Oakmont Country Club

Yesterday I had the pleasure of playing Oakmont Country Club. Home of the 2007 U.S. Open. Ranked #5 in America as the hardest course to play, and Ranked #9 in the WORLD.

Let me get the painful part out of the way so i can say what I want to say about he course. I shot 115. Thats right, i sucked big time out there. Preston, Matt, and Jon al shot under 90, played really well, and I sucked big time. I haven't played golf in a month, and i tried to hard, and that course is so difficult, it killed me. Next time i get a chance to play there (which might be in 5 years or never) I will make sure to play as much golf as possible before hand. I learn't my lesson the hard way. But in no way did this diminish my experience.

This course was an amazing life experience for me. I don't think I have done anything, or been somewhere that has meant as much to me. Honestly, as stupid as that sounds, this was huge for me. I know there is a lot of amazing placed in the world to visit and see, but for a guy who breaths golf, this was spectacular.

You drive up, park your car and walk towards the entrance of the club house. Then you look to your left, and see the whole entire golf course, and I mean, the whole thing. I read somewhere before I got there that fromthe club house you could see 17 of the 18 flags, that is 100% accurate. This had to be the most amazing site I have seen, right up there with the colosium in Rome. Just gorgeous.

The club house was a special place aswell. Inside was a shrine to golfs U.S Open. The history inside was breath taking. The pictures on the wall of Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicolas, Bobby Jones, all of them are enshrined on the walls of the club house. The most amazing pictures you've ever seen. I'm almost surprised that the club house isn't a tourist attraction, but only a member and us 108 lucky people get to see this stuff.

Playing the course was amazing. So difficult. I spent a lot of time in the bunkres. Every one was extremely deep and had these huge mounds that created lips infront of them. So if you were anywhere near the front of a trap, you couldn't get out. I got punished by these many times. Even one time I hit the ball, knew it hit the lip, spent about 45 seconds looking around for the ball, only to find it between my feet. Pretty comical.

It was the greens that make this place so difficult. There isn't a single piece of green on the course that is flat. Honestly, I am not exagerating, not one square foot of green is flat. And the speed. On the practice green, I dropped my ball to take a few practice putts, I had trouble getting the ball just to rest so i could putt. Amazing. So difficult.

The fairways were cut about 50 yards in front of every green about a milimeter longer then the green. Most greens in the world are probably aslong as the fairway cut in front of the greens. On the first hole, you ave the huge downhill slope to the green from about 190 yards out. I had duffed my second and found myself 75 yards out. My caddie suggested I putt it, so i did. I hit a nice putt, read the break nicely, and watched as my ball rolled forever, and ever, and ever, and it rolled right through the green without a chance to stop. CRAZY.

The one aspect of this place I couldn't get over was the history. Every so often I would be walking up to a tee box, or the green, or even just that stripe of trimmed grass from tee box to fairway, and you think to yourself about the people that have walked the exact same spot. You go up to the locker room, up these old stairs, with a hallway barely big enough for single file person and think of Jack and Tiger walking up the exact same stairs. You can feel the history as you play and walk around. Really an amazing experience, something I will never forget for the rest of my life.

Visit On The Tee for a detailed discription of the course. I would do it, but Matt will do such a better job with pictures and detail.