5 days ago
US Open chief wants to dirty players' brains with fearsome length and ludicrously deep rough at Oakmont
The likes of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are about to find out the legendary course will create chaos at the 125th US Open
US Open boss John Bodenhamer has warned the game's elite he wants Oakmont to dirty their brains.
The chief officer at the USGA is clear the infamous Pennsylvania lay-out is going to offer another brutal test for the superstars at the 125th Championship. Top stars are already fearing the miserable experiences ahead with fearsome length, five-inch rough and over 170 bunkers ready to cause chaos at the 10th staging of the event at Oakmont, a course created in the early 1900s by Henry Fownes with constant modernisations and updates the latest from ace architect Gil Hanse.
Bodenhamer intends superstars such as Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy tested in all aspects as he said: 'We want to get every club in their bag dirty, all 15 of them, 14 in their bag and the one between their ears. We're looking forward to it.
'We believe that we can showcase all of America's greatest venues. And I think that's part of our strategy. It's right at the beginning of our strategy, the first pillar. We go to America's greatest venues and I think we can showcase all of those great venues across our country. But here, I think everybody's in store for a good old-fashioned US Open.
'We believe there are just certain places in our game where you stand on the first tee and you look out over the landscape and it is just meant to play the US Open. Oakmont is that place. And it was really built for the US Open. The culture of this club is toughness. It goes back to the very beginning, the Founds family. But it's more than that.
'I think it's great architecture. You think about this place and this was the only layout that Henry Fownes, the Fownes family, set forth with. Their only golf course. And it's the same routing, the same holes. The eighth hole moved a little because of the construction of the turnpike. But it's the same golf course.
'I think it's a great testament. The timelessness of Oakmont. It's just stood that test of time. It opened as a 6,408-yard par 80. It's a little longer than that. The club prides itself on being America's greatest test of golf and it's a quintessential US Open venue.'
Speaking on the Golf Channel to the tweaks made for 2025, he added: 'It's really an interesting sort of restoration, restorative project. Gil took really key aspects of what the Fownes design was from the very first day, 1903 into the 40s. And when you think about it, what's been restored here, it will be the first US Open golf course really played as the Fownes intended it to be played since the 1940s. We think that's really cool. And I think really when you look at what Gil's done, the expansion of the putting greens, it's always about the putting greens at Oakmont. They're legendary.
'There are stories, players complaining about the speeds and the hole locations and it's always been that way. 'But I think the other thing with Oakmont here now are the bunkers. Along with the putting green expansions, the bunkers are magnificent, both in the fairway and around the putting greens. I think thankfully for the players' sake, they're not furrowed anymore, but they're still pretty darn tough.'
