More on Oakmont

[King Crimson]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07042/761220-382.stm

good article about the tree removal project over the last 14 years. my pops has been a USGA rules official and 3-5 handicap player the last 20-30 years (his hobbies) and he sent me this email about Oakmont. FWIW. i'm looking forward to seeing the course. HOWEVER, i'm disppointed he didn't ask me along this year to the US Open as he's done a few times--Bethpage, Shinnecock, and Pinehurst. it's sah-weet having USGA tent passes....free food open bar, air conditioning--which is awesome me since i'm always broke in summer! hot blue blood Yankee honeys. etc. he shut me down this year and last, though. maybe he's cheating on his wife. War Dad either way.


email: FWIW.

I have had a chance to play Oakmont twice since the tree removal. Once
in 1999 and once in 2006. I think it is a great golf course. Lots of
variety in the design, direction of play, and the uphill or downhill
routing of holes. The greens are always FAST and FIRM. They really are
about 12 on the stimpmeter reading every day. Because some many of the
greens set on ground with an overriding slope, the exact amount downhill
or side hill effect in putts can be hard to read. The back half of the
9th green is the practice putting green. Like a St. Andrews double
green. From the very back of the practice portion to the front of the
9th green is about a 5 foot drop in elevation in say 40-45 yards of
distance, so people putting before their round will unintentionally putt
a ball right down into the play on the 9th green portion.
At least among the members I have talked to Oakmont, Miller's 63 is not
a pleasant memory. They still want Palmer to have won at Oakmont.