The United States Golf Association had one thing in mind when they chose a golf course to host its most prestigious championship. Make it as difficult as possible for the best players in the world – at least, that’s what it seemed like most years.
What is so difficult about the U.S. Open at Oakmont?
This weekend, the course at Oakmont Country Club will be the clear winner, along with the lone player who does just enough to survive. With two rounds in the books on Friday, June 13, you can count the number of players under par on one hand.
In an age when technology and weight training have turned most courses into birdie factories, it is refreshing for many fans to see the five-and-a-half-inch rough, the knee-deep fescue, the deep bunkers, the blowing wind and the lightning-fast greens. It’s golf torture.
Adjectives like diabolical, evil, dreadful and hopeless are heard over and over on the NBC sports broadcast, and players have yet to reach the weekend. First-round leader JJ Spaun is still under par at -2, and he feels lucky to be there.
“It’s challenging in every sort of aspect or variable in golf,” Spaun said. “Off the tee, you have to get it in the fairway, or you’re chipping out or hacking something out unless you get a lucky lie. Landing it in specific spots, which you’re only able to do if you’re out of the fairway.”
How are some of the best playing through it?
Oakmont, in the Pittsburgh suburbs, was known as “The Beast” and had been home to nine previous U.S. Open Championships. The scores in those events and so far this week proved it was indeed the hardest course in major golf. The famous Church Pews bunker had world number one Scottie Scheffler slamming his club in frustration. That’s the toughest of the 168 bunkers that dot the course. The joke going around is that Oakmont can make Scottie look human.
“This golf course is so well bunkered,” Scheffler said. “Especially for a golf course without trees, this is a golf course that can really get away with it because there are so many bunkers everywhere, and they’re so deep, and it’s a real penalty when you hit the ball in the bunkers here.”
The leader after two rounds is Sam Burns, who talked about his putting on Oakmont’s greens after an eye-opening 65 on Friday, June 13, one of only five players out of 156 to shoot under par.
“A lot of times, you have putts from 15 or 20 feet where you’re not even trying to make them,” Burns said. “You’re just trying to get the speed right and hope it snuggles up next to the hole. I even had a couple today, 15 or 20 feet, and they went 3 or 4 feet by without even thinking about it.”
How would your game fare at Oakmont during a U.S. Open?
A fun question going around the course during the early part of the week was how high a score would a weekend player with an 18 handicap shoot?
For comparison, Matt Vogt, an Indianapolis dentist, qualified Monday, June 2, after shooting a pair of 68’s at a course in Walla Walla, Washington. He was a former caddy at Oakmont and knows the course well. He shot 82 in round one, followed by an 81 Friday finish +23 for the tournament.
“My goodness, honestly, I came in with such optimism for this golf course,” Vogt said. “But it is so hard. It’s just so, so hard. Your head starts spinning out here, and it just gets away from you. I’d say in the moment, you feel like you get punched in the face, but ultimately, yeah, I’d say it was fun.”
Remember, he’s a dentist. Vogt will be a spectator over the weekend with some of the best in the world, like defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, who was 10 over par, Justin Thomas, who finished 12 over par, Justin Rose, who was 14 over and Shane Lowrey at 17 over.
Two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, who made the cut at +2, said he expects the weekend to be even tougher as the heat dries out the greens and the USGA puts the hole locations in the toughest places possible.
contributed to this report.