1 WELCOME By the time you read this, the US Open will be firmly in the rear-view mirror, and the Open Championship will be imminent. But as I write, play has just begun at Oakmont and there is a firm focus on the difficulty of the course. I have never seen Oakmont in the flesh, so I am not going to try to make any kind of assessment of the course’s architectural merits. Television and photography are no substitute for actually being on the property, and I have little time for people who make pronouncements about courses they haven’t seen. Many far better judges than I view Oakmont as one of the world’s greatest golf courses, and that’s enough for me. Nor am I going to get involved in a debate about whether the course’s design is penal or strategic. But judging a course as a tournament venue does not, I think, require such detailed knowledge. In advance of the championship, the media has been full of stories about how Oakmont’s greens are faster than ice, and its rough resembles a hayfield after a rainstorm. Of course, much of this is hype: I have been a journalist plenty long enough to recognise an easy story. But there is no doubt that Oakmont presents a different sort of challenge from that laid down by today’s fashionable courses, where wide fairways and sparse-at-best rough encourage players to open their shoulders and hang the consequences. Is that a good thing? On one level, certainly yes: variety has not ceased to be the spice of life. But I think there is something else going on here, and that is the desire of golf-watchers to see the pros suffer. Those of us for whom scores under par are a pipe dream, and double bogeys more common than birdies, enjoy seeing the best in the world make the occasional big score. And that’s the appeal of courses like Oakmont as tournament venues. Perhaps it may produce defensive golf, where hitting fairways and greens, even at the cost of letting fly a few times, is the wisest strategy. But in this era of 350-yard plus drives, is that entirely a bad thing? Is it bad to be tough? ADAM LAWRENCE
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