It Was Always Up to Oakmont to Save the Day

OAKMONT, Pa.—Two rounds into the 125th United States Open, you could feel the collective exhale. Not from the contenders, of course. They’re still facing the most pressure-packed, nerve-jangling weekend in golf. No, the larger sense of relief could be felt in the halls of Oakmont’s green-and-white clubhouse, at USGA headquarters in Far Hills, NJ and even in the sweaty press tent. The center held: ancient Oakmont can still present an almighty test. For two days, the U.S. Open felt like the U.S. Open. Par had meaning.

No one had wanted to say it ahead of time, because the implications were too big, but this was the last stand of what the national championship is supposed to be.

This Oakmont Open was so freighted because the last two bookended an era. In 2007, Angel Cabrera’s +5 was the winning score. (Geoff Ogilvy had won the year before at Winged Foot with the same score.) In 2016, the winner went five deep at Oakmont, though the official winning score was -4 after Dustin Johnson was dinged with a spurious post-round penalty stroke. If 2007 feels like a lifetime ago that’s because it is: The two players who would most effectively overwhelm the sport, DJ and Rory McIlroy, were preparing for their amateur swan songs at the Walker Cup. Bryson DeChambeau was in junior high, Brooks Koepka in high school. “Look, it wasn’t a million years ago,” says Adam Scott, “but we didn’t talk about speed like we do today, as an essential item. The game was played differently.” Indeed, the best player in 2007 (Tiger Woods, obvs) employed the spinniest ball, sacrificing significant yardage so he could shape shots more adroitly. By 2016, unchecked distance gains had overrun the sport, and most of the field at Oakmont was swinging away with impunity: during the final round, Johnson’s first two drives traveled a total of 693 yards. The next year Koepka won the U.S. Open with a record tying score of -16. Two years after that Gary Woodland torched proud Pebble Beach to the tune of -13, and then a beefed-up DeChambeau made a mockery of Winged Foot, once the site of a celebrated massacre when +7 won the Open. (Take a bow, bespectacled Hale Irwin.) Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course was redesigned for the express purpose of hosting a U.S. Open and then in 2023 Wyndham Clark tore the course apart, going -10. The national championship had basically become a TOUR event with better branding.

Everyone wondered who'd shoot a first round 60-something and jab Oakmont first. On Thursday it was J.J. Spaun with a 66.

It would be up to Oakmont to save the day. It is to the U.S. Open as St. Andrews is to the Open Championship—embodying the very soul of the tournament. Par may be a construct but it very much matters here in Arnie’s country. In 2007, on the eve of the first round, the USGA trimmed the rough for the second time in a week. Then that night nearly half an inch of rain fell, taking more bite out of the course. Nick Dougherty, a young Englishman, took the early lead with a two-under-par 68 and then rubbed it in afterward, saying, "I think the course is, I hate to say easy, but. . . ." Even though 28 players failed to make a birdie, Mickey Pohl, the tournament chairman, received more than two dozen emails overnight from irate Oakmont members voicing displeasure that their course was not inducing enough suffering. Before the second round the greens were rolled and all the compassion squeezed out of Oakmont. Carnage ensued, just as god and Johnny Miller intended.

But the club and, especially, the USGA had been flatfooted in responding to the sport’s smashmouth evolution, as the low scoring in 2016 showed. For this U.S. Open, Oakmont was retrofitted with new back tees, greens enlarged to accommodate dastardly pin positions, strategically shifted bunkers with steeper faces and even a new ravine. The rough was allowed to grow as long as Neil Shipley’s hair, a proper setup for what is supposed to be the sport’s ultimate examination. “I think [fans] turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer,” says Xander Schauffele, accurately. “That's part of the enjoyment of the U.S. Open for viewers.”

Rory McIlroy found himself on the wrong side of the projected cut line early in his Friday round with two double bogeys in his first three holes.

Alas, 13 inches of rain in the weeks and days leading up the U.S. Open left Oakmont’s greens too soft. J.J. Spaun went out early in the first round and shot a high-wire 66 to take the lead at 4-under; Spaun made six par putts of at least 7 feet and for the day was +8.6 strokes gained overall. But 156 modern athletes took on Oakmont, their mind, body and equipment having been optimized by technology and teams of specialists, and only 10 broke par. The first round scoring average of 4.64 strokes over par was the highest at the U.S. Open since a very windy day at Shinnecock in 2018. Bob MacIntyre shot 70 and said afterward, “Honestly, I don't know if it's good or bad to say at level par, but that's almost as good as I've got… It is just so hard—every shot you're on a knife edge.” After his 69, Thomas Detry said, “I shot 3-under on the front nine and I think I played some of the best golf that I've ever played. It just puts so much pressure on every single part of your game constantly, whether it's off the tee, whether it's putting, whether it's around the greens or it's the iron shots into the green. Luckily, the wind wasn't too much up today, but it could be a bloodbath out here if it suddenly starts to blow.”

Friday had barely a breath of wind but Oakmont’s greens (and twisty fairways) finally got, in Laurie Canter’s words, “nice and fiery.” The best statistical putter on the PGA Tour, Sam Burns, finagled a spectacular 65 to reach -3, but most folks were heading the other direction on the leaderboard. By the time the morning wave finished only two players who had completed 36 holes were under par and the projected cut had risen to +6.

On Thursday it was Spaun, and on Friday it was Sam Burns, who shot a one-bogey 65. There were few other heroes.

“They’ve taken the course right to the edge,” Canter said following his second round 75. “Some of the pin positions are incredible. To have a chance to get to them you need to be more aggressive off the tee so you’re hitting a shorter club in. But if you drive it into the rough bogey is a good score. It is an absolutely relentless test. As it should be for this tournament.”

Sadly, rain is forecast for the weekend, which will take the edge off the course. But if the birdies come a little too cheap that will be entirely the weather’s fault. The USGA has done all it can do with an outdoor venue, short of moving the championship to autumn. Come what may on the weekend, for two glorious days Oakmont has been a monster, same as it ever was.