Rarely do the words "penal" and "fun" appear together, but at Oakmont they do. The course is just a ton of fun to play. It would be so if you dropped a ball 100 yards from the center of every green and played in. Same length shot, but totally different challenges hole by hole and cup location by cup location. While it might ultimately be a "centered" course, I found lots of "hit it over there to have it end up here" situations. It's vexing as anything, to watch how your shots pan out, usually in slow motion as your ball trickles from here to there. And the holes with greens canted from one side to the other and running away to the backs or sides are particularly vexing, since there's so much planning involved in your approaches, pitches, and chips.