Aren't We Over This?

Oakmont is really, really hard! The ladies are going to suffer.

Oh joy?

Reading a few stories, starting with Ron Sirak's preview, it's clear the setup at Oakmont is absurd and barring a last minute rough mowing, green slowing and liberal use of alternating (forward) tees, will once again prove very little except that they make their courses tough in Pennsylvania. Yippee.

Sirak writes:

The betting on the winning score has ranged as high as 14 over par, with one caddie who was part of an Open win saying he likes eight over.

Davis was hard at work well before this week. A new tee was built on No. 2 so its can play at 325-yards and at 265 yards, a tempting try-to-drive-me distance. A new tee was also built on No. 17 so it can play as a 260-yard par 4. Remember how cool it was in 2007 when both Woods and Furyk came to 17 needing a birdie to catch Cabrera, tried to drive the green and made bogeys?

The par-3 eighth hole, which played at more than 280 yards for the men in 2007, will be anywhere from 225 to 252 this week. No. 16 will play as long as 209 yards and as short as 134 yards. The par-5 12th hole will play at 602 yards, the longest hole in the history of women's golf.

Even if the rough is not knee high, it is lush and thick. And the greens, well, it's Oakmont. They are steeply contoured and frighteningly fast. The winner this week likely will be the person who hits fairways and chips and putts the best. That bodes well for Cristie Kerr, who is also the hottest player on the LPGA right now, or accurate drivers like Jiyai Shin, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel.

After the 2007 U.S. Open, several players noted how silly the bunkers had become and the thrill and skill of the sideways recovery figures to await players this week. Sean Martin notes that nothing has changed:

“Three times I tried to get it out of the bunker, and I was not hitting it that thin,” she said. “I said, ‘You know what? Being a hero is not going to win this U.S. Open.’ ”

And this from Michelle Wie:

The sloping greens and thick rough usually are the focus when discussing Oakmont’s difficulty. The fairway bunkers can’t be overlooked. “A lot of the bunkers, if you’re in them, you’re going sideways,” Wie said. “You’re not going forward.”