Oakmont: A True Test For The Best
There’s hard. Then there’s Oakmont Country Club.
It’s the kind of place where even a solid round feels like a small miracle. Where fairways look narrow enough to miss with a yardstick and the greens seem to get faster the longer you stare at them. It’s golf’s version of a final exam, and this year a few familiar names from the Arccos family are showing up with pencils sharpened.
Arccos Chief Data Strategist, Edoardo Molinari is teeing it up after qualifying his way into the 125th U.S. Open. Matt Fitzpatrick, Arccos TOUR ambassador, is back to try and claim his second national title. And our ambassador, Ted Scott, steady as ever, is on the bag for world number one Scottie Scheffler. Arccos CEO and Co-Founder Sal Syed will be walking the course, watching the action unfold on a track he knows intimately, one he’s played many times and studied inside and out, as an Oakmont member himself.
Which makes it all the more fun to dig into what makes Oakmont so brutal and so brilliant.
The course has been through a full restoration, returning it to something closer to Henry Fownes’ original vision from 1903: treeless, exposed, and endlessly punishing. There are 168 bunkers now. Many have names. None of them are friendly.
And then there’s the par 3 eighth hole. At 289 yards on the card, it’s already among the longest par 3s in major history. But it could play even longer during the tournament, tipped out to over 300 yards depending on conditions. That might be driver some of these players on tour even. For the average amateur, the latest Arccos Driver Distance Report shows most players would still have a full wedge in after their tee shot.
Put it this way: if your short game isn’t sharp, you’re going to want to pack a lunch.
Across the board, Oakmont flips the modern game’s usual assumptions. It doesn’t favor bombers. In recent U.S. Opens, the majority of strokes gained off the tee have come from accuracy, not distance. Fairway finders like Aaron Rai and Russell Henley could be in a great position, according to Edoardo Molinari.
Approach play also skews longer. The way Oakmont is set up, with severe green slopes, fallaway surfaces, and plenty of yardage, you’ll see a lot of long irons into tucked pins. It’s no surprise that Edoardo’s data-backed favourites include players like McIlroy, Scheffler, and Åberg. They’ve been elite from long range all year.
And the greens? Oakmont’s greens are famous for a reason. They’re cut tight, roll quick (think 14 or higher on the Stimpmeter), and don’t care how good your putting stats looked last week. If you’re not precise with distance control and deadly inside six feet, it could get ugly fast.
But that’s what makes the U.S. Open at Oakmont so compelling. It’s a true test, a place where every shot demands your full attention.
