We played a round of golf at Oakmont Country Club. Here's what makes it so tough.
King Jemison / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Editor’s note: Post-Gazette staffers and dozens of other members of the media played a round of golf at Oakmont Country Club — widely considered one of the hardest golf courses in the world — as part of the USGA’s media day ahead of the 125th U.S. Open. Digital producer King Jemison shares his key takeaways about what makes the course so tough, with insights from longtime Post-Gazette golf writer Gerry Dulac and tournament officials, as 156 of the best golfers in the world prepare to take on Oakmont on June 12-15.
One USGA executive turned to Harry Potter to explain the experience of playing Oakmont Country Club.
“You’re gonna suffer … but you’re gonna be happy about it,” Ron Weasley told Harry after attempting to read his fortune in “The Prisoner of Azkaban.”
Those words proved prophetic in my trip around the course. I could break down my round by the numbers — the 106 strokes punctuated by one birdie I’ll never forget and one quintuple bogey 10 I hope to forget.
But I think it’s better summarized by the feelings it elicited: the frustration that every ball in the bunker seemed to settle against the lip, that every shot in the rough nestled inches deep, that every putt trickled just a few inches farther from the cup.
And the satisfaction that came from executing a good shot amid all the course’s obstacles. Find the fairway at Oakmont, and golfers have every chance to hit the green. Strike a putt on the proper line, and it will go in. Those moments — few and far in between for me — were all the more satisfying because you knew you’d earned it.
W.C. Fownes Jr., son of Oakmont founder and architect Henry Fownes, famously said, “A shot poorly played should be irrevocably lost.”
That proved true. But if you can avoid unlucky bounces or sudden wind gusts that can strike at any course, well-played shots are rewarded.
That might change if Oakmont and the USGA get the firm, fast conditions they so desire for the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont from June 12-15.
Then, even good shots could carom through the fairway into the rough, or bounce off the greens like they’re concrete.
Here’s what stood out about the course as it prepares to host the U.S. Open for a record 10th time.
Tough rough
The plant life of Western Pennsylvania has absorbed plenty of rain in April and May. It showed at Oakmont.
The 4-inch rough was tangled, gnarly, and capable of nearly yanking the club from your hands. I had two balls simply vanish into the grass. Two shots in the rough settled down so deep that even my veteran caddie was impressed by how horrific the lie was.
All I could do was swing as hard as I could and hack it out. The pros undoubtedly will perform much better — but they will face even thicker rough.
USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer promised it will be 5 inches or taller for the start of the U.S. Open.
“That’s as high as we’ve been in many years,” he said.
Beastly bunkers
Longtime Post-Gazette golf reporter Gerry Dulac noted that Oakmont is widely considered one of the most difficult courses in the world despite not having any water hazards and almost no trees.
But the course more than makes up for it with the 175 bunkers littered across the property, which GolfPass said is among the most in the world.
I hit shots into about 10 of them. Almost every time, the ball rolled close enough to the steep face that I was forced to pitch out, sometimes sideways.
Nobody in my group ended up among the famous church pews — a 100-yard-long sand trap featuring mounds of thick grass spaced several feet apart — in between holes 3 and 4. But upon walking by, it was not hard to imagine how hitting a ball out of that bunker could be nearly impossible if you ended up among the pews.
Less well-known but equally as dangerous are the “piano keys” in the massive bunker lining the No. 15 fairway.
“These are free-flowing, sort of diabolical areas within bunkers that you don’t see very many other places,” Bodenhamer said.
Deadly ditches
Speaking of diabolical areas, the sand seems downright friendly compared to the ditches that cross some of the fairways at Oakmont and run parallel to others.
They look like dry creek beds, and you can play shots out of them — but they’re like the twisted offspring of Oakmont’s bunkers and rough, where you contend with both the thick grass and the steep faces.
When I ended up in one of the ditches, my caddie told me, “My professional opinion is that you should take an unplayable [lie].”
I of course tried to hit it anyway, and I actually managed to get it back to the fairway. But the ditches may be more like coffins for the pros at the U.S. Open.
“In 2016, we carved out those ditches to where players could get in there and play,” Bodenhamer said. “This year, we’re not doing that. You hit it in those ditches, good luck. There might be some that will play out of it, but it’ll be 12 to 18 inches of wispy fescue, and they’re nasty.”
World’s fastest greens?
Lightning-fast greens are baked into Oakmont’s lore.
Legend has it that W.C. Fownes Jr. would walk out to the second green every morning after the grass had been cut and drop a ball on the back of the green. If it didn’t roll 50 yards into the fairway, he’d tell the maintenance staff to cut the green again.
The device still used to measure the speed of greens, called the Stimpmeter, was reportedly invented in response to Gene Sarazen hitting a putt off an Oakmont green and into a bunker during the 1935 U.S. Open (inventor Edward Stimpson likely read about the event rather than attending it, according to Golfweek).
“I can tell you from playing all over the country, when people talk about how fast their greens are, they have no idea what green speeds are until they play out here,” Dulac said while standing just behind the 18th green.
Days of rain had slowed the greens by media day, but they were still the purest I’d ever played. Simply put, the ball rolls where you putt it. And even with muted green speeds, downhill putts still tumbled feet farther than expected.
Those are what Bodenhamer called U.S. Open putts — when players are sure the ball will stop 18 inches from the cup, but it rolls out to a tricky 3 or 4 feet instead.
“When we set up this golf course, we just drop a ball on parts of this green,” he said, “Wherever it stops, that’s where we put a hole. It’s that fast.”
It’s not just the speed, either. Oakmont’s greens are incredibly undulated, with large dips and subtle slopes to navigate. Many times, my putts broke several feet to the right or left — and without my caddie’s deep knowledge of the greens, I never would have guessed where I should be aiming.
That doesn’t mean I made many putts. But without the bumps and ball marks you often have to contend with on public courses, I had only myself to blame when putts slid by the hole.
So will the pros at the U.S. Open. Managing the frustration of seeing a minuscule mistake punished dearly is perhaps the greatest of Oakmont’s many challenges.
“These hallowed grounds … offer the most demanding mental test of golf of any U.S. Open venue,” said Jeff Hall, managing director of the tournament. “Mentally, this golf course will wear you out.”
But at least when you’re playing with no money or prestige on the line, it’s one of the most fun tests you’ll ever take.
Clarification: Though the history seems to vary, Oakmont Country Club says W.C. Fownes Jr. would test greens by dropping a ball and seeing if it rolled to the fairway. An earlier version of this story indicated his father — founder and architect Henry Fownes — did this, though club and USGA officials offer slightly differing historical accounts.