Jump to content
Note: This thread is 3162 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Recommended Posts

Another nice course up here is TCP Snoqualmie designed by Jack Nicklaus. They hold the Boeing Classic here on the Champions Tour. There is one blind possibly driveable par 4. 

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

  Reveal hidden contents
Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  On 6/23/2016 at 9:37 PM, Chilli Dipper said:

Saying that Sahalee is a better course than Oakmont because it has more trees is a lot like saying The Avengers is a better movie than Jaws because it has more explosions.

The trees at Sahalee may look pretty, but they make the holes extremely narrow. As a result, tournaments held there tend to become contests in who has the straightest ball flight. However, most players, even the best in the world, are not usually trying to hit the ball dead straight. Sahalee, then, is less likely to identify the best player than it is to identify the best at doing a specific thing.

The lack of trees at Oakmont, on the other hand, opened up the leaderboard to a wide variety of playing styles. There were long hitters in contention, short hitters, draw players, fade hitters, low-ball hitters, high-ball hitters, you name it. The goal at Oakmont is to avoid the bunkers and deep rough, but there is no correct way of doing that; that makes a more challenging test of skill than "hit it straight every time."

Expand  

Sahalee is a better course than Oakmont because it has fewer sharks. :P

(You're gonna need a bigger analogy) ;)

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
  On 6/23/2016 at 10:07 PM, No Mulligans said:

 

OAKMONT_turnpike_061316.jpg

oakm.jpg

Expand  

 

You don't see the road. It's like 50 feet below the course.

Erik J. Barzeski β€” β›³ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. πŸŒπŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution β€’ Owner, The Sand Trap .com β€’ AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 β€’ WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  On 6/23/2016 at 9:13 PM, SquirrelNutz said:

How about TPC Sawgrass? Seems like that golf course deserves a major. I love that Sawgrass is an exciting course and so spectator friendly. Seems like a lot of the major courses are not spectator friendly, that was definitely true at Torrey Pines, beautiful scenery, dramatic tournament won by an injured Tiger, but not good viewing areas for the spectators.

Expand  

Nah.Since its a regular stop and so close to the open I dont see em playing it twice and supposedly takes time to get course ready for open.


I doubt that you'll ever see a US Open in Florida.  Open courses rarely have much water, and of late not a lot of trees.  

Also, nobody in his right mind wants to play golf in Florida in late June. :~(

  • Upvote 1

Rick

"He who has the fastest cart will never have a bad lie."

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

I am partial to the traditional courses:
Oakmont, Oakland Hills, Winged Foot, Olympic, etc; but I hate what they do so the courses to extra trick them up (kill the greens so they stimp at 12+ & unplayable rough being the primary examples)

 

Players play, tough players win!

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
  On 6/24/2016 at 12:57 AM, Wally Fairway said:

I am partial to the traditional courses:
Oakmont, Oakland Hills, Winged Foot, Olympic, etc; but I hate what they do so the courses to extra trick them up (kill the greens so they stimp at 12+ & unplayable rough being the primary examples)

Expand  

Oakmont's greens are fine. :-)

But yes, sometimes in the chase of 12-13 greens, they push greens a little too far. It doesn't help that they play for 12+ hours on Thursday and Friday (they don't like to water greens during play, of course).

Erik J. Barzeski β€” β›³ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. πŸŒπŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution β€’ Owner, The Sand Trap .com β€’ AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 β€’ WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  On 6/24/2016 at 1:17 AM, iacas said:

Oakmont's greens are fine. :-)

But yes, sometimes in the chase of 12-13 greens, they push greens a little too far. It doesn't help that they play for 12+ hours on Thursday and Friday (they don't like to water greens during play, of course).

Expand  

Agree - but IMO what saved Oakmont greens from being browned was Mother Nature, not Mike Davis; similar to what happened at #2 when they got rain the week before.

I do recognize that the old traditional courses have been made somewhat obsolete by the equipment, balls and players being able to hit any par 5 in 2, and almost any par 4 driver/wedge. So the only defense is to grow the rough, narrow the fairway & stimp up the greens

Players play, tough players win!

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Pinehurst's holes, for the most part, are framed by trees that really don't come in to play. That is a look I prefer to Oakmont's. That being said, Oakmont is a great US Open course. It really seemed to test every part of the player's game. I really liked the lush green look, along with the natural looking fescue areas, vs the burned out look of Chambers Bay and Pinehurst.


  • Administrator
  On 6/24/2016 at 10:07 PM, Wally Fairway said:

Agree - but IMO what saved Oakmont greens from being browned was Mother Nature, not Mike Davis; similar to what happened at #2 when they got rain the week before.

Expand  

No. Not really. Oakmont plays their greens fast all summer. It's not true they show them down, but they don't cut them any lower for the US Open. (The small increase in added speed is from rolling most likely.)

The greens would be fine without the rain.

Erik J. Barzeski β€” β›³ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. πŸŒπŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution β€’ Owner, The Sand Trap .com β€’ AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 β€’ WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Yes...undoubtedly a very good US Open venue.....even though we sometimes feel like we (the viewing public) is the most important thing, it really doesn't matter that the course is not visually spectacular......also feel like the fact that DJ won and Furyk was right behind says a lot about the quality of the course for a major.....it deserves a US Open every 10 years 

"Getting paired with you is the equivalent to a two-stroke penalty to your playing competitors"  -- Sean O'Hair to Rory Sabbatini (Zurich Classic, 2011)


  On 6/24/2016 at 12:57 AM, Wally Fairway said:

I am partial to the traditional courses:
Oakmont, Oakland Hills, Winged Foot, Olympic, etc; but I hate what they do so the courses to extra trick them up (kill the greens so they stimp at 12+ & unplayable rough being the primary examples)

 

Expand  

What they do for Open venues these days falls far short of what Oakmont did to "trick up" the course way back in the day. In the clubhouse are displayed 10 foot long rakes with 17 lb heads! The teeth are at least 4" long and probably 1 1/2" wide at the top. Oakmont would water down the sand in the bunkers and drag these rakes through them perpendicular to the line of play! There was no way you could advance the ball toward the green, you had to come out sideways! And they would also "spot water" the greens.

  On 6/24/2016 at 1:17 AM, iacas said:

Oakmont's greens are fine. :-)

But yes, sometimes in the chase of 12-13 greens, they push greens a little too far. It doesn't help that they play for 12+ hours on Thursday and Friday (they don't like to water greens during play, of course).

Expand  

True, but I have seen exactly that at Oakmont. I've been there twice in person, '73 when Johnny Miller won, and '94 when Ernie Els won. Talk about contrasts! '73 was the year it rained nearly all night every night of the Open. The course got soft and that, along with Miller's considerable skills, allowed him to shoot 63 in his final round to win.

'94 was entirely different. That was the year of baking heat, unrelenting sunshine, and temps 95 degrees and higher every day. During the Wednesday practice round I got in the grandstand at the 18th green to watch some groups finish. There was grounds crewman standing by with a hose. After every couple of groups, he would venture out and hose down the green just to keep it playable!

  On 6/25/2016 at 1:09 AM, iacas said:

No. Not really. Oakmont plays their greens fast all summer. It's not true they show them down, but they don't cut them any lower for the US Open. (The smell increase in added speed is from rolling most likely.)

The greens would be fine without the rain.

Expand  

Yes, the members like to brag! But even back in the day when Henry Fownes was still alive, he would go to certain greens, drop a ball at the top from shoulder height, and if it didn't roll off the front the green keeper was in for a tongue lashing!

As far as the tree removal program, that was just to restore Oakmont to something like it's original condition. The place was built on a big cow pasture! There were a few groves of trees here and there to give the cows a shady place to lay down and chew cud, but most of the place was grass.

BTW, speaking of the '94 Open, Oakmont really let the rough grow that year! The top margin of every bunker had 3 foot tall fescue growing on it! I got a good look at the 18th from the tee box, and it is the single scariest golf hole I have ever seen in my life!

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
  On 6/25/2016 at 2:26 AM, Buckeyebowman said:

True, but I have seen exactly that at Oakmont. I've been there twice in person, '73 when Johnny Miller won, and '94 when Ernie Els won. Talk about contrasts! '73 was the year it rained nearly all night every night of the Open. The course got soft and that, along with Miller's considerable skills, allowed him to shoot 63 in his final round to win.

Expand  

image.jpeg

Erik J. Barzeski β€” β›³ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. πŸŒπŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution β€’ Owner, The Sand Trap .com β€’ AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 β€’ WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Moderator
  On 6/23/2016 at 10:07 PM, No Mulligans said:

Oakmont:

A good U.S. open course - yes 

A beautiful outdoor setting - um, maybe yes, maybe no... undecided

Expand  

Yeah a lot of great courses around the country are located in less than desirable neighborhoods. Local example for us, San Diego CC in Chula Vista.

 

Oakmont is easily one of the best if not the best U.S. Open course, especially the way it looked/played last week. I've always seen it as the "model" U.S. Open course.

Mike McLoughlin

Check out my friends on Evolvr!
Follow The Sand Trap on Twitter!  and on Facebook
Golf Terminology -  Analyzr  -  My FacebookTwitter and Instagram 

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Actually even my local course, if someone were to dump $1 million into it, put some more bunkers on it, and really spruce it up it could hold the US Open. It has the length to play about 7500 yds from the tippy tips. It's one of the nicest public courses in the area. It just needs some TLC.

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

  Reveal hidden contents
Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Everybody has their own sense of asthetics - some people feel that Augusta overdoes the "manicured" look compared to a course look Oakmont that has a hugh amount of gnarly rough, ditches and a freeway running through it.  Perhaps the one thing that sets golf apart is the number of different venues on which it is played.

The qualities IMHO that stuck out at Oakmont were the (a) difficult greens, (b) absolute premium on hitting fairways and greens and (c) mix between long and short holes.  Given those factors, it seemed like a very good US Open venue to me.

Oakmont membership apparently feels that the lack of trees is something they like - you get some tremendous vistas and from the standpoint of being able to view the tournament from a number of spots that offer views of a number of holes without moving, you would have to think that situation in some ways beats a heavily wooded course where only one hole at a time can be seen. 

And you can't really deny the fact that a number of great champions have been crowned in the Opens that have been played there.


  • Moderator
  On 6/25/2016 at 9:41 AM, Coronagolfman said:

Oakmont membership apparently feels that the lack of trees is something they like

Expand  

It's also healthier for the turf/grass.

Mike McLoughlin

Check out my friends on Evolvr!
Follow The Sand Trap on Twitter!  and on Facebook
Golf Terminology -  Analyzr  -  My FacebookTwitter and Instagram 

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
  On 6/26/2016 at 4:44 AM, mvmac said:

It's also healthier for the turf/grass.

Expand  

And… you get vistas like this:

large.Oakmont_US_Open_2016_56.jpglarge.Oakmont_US_Open_2016_37.jpglarge.Oakmont_US_Open_2016_29.jpg

  • Upvote 1

Erik J. Barzeski β€” β›³ I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. πŸŒπŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution β€’ Owner, The Sand Trap .com β€’ AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 β€’ WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Note: This thread is 3162 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Want to join this community?

    We'd love to have you!

    Sign Up
  • TST Partners

    PlayBetter
    TourStriker PlaneMate
    Golfer's Journal
    ShotScope
    The Stack System
    FitForGolf
    FlightScope Mevo
    Direct: Mevo, Mevo+, and Pro Package.

    Coupon Codes (save 10-20%): "IACAS" for Mevo/Stack/FitForGolf, "IACASPLUS" for Mevo+/Pro Package, and "THESANDTRAP" for ShotScope. 15% off TourStriker (no code).
  • Posts

Γ—
Γ—
  • Create New...

Important Information

Welcome to TST! Signing up is free, and you'll see fewer ads and can talk with fellow golf enthusiasts! By using TST, you agree to our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, and our Guidelines.

The popup will be closed in 10 seconds...