116th US Open Preview: Oakmont Brings A Return To The Classic US Open

Riggs 6/15/2016 5:05 PM

I like golf. A lot. As a washed up college athlete, I get my competitive fix nowadays through video games, blogging the news smuttier than anyone else, and playing golf. I’m just like most of you — sometimes lucky timing overcomes my 30 swing flaws and I pump the big stick 3 bills; others times I attack the rock from the inside with a closed club face and snap that puppy farther left than a Bernie Sanders volunteer (a la Jimmy Furyk on 16 at Olympic Club, 2012 *correction*).

There’s an opportunity here to cover golf like no one else covers it. Like the internet, golf’s getting younger, not older (apologies to a certain coworker). Golf media needs a young soul who doesn’t mind seeing hightop cleats or jamming bluetooth speakers on the links, but who understands the game’s traditional nuances. It needs someone who sees that SB2K16 was just a way sweeter version of what many of us do every Saturday, but who also possesses the on-course awareness to fix their ball mark on the rare occasion they hit a green. It needs someone who understands that some days it’s about sneaking a 30-rack of Bud Lattes into the back of your cart, and other days it’s about carrying your bag, turning off your phone and hoping to god your hole-in-one doesn’t finally come while you’re playing alone.

I’m taking a swing at covering this beautifully frustrating game the way I wish it were covered: with all the fun little tools modern digital media provides, through a style that doesn’t take itself too seriously, on a platform upon which I can say pretty much whatever the hell I want.

The US Open starts tomorrow. My attempt at covering golf starts today. Let’s do this.

Unless I’m at a wedding or playing a member-guest, I constantly live-tweet the golf:

The Course

The church pew bunker. Wildly undulating greens. A 288-yard par 3 that will play 300 at least once. If the US Open went with a couple fun state school girls the last few years in Chambers Bay (-5 winner, Spieth) and a restored Pinehurst (-9 winner, Kaymer), it’s going with a bolted up KO Barstool feminist in Oakmont this year. In John Daly fashion, the Big Argentinian Angel Cabrera won the last Open here in 2007 with a whopping 5-over par finish (in fact, the course was so hard that 11-over got you inside the top-10).

At Pinehurst in ’14, we saw traditional US Open rough replaced by old school sandy waste areas. At Chambers Bay, we saw massive fairways more open than Jenna Jameson during the dot-com bubble and greens covered in mold (the “mold” was actually poa, a weed that grows at a different rate than the fescue grass that makes up 80% of Chambers putting surfaces).

This year, USGA executive director and course overseer Mike Davis is returning to a classic US Open style. Tight fairways. Long, thick rough. Firm greens. As the USGA’s Sandy Tatum famously said, “We’re not trying to embarrass the best players in the game, we’re trying to identify them.”

We’ll see guys hacking out sideways after missing fairways and taking doubles after lying 2 just ten feet from the pin. I can’t stress enough how difficult the greens are: they’re rock-hard with pitch, contour and undulation that make Abi Ratchford jealous. And they’re FAST, rumored to be running 14 on the stimp. Getting from tee-to-green at a US Open is hard enough; this year, once you’re there, the golf really begins.

Most of us have seen the Oakmont videos. Let’s see them again.

Course Keys

While the main theme of traditional US Opens is “fairways, fairways, fairways,” I’m not buying that this week. Does hitting fairways help? Sure. But Oakmont doesn’t play particularly long and the graduated rough offers the players a bit more slack off the tee. Angel Cabrera won in ’07 despite hitting the fairway less than half the time. The old school architectural nature of Oakmont also allows players to bump and roll the ball into 15 of the 18 greens. Despite brutal rough, get ready to watch guys hack low, running hybrids onto or near the greens.

And, as I’ve mentioned, that’s when the real golf begins. Fast, undulating greens make putting difficult. Everyone knows that. But where the biggest adjustment comes is pitching and chipping into these things. When you surround these rolling, multi-tiered, false-edged, glass-like putting surfaces with the daunting cabbagey rough we see in those videos, getting the ball close becomes like trying to land a quarter on a barstool.

So what’s the biggest keys to the course? Having good feel and judgment out of the rough and canning 5-10 footers. That will be the difference. Everyone who finishes in the top-20 will hit a similar number of GIR; the difference will be who chips it close when they miss, and who cans those tricky mid-range putts. At Oakmont, those 5-10 footers often break several feet. With the US Open on the line, you gotta toss it outside the hole and hope. Good luck with that.

History

Rich Lerner will dramatically cover this all week, so I don’t need to delve too deep. Oakmont has hosted more USGA events than any other track, including 9 US Opens and 5 US Amateurs. It played host to Jack Nicklaus’ first professional win — the 1962 Open over hometown hero Arnold Palmer — and to what is widely considered the greatest round in major championship history — Johnny Miller’s final round 63 in 1973.

Fox Coverage

Huge question mark. Fox took more heat for their awful coverage of last year’s Open than they did for their stupid hockey puck tracer in the early 2000s. Since, they’ve fired Greg Norman and are looking to rebound in year 2 of their 12-year deal to cover golf.

As long as they pump more protracer and more Holly Sonders onto my television screen, I’ll be happy.

The Field

Phil Mickelson — Can’t mention the US Open and not talk about Phil. Lefty has finished runner-up an infamous 6 times in our national championship. It’s the only major he hasn’t won, but he’s coming off a T2 finish last week and enters this week ranked 2nd on Tour in strokes gained putting and 3rd in strokes gained overall.

Phil famously injured his wrist in the Oakmont rough in ’07; let’s hope he avoids that and is there to make things interesting on Sunday.

Hatables

Bubba Watson – Despite finishing T5 at the ’07 Open here, Bubba displays more mental weakness than any champion golfer I’ve ever seen. Although his sweeping draws and 50-yard cuts will be fun to watch on the protracer, I think most of us are hoping Bubba is wheel’s up out of PIA Friday night.

Ian Poulter – Injured. (boom?)

Billy Horschel – Until he apologizes for bitching at the greens at Chambers Bay, Horschel will be filed under the hateables. I hope he shoots 80 and complains the entire post-round interview while Spieth shoots 65 and talks about how great the course is and how every time he comes there, the people get nicer and nicer.

Lovables

Jim Renner — The People’s Golfer has a 12:30 tee time in Nashville tomorrow. Let’s pray Jimmy makes some birdies so I’m not blogging about The People’s Golfer playing in the fucking Nashville Golf Open during US Open week next year.

Jason Dufner — Duf Daddy arrives this week coming off T24, T6, and T33 finishes in his last 3 starts. He’s 19th in FedEx Cup standings but has just one win, the CareerBuilder this January, since the divorce with minxy Amanda last year.

(I’m so sorry Duf. I love you.)

Keegan Bradley — The People’s Golfer 2.0 has had a pretty wild ride since hopping on the Rundown with the boys in April. He fired longtime looper, Pepsi, in March and missed 3 cuts in the month of May. It’s not all bad though — Keegs is coming off a T8 finish at Muirfield Village two weeks ago. Maybe some PA Stoolies can push Keegs into a late weekend tee time?

The Big Three

Jordan, Jason and Rory are obviously the powerhouses right now. They’ve been trading the top-3 spots in the Official World Golf rankings for a while and have won 5 of the last 7 majors between them. Jordan is the best putter, Rory is the best ball striker, and Jason is pretty damn good at everything (probably why he’s ranked no. 1 and won 7 of his last 18 starts).

If you’ve made it this deep into this blog, you’re not someone who needs me to tell you anything about these guys. They’re good and at least one of them will be in the mix on the back 9 come Sunday.

Predictions

These are a lose/lose for me. People will shit on me when I’m wrong and go crickets when I’m right. And golf is golf so it’s damn near impossible to predict just about anything. But they’re fun and I’m not afraid of you freaks so let’s get it.

Winning Score

(+3) — Oakmont is tough. Really tough. Spieth said several weeks ago he’d sign for even par over 72 holes ASAP. While 5-over won it 9 years ago, the players are better, the technology is better, and Thursday & Friday rain will soften things up at least a little. Although the course plays to a par 70, I think it’s really a par 71 setup — therefore, the only logical conclusion is 3-over wins it, 4-over gets you a tee time in the Monday playoff.

Winner

Jordo Spieth — I know it’s cliché. I don’t care. Jordo is my guy. He’s got that “it” thing where he just knows how to get the golf ball into the golf hole better than everyone else. He’s not the longest hitter. He’s not the straightest hitter. He’s not even statistically the best putter. But he’s my guy and he’s going to do this weekend what Rory did in 2011 — rebound from a Masters collapse to capture the schedule’s next major: the US Open on Father’s Day. #teamspieth

DFL

(+21, Steven Bowditch) — Bowditch is the unfortunate whipping boy of the Tour this year. He’s missed 8 of his last 10 cuts and finished 5 of those tourneys at double-digits over par. At the WGC-Cadillac in March, he finished 37-over. He will definitely finish dead fucking last, posting 21-over par (someone that makes the cut will post higher than 21-over, but Bowditch will do it in just two rounds).

Random Related Stuff

Here’s the final leaderboard from the 2007 Open at Oakmont:

Here’s Bubba trying to kill time doing literally ANYTHING but complaining about the course. Surprised he didn’t yell at this guy for not pulling the pin out sooner: #brosweet

Here’s the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which cuts right through Oakmont:

Weather Forecast:

Final Thoughts

Watching these guys struggle isn’t meant for every week, but it’s fun once a year. Twitter will be filled with pros hitting god awful shots, and each time it makes all of us feel a little bit better about our own games.

The US Open is absolutely meant to embarrass the best players. Watching people that are really good at something embarrass themselves doing that thing is never not funny, and the US Open is no exception. With baseball the only major sport cooking for the next few months, it’s always nice this week to pop a few beers, sit back, and watch some major championship golf at one of the game’s most famed sites.

Popular in the Community
View All Comments (43)