When I teed it up at Oakmont Country Club last Friday, it was the third time this year I've played the Big O. You hate my guts, I know. Hey, this was research. In fact, it was media day for the upcoming U.S. Amateur (Aug. 18-24) at Oakmont. Even though the scoreboard reads OAKMONT 3, UNDERGROUND GOLFER 0, I like the Big O better every time I play it. There's a reason it's ranked fourth among America's top 100 tracks. It truly is a great, formidable layout. I know this because the more I play it, the more new places I discover into which you never want to hit it. (And if you must know, I've posted 77, 79 and 77 in three tries. Last week, playing from the blue tees with host pro Bob Ford as my partner, I shot 77 despite playing pretty well.)
MAILBAG
Here's another brilliant (or painfully stupid) idea for the Silly Season. Instead of a skins game with four multimillionaires, how about we get four average stiffs out there for big money? I'd much rather see Joe Six-Pack looking at a 6-footer for $50,000 than, say, Greg Norman, who makes that much money just getting up in the morning. Sure, they would have to find four non-sandbaggers who were at least somewhat comparable skills-wise, but I'd love to see it. And put Johnny Miller on the broadcast to critique their swings. High comedy. —Matt MacLachlan, Thornton, Colo.
Where are we going to find guys willing to play for that kind of money, Kyle? I mean, where are you and I going to find two schmoes we can beat?
Maybe a Silly Season tourney could have the elder statesmen teeing it up 30 or so yards closer than the youngsters. Then the attention would be on similar approach shots, putting and other short-game skills. I would really like to see Tom Watson go against Tiger Woods on Sunday for the the win. What do you think? —Brian DeGraf, Graham, Wash.
I think the only way you're going to see Watson whip up on Tiger for the win on a Sunday is to invent a time machine, New Graf.
Tiger Woods hasn't been a factor in three of the last four majors. Most writers didn't think he played well enough to win the PGA either, even though he seemed to make it close. His conservative strategy puts him behind the 8-ball too often and he doesn't seem to have a charge in him. On top of that, he's delusional. After two of his worst major rounds he announced that he was playing well and almost there. Maybe 30-foot putts for birdies could be considered almost there for 15-handicappers. I can't see it in the world No. 1. What's the deal? —Joe Zubrick, Presque Isle, Maine
The deal is, you're totally overreacting, Brickhouse. Jack Nicklaus occasionally went years between major wins. Don't forget, these guys Woods beat up in 2000 spent the next two years working hard to catch up to them. They have closed the gap, you may have noticed. Woods has struggled at times with the driver and the putter, two clubs that pretty much every player struggles with during the course of a career. So relax. Oak Hill is made to order for a Woods win, so mark him down for the PGA and get off his back.
Do you think its time for Phil Mickelson to change his caddie? I've noticed that Phil is relying too much on his caddie's advice, and I believe this affects his play. He was an artist around the greens out of college, and this has changed lately. There is too much talking between the two before every shot, and you can notice Phil's indecision. I know that a change in caddie would turn around his game for the better and would help him win majors. —Dennis Ocampo, Mississauga, Ontario
Sorry, Camp Denny, but I think he'd be better off concentrating on some of the lesser aspects of the game, such as driving it straighter and making all of his short putts.
My comment stems from Jack Nicklaus' complaints about the golf ball traveling too far and a response from another reader about increasing the size of the golf ball. Obviously, changing the size of the golf ball would cost ball manufactures millions, and who would absorb those costs? The consumers. I have two suggestions. 1) Lower the club limit from 14 to 10 or 12. 2) Do away with caddies. Force the players to tote their own clubs and make their own decisions. That way Tiger Woods cannot blame Steve Williams for talking him into hitting a driver out of bounds. I guess my point is simple: A lot of things can be done to make professional golf more difficult other than spending millions trying to reinvent the wheel. —Chris, Indianapolis
You offer interesting ideas, Chris, except for the fact that you fail to address the biggest problem -- how far players are hitting the ball. Tour players average over 280 yards and a number of pros average more than 300. Taking two clubs out of the bag and making them slog their own clubs doesn't do anything about that, while increasing the size of the golf ball solves it rather nicely.
You have to respect a golf course on which, even with a sand wedge in your hands, you're pretty sure you can't keep the next shot on the putting surface -- say, Oakmont's first, 10th and 12th greens, which feature severe slope-away surfaces.
Scores may be a little lower at the Amateur than one might expect from Oakmont because the course has been softened by one of the rainiest seasons since the Johnstown Flood. "It's soft, lush and green -- all the things we don't like here at Oakmont," Ford said. Still, Oakmont will never be a pushover for anyone, certainly not at its longer-than-ever length of 7,171 yards. The new back tee at the 18th, now a 484-yard monster, is intimidating just to look at, it's so far back. I never even considered teeing one off the back. Anyway, Oakmont easily will hold its own against even a field of Generation XL long-ball hitters with high-tech equipment, because the greens are difficult, as fast as anywhere on earth and heavily guarded.
Here's your primer on Oakmont and the U.S. Amateur. Everything you need to know -- or, more likely, everything I feel like telling you:
Oakmont might as well be USGA Central. This will be its fifth U.S. Amateur, a record, and the 2007 U.S. Open will be its eighth Open, another record.
Will there be a lot of rough? Duh. "Right now, our superintendent, John Zimmers, admits to 3 1/2 inches of rough," Ford said, "but it looks like 6 and it plays like 8." There are two weeks until the Amateur, and last weekend Pittsburgh was hit with still more drenching rain.
Don't expect a lot of shade if you're going to attend the 2007 Open at Oakmont. To return the course to its original barren, links-like appearance, the club removed 3,200 trees, leaving about 72 remaining around the interior of the course. And many of those, Ford told me during our round, will likely be taken out by 2007. The tree-cutting was controversial, but now that everyone has seen the results, no one is complaining. In fact, Oakmont's bold move is part of golf's newest, cutting-edge trend. Shinnecock Hills, Oakland Hills and other courses are following suit. It's going to be great for spectating.
One of the most dramatic changes comes at the 17th green, where trees that had served as a backdrop behind the green are gone. "It's like shooting at a hoop without a backboard now," Ford said. "The green looks as if it's shrunk immensely. It hasn't. It's going to be a pivotal and exciting hole."
A longer Oakmont vs. today's big, young hitters should be an interesting matchup. Ford hosted Trip Kuehne, a former U.S. Amateur runner-up, for a practice round Wednesday. Kuehne is every bit as long as his brother, Hank, who happens to be leading the PGA Tour in driving distance. Trip's massive tee shots had even Ford amazed, and they've already become part of Oakmont lore. Kuehne hit 8-iron into the ninth hole, an uphill, 477-yarder that's so hard the members play it as a par 5; he hit 6-iron into the 484-yard 18th hole; and at the 426-yard third hole, home of the famous Church Pew bunkers, he blew a tee shot to the crest of the hill, well past the Pews, and left himself an 80-yard pitch. That would be a remarkable drive from the blue tees, much less the tips.
Kuehne's visit already has sparked talk on the club board of possibly extending the famed Pews closer to the green. Oakmont types are so concerned about length that they have hired Tom Fazio & Co. to chart shots during the Amateur as a case study in order to make sure Oakmont is tough enough for the '07 Open. Said Bob Wagner, club president, "The course has withstood the test of time. but with the distance the players hit the ball now, the Amateur will be fun to see."
Check out Am qualifier Ryan Waialae, 17. He has a textbook swing, an engaging smile and must be a rarity: a Hawaiian who lives in West Virginia. Waialae was born in Los Angeles, but the family moved to West Virginia after his father took a football coaching job at Bethany College. His dad is now a football coach at West Liberty State. His mother played on the LPGA Tour and is still a teaching pro.
When Waialae was about 12, he was at an outing at Greenbriar Resort, and Sam Snead came by and watched him hit balls. "He said I had the second-best swing in West Virginia -- next to him," Ryan said. "He put on a clinic and hit some interesting shots. He hit one out there about knee-high, and after 150 yards it suddenly rose up."
Waialae is competing in the U.S. Amateur mainly because he forgot to certify his handicap on his entry form for the U.S. Junior Amateur. His entry was sent back to him, but by the time he received it the deadline had passed. So he entered the U.S. Amateur as consolation and made it through qualifying to the big event.
On the 18th green Friday, I asked Waialae how he had played. He said he finished with three straight bogeys to shoot 75 -- not bad for only his second look at Oakmont.
No one will have more local knowledge at the Amateur than Rich Berglund, a TaylorMade rep who is an Oakmont member. He successfully qualified at a site in Ohio, where he eagled the 16th hole. His wife promptly told him that if he parred the last two holes, he probably would make the Amateur. "That wasn't what I needed to hear right then," Berglund joked. "I made two 5-footers coming in." Also, no one knows better just how exacting Oakmont can be. "I shot 35-over par in the club championship this year," Berglund said. "Twenty-eight-over won."
Sean Knapp, a longtime star of Pennsylvania amateur golf, qualified for the Am for a 10th time. He's 41 and lives, he said, "a driver and a 3-wood from Oakmont." He thought so much of this Amateur that he skipped the Pennsylvania Amateur, at a course in Scranton where he had previously won the title, because it conflicted with U.S. Amateur qualifying. Among his other highlights, he beat Notah Begay in the 1995 U.S. Amateur's second round, then went up against some guy named Tiger Woods that afternoon. I think you know how that one turned out.
Knapp was the Western Pennsylvania Player of the Year for eight straight years, 1994-2001, and has won seven West Penn Amateurs. "If all the things I've achieved in golf were on one side of a scale, it wouldn't balance against this," Knapp said. "This is huge. I'm so excited to be in this tournament. I don't know of anybody in the country that this meant more to than me."
Knapp hadn't expected to survive the pressure of qualifying for a home Amateur, so he had asked Trip Kuehne if he could caddie for Kuehne during the tournament. After he qualified, Knapp called Kuehne and said, "Your caddie has been fired."
The field of 312 players will play 36 holes of stroke play, one round each at Oakmont and Pittsburgh Field Club, then the top 64 scores go into match play, ending with a 36-hole final. The two finalists receive Masters invitations. The event will be televised by ESPN during the week, with NBC picking up coverage from 4-6 p.m. ET on the weekend.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.
