Oakmont's power to challenge the game's best
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • May 23, 2025
There’s just one word that simplistically yet perfectly encapsulates what awaits the world’s best golfers at Oakmont Country Club.
Diabolical.
The 125th U.S. Open is just a month away, and organizers from the USGA and Oakmont are intent on readying the course to a challenging point that players have perhaps never seen before — and may never see again.
“When you fit, you can actually feel it,” said USGA President Fred Perpall at U.S. Open Media Day on May 6. “You can feel when you fit somewhere. The U.S. Open and the USGA just fit so well here at Oakmont.
“It’s hard to win a U.S. Open. And Oakmont is really hard. There are 175 bunkers and obstacles that just demand meticulous play and a lot of creativity.”
The goal for this U.S. Open — outside of an overall successful event — is relatively straightforward. No player should sit under par when the final putt meets the bottom of the cup on the 18th hole on June 15.
“There have been 1,385 people that have played a USGA Championship on this golf course,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “27 of them have something in common. Over their four days they had a score that was lower than par. That’s two percent.”
Stretched out, Oakmont will play around 7,400 yards from the championship tees to the lightning-fast greens and strategically placed pins. What lies in the middle will be a rigorous test for even the game’s premier talents.
Oakmont Country Club is considered one of the world’s most challenging. But its difficulties don’t lie in obstacles like trees — there’s only one on the entire course now — or water, of which there is none.
Instead, the complexities are found in the thickness of the rough, the speed of the greens and the amount and designs of the bunkers.
And it’s all crafted quite intentionally.
“We can make any golf course difficult,” said Jeff Hall, the USGA’s Managing Director of Rules & Open Championships. “That's not hard to do, but is it difficult for the right reasons? Are we differentiating good golf, great golf, and average golf? And that's really what our job is as a setup team.
“If good shots and bad shots are finishing in the same place, we haven't done our job properly.”
Let’s start with the long stuff. You’ve probably seen by now videos of players dropping their ball from a knee-height level into the rough, only to have their ball disappear.
Officials estimated the rough to be around 4.5 inches just over a month out from the U.S. Open. The plan is to not cut it down all too frequently between now and then, letting the shaggy, club-gobbling grass grow longer and fuller.
“Five inches of rough, you can count on that,” said USGA Chief Champions Officer John Bodenhamer. “It might be a little bit more by the weekend.”
Meandering through Oakmont’s picturesque landscape are ditches with even longer fescue sewn in. Nine years ago, most of those grooved-out gullies were mowed down to allow an easier shot out for players.
“This year, we’re not doing that,” said Bodenhamer, with a laugh. “You hit it in those ditches, good luck... It’ll be 12-18 inches of wispy fescue. And they’re nasty."
But the challenge doesn’t end there.
The greens, described by players in past U.S. Open’s as being like ‘glass,’ are what Oakmont has historically been known best for.
They’re pristine, with undulations that can be beyond obvious or completely unapparent. The goal is to have them roll at 15 on the Stimpmeter — which was invented at Oakmont — in order to put Oakmont among the slickest greens on the planet.
“There’s always been a need for speed here,” said Bodenhamer, shortly after playing the infamous scene from Top Gun. “It’s just something so unique. They’re just different. And we’re going to respect that.”
And finally, the sand. The iconic ‘church pews,’ which separate the fairways of the third and fourth holes, will provide spectacular views.
Other bunkers, such as the ‘Big Mouth’ trap next to 17th green — which U.S. Open officials believe could be a separator when all is said and done due to the hole’s risk/reward factor — could exacerbate an errant shot into the green due to its tall and steep bunker face.
The USGA’s intention does not seem to be to make the course impossible or unfair, but instead to make it golf’s toughest test. To force players to be remarkably precise.
They believe it should be this hard. It should be diabolical — if you aren’t sharp.
The tenor of the U.S. Open’s organizers was one that could perhaps be described as delightfully sick-and-twisted. And Oakmont’s membership is fully on board.
“Talking with our members, they have three requests,” said Oakmont president John Lynch. “We want the rough five-plus inches. To please use some of the new pins we’ve been able to establish with the new restoration (completed in 2024).
“And, last but not least, we want to do everything in our power to make sure that score is over par when we’re all done.”
Weather will certainly play a factor. It has in the past at the course that was deemed an U.S. Open anchor site by the USGA in 2021.
But for four days this summer, Oakmont — known as a ‘cathedral’ of the game — will shine. And Western Pennsylvania golf will be on full display.
While many in this region understand what that means, it will soon be time for the rest of the world to find out. One painful-looking hack out of the rough, one sideways shot from a fairway bunker and one putt that blows by the hole at a time.
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and over 41,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.