WEBVTT - Oakmont Preview 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:03.320 It's the Son of a Butch podcast. I am your 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:08.600 host Claude harmon US Open week and the famed Oakmont 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.600 the tenth playing of the US Open at Oakmont. Listen. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.520 This is I think one of, if not the hardest 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.200 US Open venues they have. I think it's one of 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.320 the hardest major championship courses in the game. I think 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.000 it's one of the hardest golf courses on the planet Earth, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:26.560 to be honest with you, and the way that they 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.880 have it set up this week, it's brutal. There's just 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.839 no other way to kind of describe what it's like. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.320 The rough is brutal. The greens are going to be 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.920 firm and fast. I mean, these are greens by the 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.040 weekend might get up to thirteen fourteen fifteen on the 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.760 stint meter. It's been wet, They've had a lot of rain, 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.879 but I think the golf course is going to dry out. 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:49.600 So one of the interesting things this week is the 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.960 golf course has been, believe it or not, pretty soft 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.600 so far through the practice rounds, and by the time 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.040 Thursday comes around, it's going to be a different golf course. 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.440 It's going to be a different golf course than the 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.920 players have been practicing on the greens are going to 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.800 be faster. The greens are going to be firmer. The 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.000 fairways are going to be faster. The fairways are going 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.520 to be firmer. It's just a ridiculously hard golf course. 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:11.479 It's just no way about it. And if you look 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.080 at the scores. First US Open Championship nineteen twenty seven, 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.160 Tommy Armor was your winner. Plus thirteen was the winning score. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.840 Nineteen thirty five plus eleven, Ben Hogan nineteen fifty three 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:27.440 minus five. Jack Nicholas won here in sixty two minus one. 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.600 Johnny Miller nineteen seventy three shot five under, Larry Nelson 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.880 eighty three, four under Ernie Els ninety four in the 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:40.000 playoff five under on Hell Cabrera two thousand and seven 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.840 to one here plus five, and then Dustin Johnson won 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.000 the last time we were here almost ten years ago 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:48.440 at four under. I was out on the course today 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.960 walking the practice rounds. Gil Hants, the famed architect who 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.600 was in charge of the restoration here, he told me 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.640 he thought even parr was probably going to be a 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.920 safe bet winning score. You know, the membership here wants 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:04.920 it to be fifteen to twenty over. I mean, the 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.080 members at Oakmont are famous for loving the fact that 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.000 their golf course is really really difficult, is really really hard. 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.560 They'll tell anybody that will listen how fast the greens 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.040 are all the time. So I thought it was interesting 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.520 and talking to go Hants on what the USGA want. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:21.760 Do they have a score in mind? He said no. 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.080 I asked him what he thought. He said even parr, 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.160 But he said I don't really have a score in mind. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.480 I just think even par sounds about right. But the 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:34.799 membership at all of these major championship venues want their 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.239 golf course to play as hard as humanly possible for 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:40.760 the best players in the world. I don't know why. 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.120 I think it's an ego thing. It's not something that 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.360 I think is really cool. I just don't know why 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.000 they want the best players in the world to struggle 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.480 on a golf course that they struggle on. I guess 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:54.839 that's the thing. I guess that it's such a hard 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.760 golf course and they play it that they want it 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.440 to be as difficult as possible. But the golf course 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.680 is almost two hundred yards longer than it was in 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.720 twenty sixteen. They've enlarged the greens by almost an average 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.320 of twelve hundred square feet. And when you think about 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.120 this golf course was made using a couple dozen mules 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.640 and one hundred and fifty men and they kind of 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.880 pushed all the dirt around. And talking to Gil Hans, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:21.800 he was saying that the idea was to go back 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.880 and look at old aerial photos of kind of the 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.520 thirties and the forties. So they've tried to take some 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.680 of the greens back to what they originally were. But 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:36.720 it's just there's just no way to describe how hard 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.000 it is. Seven three hundred and seventy two yards long 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.760 now parse seventy And if you look at the last 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.760 nine winners, eight of them have something in common. And 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.240 the eight winners of this tournament have all been multiple 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.080 major champions. This is just a hard golf course to 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:00.200 get lucky on. Birdies are very very rare ego or 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.880 I mean, the next thing possible unless you're holding out. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:07.280 So I'm going to keep saying this on the podcast. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.000 It's just hard. And in walking around the practice truts, 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.359 I mean there is double, triple, quadruple bogie lurking on 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.920 all eighteen holes. Every single hole from start to finish. 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.200 So mentally you know that. I think the players know 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.880 that going out right, they know that the winner is 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.640 going to have to deal with some crazy stuff. He's 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.599 going to have to make a lot of palls. The 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:36.240 winner is going to have to make a lot of 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.360 fifteen footers twenty footers for palls, because if you get 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.920 out of position here off the tee, if you get 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.159 out of position, I mean I was in a practice, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.880 walking a practice. Who and watch Terrell Hatton miss a 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.920 fairway by five yards five steps? Really, I mean five 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.240 yards being generous, it's five steps. I've walked it off 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.520 five steps. Took us almost ten minutes to find it, 0:04:57.920 --> 0:04:59.720 and when we found it it was so buried. He 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.200 tried to take a lob wedge, made the hardest swing 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.960 you can possibly make and maybe advance to the golf 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.120 ball three yards five at a push. And then if 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:14.240 you miss the greens, you're in really really deep rough. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:19.240 You could get completely destroyed by the lie that you've got. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.120 And then I think the issue here is the roof 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.320 is so thick that you have to be aggressive out 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.280 of the rough, otherwise the ball isn't going to go anywhere. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.480 The club isn't going to go anywhere. So you have 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.880 to hit these shots around the green complexes here at Oakmont, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.599 your chip shots, if you're in the rough, you have 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.760 to hit them so hard. But the fear is that 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:41.640 you're going to hit it so hard it's gonna go 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.440 over the green right and then you have to hit 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:48.440 another one. So the trap and the trick is to 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.840 hit the golf ball hard enough to get it out 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.599 of You'd much rather hit it on the green to 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.400 thirty forty feet then to not hit it hard enough 0:05:58.440 --> 0:05:59.560 and not get out of the rough and have to 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.040 hit it enough. So you're going to see some crazy 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.200 short game stuff. I just don't know when the rough gets, 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.599 you know, five to seven inches long around greens where 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.480 they are very undulated. A lot of these greens either 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.560 slope from front to back or back to front, from 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.599 right to left or from left right, and I'm talking 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.839 severely pitched from front to back, back to front, left 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:28.839 to right, right to left, and the greens are going 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.120 to be running once the tournament starts. The greens are 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.080 going to be running thirteen fourteen, fifteen on the stip meter, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.039 and it's going to be windy and it's going to 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.640 be hot, so they're going to bake out and it 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.800 is a very very difficult test of golf. Let's just 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.440 go through the holes. First hole, part four, just four 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.080 eighty eight. I mean, fairway isn't really big. It kind 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.360 of you hit out. You hit the fairway, then you're 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.279 hitting down the hill to a green that severely slopes 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.560 from front to back. So a lot players in the 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:02.560 practice rooms trying to figure out do they land it 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.080 short and then try and let it run. The thing is, 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.080 you want to be putting from the back portion of 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.320 this green, regardless of where the flags are, because then 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.680 you're putting uphill. If you're on the front part of 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.880 the green on one and the pin is anywhere on 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.400 the back, you're basically putting straight downhill and there's a 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.280 lot of movement. So if you miss the green, you're struggling. 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.880 I mean you're just struggling the next hole. Another part four, 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.680 three forty six. I think a lot of it will 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.800 be club selection off the tee. DJ in the practice 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.680 rounds who won here in sixteen. He hit one of 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.160 his seven woods just to make sure he got the 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.120 ball and play the Pharaohs pretty ride Noah Kent, who 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.720 I teach the amateur. Noah almost drove the green twice, 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.760 so he was choosing driver to get it up there. 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:54.840 But that green slopes severely from back to front right, 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.600 and there's all these little nooks and crannies where you 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.480 can kind of put the pin on two right. So 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.760 I do think that accuracy off the tee is I'm 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:07.920 an accurac sea off the tee on all these holes 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:09.840 is going to be really really important. So I think 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:11.920 on two it's going to be how far up do 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.080 you want to try and risk getting the ball? So 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.840 obviously the closer you get it, the easier the chip shot. 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.480 I watched Scotti Scheffler in one of the practice rounds, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:21.880 hit it to the middle of the green, had a 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.760 little bit too much spin this was on Tuesday, and 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:27.760 spin it all the way back off the green and 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.200 roll back and he had a twenty yard pitch shot. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.240 So it severely, severely slopes from back to front. And 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.800 then the third hole on the left hand side of 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:40.200 the third hole the famous church pew bunkers. This is 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.760 one of the hardest par fours on the planet Earth. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.480 Four hundred and sixty two yards uphill so you're hitting 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:52.080 to an upslope, and then the green has a massive, 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.199 massive false front, and a lot of the approach areas 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.640 here at Oakmont they're basically like putting green. They're rolling 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.240 ten on the putting green. So specifically on the third hole, 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.200 if the ball kind of gets on to the front 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:09.640 edge and then rolls off, it's going to roll a 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.480 long way. Then you're chipping back up the hill. You 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.200 obviously don't want to go over this green because in 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.920 sixteen it was basically just like the front it was 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:22.640 false front shaved down, so if you went over the 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.120 green you had the same thing. It would roll all 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:26.800 the way to the bottom part of the redesign and 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.040 the restoration on three as they've taken out that back portion, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.319 so it's just rough. They're going to tuck pins kind 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.720 of all over the place. And that's the thing about 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.640 these greens, and the green complex on the third hole 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.920 has a lot of slope to it from right to 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.160 left right, so where they put these pins, it's just 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.720 I just can't describe how hard it is. Fourth hole, 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.920 one of the par five's just six hundred and eleven yards. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.680 You have to get this in play off. The tee 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.520 and then the green. I mean, really there are a 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.480 lot of slopes. There's a back portion to the fourth 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.600 green that's kind of on a little bit of a shelf, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.880 and then everything around the back portion in the right 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.840 portion of the fourth green just basically falls off. But 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.360 you've got the church pew bunkers all the way down 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.840 the left hand side six hundred and eleven yards. I mean, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.880 you've got to hit a really good drive to be 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.240 able to get to where you could go for it 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.560 the layup area. Most of the guys, if they can't 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:32.360 get to they're probably going to be going in with 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.080 something kind of right around one hundred and one yards, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.440 around one hundred yards in two thousand and seven. In 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.760 twenty sixteen, easiest hole on golf course, So this is 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:50.280 one of the legit birdie chances. Everything kind of funnels 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:52.640 to the middle of this green, but they will tuck 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.520 the pins on four. The par five kind of in 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.800 a bunch of different unique areas. The fifth hole another 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.000 part four four hundred eight kind of a little bit uphill, 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.160 so you can't see the green. It's a blind t shot, 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.400 but it's kind of going to be a wedge. So 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.800 this is another of I think a birdie chance. I mean, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.760 you definitely if you hit this fairway, your probably I 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.920 mean the three hundred yard mark is going to leave 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.160 you right around one hundred yards in. So I think 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.960 a lot of players will will kind of figure out 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.880 where they want to hit it off the tee. It's 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.720 the second smallest green on the property, so it's a 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.240 tiny green, but you're going in it with a short 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.960 iron or a wedge. The first of the par threes, 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.160 the sixth hole, downhill two hundred yards, you have to 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.680 hit this green. There is a lot of slope, I 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.560 mean a tremendous amount of slope here from right to left. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.640 So anything on the right hand side is going to funnel. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.840 The back right, I think is going to be an 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.560 interesting pin position because if you're trying to go at 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:56.880 that and you miss it, you are in severe off 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.880 the bunkers around the sixth hole not a bad option. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.440 But yeah, Part three over two hundred yards, the seventh hole, 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.600 Part four four hundred and eighty five yards. They've put 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:11.480 a bunker that wasn't there in twenty sixteen on the 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.800 left hand side, and it's right around three hundred to 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.880 carry that. But this hole kind of plays into the 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.040 prevailing wind, so it's going to be into the wind. 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.960 But again you have to hit the fairway here. Three 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.040 hundred yards kind is going to give you that one 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.040 eighty to one seventy five range to a green that 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:37.160 is severely undulated and it slopes from left to right, 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.280 So on the previous hole, it slopes from right to left. 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:44.360 On the par four seventh, severe slope from left to right, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.400 and the runoff area on the front portion of this 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.560 green kind of funnels. Anything on the left side of 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.800 this green to the front flags is going to funnel off. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.959 A bunch of guys were going down in front of 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.240 the bunker on seven, down at the bottom and hitting 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:01.720 all the way up to the left hand portion and 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.560 letting it then roll back to where the flags were. 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.199 There's a right hand kind of a front right pin 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.360 position on seven that if you go at it, you'll 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.480 be challenging the bunker. So yeah, it's really really hard. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.560 Part four almost five hundred yards long. The eighth hole 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.040 almost three hundred yards into the wind. I just don't 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:27.439 know how I feel about it. Three hundred yard Part three, 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.560 I mean, is there skill involved in that? I mean, 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:32.440 I just don't think there's a lot of skill involved 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.440 in that. I mean, there's no real club selection choice. 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.000 It's either going to be three wood for some players, 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.200 it's going to be driver for a lot of players. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.280 But again, a lot of area to run the ball onto. 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.160 The front of the eighth it's very flat, it's very 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.800 very firm, very very fast, but the green does kind 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.840 of pitch a little bit from back to front. And 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.680 then the ninth hole blind t shot ditch on the 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:00.520 left hand side of the fairway, So if you miss 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.720 a fairway on the left, you're in this kind of 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.000 ditch that runs all the way down from the clubhouse. 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.960 If you miss it to the right, you're in Bunker's 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.800 second hardest hole on the golf course last time they 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.280 were here. So it's a tough hole and it's uphill. 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.480 Bunkers on the right are no bargain. I mean, it's 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:25.000 just just one of the most demanding holes on the property. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.280 So you get through the ninth, then you go the 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:33.400 downhill tenth part four four forty seven. It was one 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.440 of the narrowest fairways on the golf course. Bunkers on 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.840 both sides, and there's kind of a ditch that kind 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:44.240 of intersects, so the green severely slopes from right to 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.560 left and front to back. Birdie putts are almost non existent, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.440 so downwind there is runout and you could run out 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.920 into one of these ditches. So I do think this 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.760 is one of the greens that you can use some 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.080 creativity with to depending on where you want to land 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.880 the golf ball. But a very very difficult downhill par four, 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.400 and then the eleventh hole up the hill three point 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.040 ninety one, so you're hitting up to kind of a plateau. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.040 If you don't get it all the way up on 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.520 the top of this plateau, then you're kind of hitting 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:22.720 off of an upslope on an uphill hole anyway, which 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.680 the ball can balloon on you. But the green is 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.520 somewhat flat. On eleven, there's a little bit of slope 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.080 from back to front and from left to right, but 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.840 it is one of the flatter greens on the property 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.520 at Oakmont, and at only four hundred yards. If you 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.240 hit a good t shot, hit the fairway, get it 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.760 up on the top. Yeah, I mean it's I don't know, 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:49.320 it's a makeable birdie putt, but second easiest green to 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.680 hit in regulation in sixteen seventy six percent of the 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:54.960 field hit this green, so again it's one of the 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.880 shorter holes, the shorter par four, and it gives you 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.720 a little bit of a break. And then the two 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.080 par fives at Oakmont on the front six eleven, on 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.760 the back six hundred and twelve yards, it's going to 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:12.040 take three really really good shots. There's bunkers on both sides. 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.680 The green slopes severely from front to back, so any 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.000 shot into this green is extremely difficult. To hold the 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.360 green at the par five twelve, so you've got two 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:28.120 birdie chances on the par fives layups. You gotta make 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.240 sure you don't hit it in one of the there's 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:31.920 a bunker left of the green, so you've got to 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:33.880 make sure that you don't hit it here. But a 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.120 lot of creativity around the green here. It's going to 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.880 take a lot of figuring out where to land it. 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:46.280 Thirteen par three, one hundred and eighty two yards. The 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.520 green is almost I think it's forty two paces long, 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.480 bunkers all the way around it. Yeah, I mean you 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.520 got to stay below the hole. Anything that gets above 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.320 the hole at the thirteenth you're gonna be putting straight 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.040 down the hill, I mean, and so let's see, you've 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:04.280 got a birdie chance below the hole and you run 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.320 it three feet past right now, you've got a three 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:12.400 foot pot down basically a mountain on ice. That's how 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.399 fast the greens are, so you've got to keep it 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.160 below the hole. On the thirteenth, fourteenth hole another powerfuller, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.119 one of the shorter portfols three hundred and seventy nine yards, 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:23.720 pretty much straight off to tea. It's going to give 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.320 you pretty easy shot. So this is one of the 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.440 easiest greens on the on the golf course. It's pretty 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.720 flat and it's a legit birdie chance. So the green 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.840 complex is easy compared to a lot of some of 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.040 the other greens around here. There just aren't a lot 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.440 of birdie chances around this golf course or on this property, 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:49.639 so you have to take advantage of these opportunities that 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.280 you have. And the fourteenth with the green being pretty flat, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.840 it's not super super long, it's a hole where you 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.960 could take advantage of it, and there are just so 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:05.119 few of those on this golf course. Fifteen pole another 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.239 part four five hundred and seven yards kind of a 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.639 blind t shot, and the fairway slopes pretty severely from 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.240 left to right, so amid to long iron. This is 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.639 a very big green. It's one of the biggest greens 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.520 on the golf course, almost fifty yards long, somewhat flat, 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.640 but there are little kind of slopes and knobs where 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:33.560 they can kind of put pin positions. Sixteen Part three, 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:38.760 two hundred and thirty six yards long. Yeah, long iron. 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:43.520 It's a big green. There is a severe false front 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.920 at the front, so anything on the front that doesn't 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:47.639 get on the putting surface, if it just gets on, 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.560 it's going to roll all the way back. So the 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.600 par fives are over six hundred yards, the par threes 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.280 over two hundred yards. I mean, it's just it's crazy hard. 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:03.040 This golf course is a couple of different strategies three 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.720 hundred and twelve yard Part four, so a lot of 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.720 guys will be definitely going for the green. I mean, 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.240 unless it's massively into the wind. I think you're gonna 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.320 see everybody kind of take a chance and try and 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.920 see if they can somehow get it up there close, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:18.800 maybe get on the putty surface and try and eke 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.560 out a birdie. If you lay up, you're laying up 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:23.720 kind of into that two fifty to kind of two 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.720 seventy five, range right around kind of one ninety. But 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.119 this is the smallest green on the golf course, so 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.720 drive a par four, but a very very difficult green 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.440 to try and get to. And then the iconic eighteenth hole. 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.400 I think it's one of the best finishing holes in golf. 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.360 You just got to stand up and hit the fairway 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.359 and then stand up and somehow get the ball on 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.840 the putty surface. So the clubhouse is in the background, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.800 and you know, it's an old school golf course. It's 0:19:54.960 --> 0:20:00.359 just it's hard. The eighteenth hole five hundred yards. Dustin 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.199 Johnson hit a six iron from one to ninety in 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.719 sixteen when he won, And yeah, it's I just I 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:11.160 can't say it enough that the test that this golf 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.680 course demands from your game, the test that this golf 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.400 course demands from your short game. You know, the USGA 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.720 want the golf course to test all elements of the game. 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.040 They want the players to have to hit all the 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.560 clubs in their bag, and they do like making us 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.160 opens difficult. And I think we're going to see carnage. 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.959 We are going to see some good shots, we are 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:35.679 going to see some birdies, But we are going to 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.920 see a lot of players struggling to make par. You're 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.879 going to hear the announcers say that is an unbelievable 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.840 up and down. That is an unbelievable par. It's just 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:47.640 that type of golf course. And when you go back 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.200 and you look at the people that have won here, 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.000 Dustin Johnson, one of the greatest players of the modern 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.080 generation on hell, Cabrera doesn't get nearly the credit he 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.480 deserves for the ball striking he had. Ernie L's winning 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:03.360 here in nineteen ninety four, Ben Hogan's won here. Jack 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.240 Nicholas is one here. So this is a big boy 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:11.720 golf course that demands great play from great players. And 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.400 the way that Rory drove the golf ball last week, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.760 the way he drove the golf ball at Quail Hollow, 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.720 He's been talking about trying to find a driver because 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.679 his driver failed testing at the PGA. If Roy doesn't 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.879 drive it good here, he's going to struggle. Everyone is 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:29.840 going to struggle if they don't drive it well here. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.680 But for the favorites, guys like Rory, guys like Scotti, Scheffler, 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.879 all the superstars, you have to drive it well and 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.520 then you have to be really, really smart with your irons. 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.840 You've got to put it in positions to where you've 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.000 got to think about, Okay, if I could try and 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.360 get this close but be above the hole, is it 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.000 more prudent to be below the hole? And then I 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.000