player boycott of the US Open.
In 1953 there was talk of another boycott due to the furrowed bunkers with thick ridges formed by 50lb rakes. That problem has been levelled but you can be sure there will be plenty of furrowed brows here over the coming days.
US Open