There are times Mark Pope walks off the course at Oakmont
Country Club and wonders if it's possible he could be that bad,
that his game could have deserted him so quickly.
And this is a guy who once shot 68 in the club championship.
That moaning and groaning the pros are doing at this week's US
Open is drawing smiles from some of the members at Oakmont in the
eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. The Open players are the best in the
world, and they're struggling just to survive a few days here.
Imagine what it's like playing Oakmont on a regular basis.
"When you join here, you make a deal with yourself that you want
to be challenged every day," said Mickey Pohl, Oakmont's general
chairman for the US Open. "It's a little different philosophy."
When Henry C. Fownes designed Oakmont in 1903, he wanted a
course that would test every single shot in his game. Not just his
driving. Not just his putting. Not just his short game.
So the greens are fast and tricky, with undulations that create
lines and breaks not seen anywhere else. The bunkers are
treacherous, not simply decorative. The rough can grow so thick
that small children and lapdogs get swallowed up by it.
"A shot played poorly should be a shot irrevocably lost,"
Fownes' son, William, once said.
"For years, anybody who could play golf and was a good player
wanted to play here," said Gene Farrell, a member for 37 years and
a two-time club champion. "If you can play well at Oakmont, you're
proud of that fact."
Which is why this week has been so much fun for the members.
There's never any shortage of griping from players at the US
Open. The fairways are ribbon thin, the rough thick and bushy and
the greens like linoleum. But at most courses, it takes some
primping - in some cases, a full-scale makeover - to get ready for
the Open. At Shinnecock three years ago, the greens were so dried
out they played like slabs of concrete.
What the pros saw this week wasn't that much different from the
torturous conditions members say they endure week in and week out.
But the members don't play from the championship tees - a fact
Tiger Woods said makes all the difference.
"If you're a 10-handicapper, there is no way you're breaking 100
out there," he said after shooting a 4-over 74 Friday. "If you
played all out on every shot, there is no way."
Phil Mickelson is nursing a bum wrist thanks to his practice
rounds at Oakmont, and there are dozens more tending wounded egos
this weekend.
"It's a different range of shots here," Pohl said. "People
aren't used to seeing this huge variety of tough shots."
Ask the members why they joined Oakmont instead of another club
and the answer is usually the same: The challenge. You can golf
anywhere. Play at Oakmont, and your game will always get a
workout.
"We may joke about being tortured. But the reason I come back
here is not to be punished," said Stan Druckenmiller, a member for
30 years. "When you play well here, it's so rewarding and it feels
so good.
"It is brutal," he added. "But you want to be tested. You want
to be challenged."
And seeing the best in the world finding it equally testing has
made the Open that much more enjoyable.
"I'm not a masochist," Fuhrer said. "I want to see them play
well. I know how frustrating it is when you don't."
(China Daily via Agencies June 18, 2007)
