The best golfers in the world will test themselves at the 125th U.S. Open next month at Oakmont Country Club, but it likely will be the iconic course that is the star of the show.
Lightning-fast greens, punishing rough and a plethora of bunkers await the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, and if USGA and Oakmont officials have their way, it will be among the most challenging tournaments the pros have ever endured.
“There’s no doubt that Oakmont Country Club asks much physically of the world’s best,” said Jeff Hall, USGA managing director of the U.S. Open. “There’s a level of precision that’s required to excel at this venue. But I personally believe that these hallowed grounds offer the most demanding mental test of golf of any U.S. Open venue.
“Mentally, this golf course will wear you out. But, hey, this is the U.S. Open, and to put your name on that trophy, especially when played at Oakmont, it’s an exhausting process.”
The words “torture,” “suffer,” “challenging” and “exhausting” were all uttered by USGA officials at a media event Tuesday ahead of the June 12-15 championship.
That verbiage, of course, is just how the membership at Oakmont wants it. Dustin Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a score of 4-under-par, an aberration members do not want to see repeated.
“(The members) have got three requests,” said John Lynch, president of Oakmont Country Club. “The rough is going to be 5-plus inches. No. 2, please use some of these new pins that we’ve been able to establish with the new restoration. And, last but not least, we’ve got to do everything in our power to make sure that score is over par when we’re all done.”
That rough, along with pin locations and other restorations to the fairways, greens and bunkers have been major talking points among the USGA setup team the past several years as they prepared Oakmont to host its 10th U.S. Open and 18th USGA championship overall.
Gil Hanse, a golf course architect and designer, sought out to restore certain parts of the course to what they looked like between 1903-46.
Those changes added 153 yards to the course since it last hosted the U.S. Open in 2016.
There were adjustments for the modern game, with new tee boxes added and creative contours that will force players into tough decisions with club selection. There also will be at least one new hole location used on every putting surface.
Among the highlights are a wider driving zone on No. 2; a cross bunker on No. 7 that will take nearly 300 yards to carry; and a wraparound-style bunker adjustment on No. 8, where the bunker behind the green has been replaced with thick rough that is “more unpredictable than a bunker shot,” Hall said.
Players also will see a lengthy ditch added across the No. 10 fairway, as well as adjustments to the coffin bunker on No. 16 that stretches all along the left side of the green.
“Gil did a great job of striking that balance between strategy and difficulty,” Hall said. “We can make any golf course difficult. That’s not hard to do. But is it difficult for the right reasons? Are we differentiating good golf, great golf and average golf? That’s really what our job is as a setup team.
“If good shots and bad shots are finishing in the same place, we haven’t done our job properly. That can be quite a challenge here at Oakmont.”
Players will have to navigate 175 bunkers and other obstacles, as well as green speeds between 14-15 on the stimpmeter, with hopes of besting the field and joining greats like Tommy Armour, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus who have raised the U.S. Open trophy at Oakmont Country Club.
“(The Oakmont members) take great pride — the DNA of this great plays is so unique – they revel in the toughness that is here,” USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer said. “They tell stories in the Champions Grill about how they made an 8 on 17 going back and forth between Big Mouth and the other bunkers.
“Our metric today is we want the players to get every club in their bag dirty — all 15 of them — the 14 in their bag and the one between their ears. We work very hard on that.”
That painstaking preparation process could lead to some big numbers next month when the best of the best descend upon Oakmont, hoping to tame a beast that has humbled even the greatest the game has ever seen.
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“I don’t know if the players are going to suffer. I don’t know if they’re going to be happy at Oakmont,” Bodenhamer said. “But if they play well, I know they’ll feel like they really accomplished something.”