8 ‘Oakmont’ things Pro are quickly learning in the SH.BA

Oakmont, without. – Just learning about Oakmont this week? That course everyone seems to think it is The most difficult in the world? You are not alone. In fact, many players on the field are playing it for the first time. And if it’s not their first time, it’s their first time after the last renovations Gil Hanse made to the honorable club.

So what are everyone learning? We have compiled a notebook of those lessons below. Enjoy!

1. Nr. 8 has to do with ego

The Oakmont hole that attracts more attention than it deserves is long, descending, par-3 8. But it had the properly confused morikawa collin for just one second on Monday. He is playing Oakmont For the first time this week and when he reached the 8th, he did as every amateur would do.

“I honestly asked Joe (Greiner), my cadet and everyone in the group,” started Morikawa, “I was like, is this like one-go for this par-4 or do you lie?”

You go for it, Collin. Because it’s a par-3. The press tent had a good laugh with him, but the hole is a serious test of the tournament’s ego. Morikawa would take four pars and go away fortunately. Scottie Scheffler played a driver during his round of Tuesday. As long as pro modern can hit it, somehow they can still attract their longest club just to get to the dance floor. This will be weird.

“I think you can hurt some ego if you see boys attracting the driver or some long clubs there,” said Xander Schauffle, “but at the end of the day, however you think you will do the best result there is how you should play it.”

2. Nr. 1 is ready

If it were not the most rainy spring in the latest history of Allegheny district, we would talk a little differently about the 1st hole. But this course has been accumulated from the rain in recent months, keeping it from the typical durability of us opening for the past.

The 1st is a 488-yard, but plays much shorter, completely to the precipice. If it were determined, you would have some discs that ended up in the 360-yard rank. On the contrary, it will be soft and slow, just like 2016, when playing as the hardest hole in the previous US Open. It feels appropriate that the Oakmont has more a hand opening than a hand tightening opening. Catch your money and scooter across the highway.

3. Bunkers are brutal…

Scheffler shared a new term with us at his press conference on Tuesday: “Walled Bunkers”. As in wall bunkers, similar to their cousins ​​of the UK’s pot. Typical Oakmont bunkers have a lump on the grassy wall in their front, which simply adds to any difficulty’s approach. Schauffle said, because of the shallow nature of the sandy part, the ball tends to roll towards those walls, instead of hitting a sandy face and roll back to the bottom.

Okay, what does that mean?

Bunker -related balls will be in trouble. The balls that enter the bunkers are likely to have a different history.

Then there are the iconic church bunkers of the church between the 3rd and 4th holes that look so regular and beautiful from the sky, but mark much closer. In a 15-minute space, we looked at Erik Van Royen Blade a long iron from a flat stretch in Pews on Tuesday. “Don’t hit it here,” he told us. Ben Griffin had supported his heels in one of Pews, simply barely missing the road, but then fighting to return to it. A group later, Brian Harman pulled his car straight to the center of one of those sandy sections. The center of that area is good. Harman had a full pace and played a medium iron forward. Two yards ahead he would have been in trouble. If you are looking for a place where luck is everything, it is in Pews.

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4. But rough is worse

I talked to Chris Gotterup, a long Hitter who played his way through final qualification. He has been seen enough of the rough rounds in practice that he would play a lot of bunkers, even with their heavy, abducted faces. Bunkers at least claim to offer you the opportunity to move the ball to green. I was told on Monday that Max Grayserman played a full practical round and every time he lacked the alley, he could not progress in green. In other words, this cannot progress it Country Club.

Justin Lower moved forward from the teeing land to the direction range in an area with thick items and continued his verse session from there, trying to better understand the beginning of his lower forests from the rough. Nowhere else do you see the players who make it.

5. Validation through Ted Scott

Nick Taylor is not a long Hitter in any way. The 17th hole, for him, could be a complicated, with a courtyard of 285 yards, uphill over the green-green bunkers that is directed for the majority. Do you try and muscle your way up there? I lie down for a wedge?

His caddy, Dave Markle, has tried to understand this. During their practice of practice, Markle suggested, Hey, maybe we are thinking of getting into this specific bunker. Why? Because of the front left bunkers is the only angle to use the entire length of green. From every other direction, the green gets LOT thin.

However, the cades do not make the calls, and Taylor did not want the idea. At least not at the beginning. Tuesday evening, Markle was on a special scouting mission, walking some holes with Ted Scott, perhaps no. 1 looper all over the earth. When Markle asked Scott where he thinks a great Miss would be at 17, he was completely proven.

“This bunker here,” Scott told. Missing in a wall bunker on a removable Par-4 and calling it a small victory? This is Oakmont.

6. The wedge goes further

Part of the beautiful battle in this course is how it enhances reality. In most of every case, throughout the season, the 7-Hekuri is going farther than the sharp wedge. But, in the rough in Oakmont, which has grown and cut in a specific way to manage the “structure” and “crown” of the grass, the balls fall to the ground level much easier. All of this means, players have to attack them steeply, removing their clubs and turning it 7-and time into a 5-Herkuri, and the wedge that throws in an 8-Herkuri.

“That’s just thick,” Morikawa said. “Clubs will come back. You will see boys trying to hit wedge out and go 45 degrees because that’s how thick it’s harsh. That’s just how you have to play it.”

7. Missing your country? Play again

During a walk and talk until the 17th hole with Patrick Cantlay on Monday afternoon, I got into a perfectly Oakmont mentality. Cantlay lit his right car of his target and at the rough, one-sided short location in the hole, with the next chance-to make birds. I asked him what he should do in that scenario and his answer was so simple that it could also be brilliant. Just play again where I was trying to go first and foremost.

In other words, his goal in Tee was to reach the green front. From there, he wants both with two for birds. His blow brought Birdie out of the game, but why not just try to go to that green front for a two-putt money then? It feels like a new concept, but may not be (and will not be!) In Oakmont.

8. Missing intentionally may be the measure

A lot of Oakmont runs back and forth. Nr. 3 goes along no. 4, which goes along no. 5, which goes along no. 7. Hole 9 goes between 1 and 10, and on the other side of 10 is 11. What does this mean for the championship? Not too harsh brutally stupid among these holes but if the players would be intentionally Miss in a major way, they could be rewarded by finding another way.

The idea was connected to the press conferences, in part because it happened a lot during the 2021 US Ameau in Oakmont. In particular, the players played from 11 on the 10th path. For beginners, it is more acceptable than the 11th Slopey Street, but also because it opens the players to the full 11th length. For the amateur, according to a caddy who tired that week, was a visible choice. from Bryson dechambeauIt was not… at least at the beginning of the week.

Question: Is this something you thought about doing?

Bryson Dechambeau: “Not specifically, but it’s a great idea. Thank you, so I’ll go check it now.”

We will see what he has (and the rest of the field) in the store on Thursday morning.